Gollum for Gov? Failed Fox (Bare) Foot Fetish Man Lusts CA

The point: Steve Hilton, the far-right demagogue and talk show host whose show was canceled by Fox Channel last year, is considering a run for governor of California. Some Silicon Valley tech bros like the idea — one of many indicators that it’s a PR stunt doomed to fail. Content warning: Strange foot problems are coming.

The background story: Over the past year it has become clear that Steve Hilton, a former adviser to conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, sees himself as a future candidate for governor of California.

When Fox canceled his show in 2023, Hilton—a California resident since 2012—quickly announced he was forming a new group, Golden Together, to focus on the state’s problems. Since then, the die-hard Donald Trump supporter has donned a yellow shirt (gold, get it?) and posted banal tweets about how great the state could be with good leadership (his, presumably).

Now Hilton is making it quasi-official. A Politico article by Chris Cadelago quotes “three people close to Hilton” as saying he’s considering a run. I laughed out loud at this, because the idea that anyone other than Hilton would leak this story is just plain funny. (No one else would care!)

Hilton’s candidacy is an idea so bad that it naturally has wealthy supporters in Silicon Valley. From the story:

News of Hilton’s interest has already piqued the curiosity of Silicon Valley leaders, including those eager for a political disruptor. In an interview, Chamath Palihapitiya, the billionaire tech venture capitalist who has increasingly waded into state and national politics, said Hilton’s emergence could spark conversations about a range of issues plaguing California.

Palihapitiya himself considered running for governor as a moderate Democrat a few years ago. Now he has become an unabashed Donald Trump supporter, having previously established himself as a megadonor to the Democratic Party.

Analysis: Hilton has zero chance of winning office in a state where Democrats typically beat Republicans by 60% of the vote.

But victory isn’t the point. His candidacy would simply be a vehicle for the kind of far-right talking points that the weirdos in tech are currently favoring.

Michael Shellenberger—the former left-wing PR man turned right-wing propaganda man—played this role in two previous campaign cycles, trashing Democrats and pushing right-wing solutions to the state’s problems. (Shelenberger got 0.5% of the vote in 2018 and 4% of the vote in 2022.)

Without a chance of victory, Hilton’s goal would be simple: get as much press as possible. As a failed TV host, Hilton is desperate for airtime and relevance. He knows he’ll never sit in the governor’s office. But maybe he thinks a quixotic run for governor could land him a new TV job or a book deal — or a startup investment from Peter Thiel.

Personal history: I find Hilton particularly annoying because I met him. In 2014, when Hilton started a company called Crowdpac, he asked to meet with me.

Crowdpac was a political fundraising website that sought to help political outsiders raise money for their campaigns. Hilton, who at the time posed as a moderate conservative, was looking for contacts within the California Democratic Party.

Over a few drinks at a San Francisco bar called the Alchemist, Hilton came across as a thoughtful, well-intentioned man. He praised Gov. Jerry Brown, for whom I had recently worked. And I specifically remember Hilton telling me that he wanted to find a way to hold Republicans accountable for their failure to support sensible immigration reform.

Flash forward to 2018: Hilton had transformed into a bombshell Fox host, now regularly lashing out at Governor Jerry Brown, demonizing immigrants, and ranting about the “deep state” and any other MAGA talking point that might boost his ratings.

I was surprised by the fervor with which Hilton had completely changed his tune—especially since he was still listed as the leader of Crowdpac. Here was a man actively fanning the fires of MAGA insanity while actively funding (and profiting from) progressive Democratic campaigns at his startup. Yet it seemed that most Crowdpac users had no idea they were doing business with the Fox fanatic.

That had to change. Together with Berkeley cognitive scientist Dr. George Lakoff, I created the #DumpCrowdPAC movement to raise public awareness:

Are you putting money in the pockets of a pro-Trump Fox host? That’s what you do when you support Democratic candidates through a company called Crowdpac.

Crowdpac CEO Steve Hilton regularly launches nasty attacks on Democrats and progressives during his Fox News appearances. His specialties:

1. Attacking our immigrant communities and enthusiastically supporting Donald Trump’s intolerant immigration policies.

2. Attacks on trade unions.

3. Debating the NRA’s positions on guns.

Yet Hilton, as CEO of Crowdpac, a political fundraising platform, makes money from Democratic political campaigns. The candidates and policies he attacks on Fox are pay him a percentage if they use his platform!

Hilton resigned shortly thereafter. “Lakoff’s post was part of a pressure campaign that paid off,” the Washington Post wrote.

Our short conversation at Alchemist had brought us full circle.

Strange English attention seeker

The California Republican Party is dead and never coming back. Today it is little more than a host for whatever parasitic organism decides to take control of its empty shell. This makes it vulnerable to attention seekers like Hilton and Shellenberger, who are only too happy to run losing campaigns to spread propaganda and gain some publicity.

Hilton is not a serious candidate, but if you took him seriously, it would be easy to see why he has no chance with California voters. First, he is a raging Trump supporter who has gone along with every disgusting lie and scheme for the past eight years. And he has done it on television. The attack ads would write themselves.

Secondly, Hilton is a political failure. Once a respected strategic guru in British politics, Hilton has been in the doldrums for more than a decade. From the Guardian:

His career fell apart in 2012. Cameron lost patience with him and left Downing Street. The former Tory guru, once the centre of attention, had joined the left-wing elite. If he was known, it was because of his wife, a successful Silicon Valley executive – and not all men like being overshadowed by their partners. Hilton was once somebody, but nobody. He did what yesterday’s men always did and jumped on the next big thing, which in the case of right-wing politics was the Trump movement. A job at Fox followed and the nobody was somebody again.

Thirdly, Hilton is just plain weird. He was known to walk around the Prime Minister’s office barefoot. His colleagues called him “Gollum”, the creepy, power-hungry slimeball character from JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”.

From an article in the Daily Mail headlined “Footloose or screw-loose? David Cameron’s shoeless assistants look utterly ridiculous”:

The man dubbed Gollum by colleagues for his shaved head, questionable appearance and behaviour is leaving his shoes at home – last week he eschewed them when he hosted a group of businessmen in suits. According to reports, businessmen at the formal drinks party were shocked to see Cameron’s chief strategy officer – who stood in for the prime minister while he was busy dealing with the Libya crisis – deliver his speech in tiptoes.

Hilton was really, really into his barefoot fetish. In 2013, the Daily Mail reported that he threw a tantrum when he tried to board a flight to the United States without shoes:

But when he tried to board the plane with his wife, Rachel Whetstone, a Google executive, and their two young children, he was stopped and told he couldn’t do so without shoes, even in California.

Accounts vary about what happened next. According to one, he became embroiled in a heated argument with officials who refused to budge until he paid a $200 surcharge to board.

Weird! But weird is exactly what Silicon Valley’s right-wing tech bros are into these days (see: J.D. Vance). And Hilton certainly has connections in the tech world. As the Daily Mail noted, his wife is Rachel Whetstone, a former Google and Facebook executive who is now chief communications officer at Netflix. Of course, Hilton himself is no stranger to the tech world, having co-founded the failed Crowdpac startup with Giselle Kordestani, a former Google executive married to Omid Kordestani, the former executive chairman of Twitter.

Is your Lord of the Rings fetish the winner?

Hilton may have another big advantage when it comes to attracting tech billionaire support. His nickname—Gollum—could attract the attention of Peter Thiel, the PayPal mobster who bankrolled J.D. Vance’s political career.

Thiel has a well-known obsession with “The Lord of the Rings.” The names of two of his companies—Palantir and Mithril—are derived from Tolkien’s fantasy world. Will he try to add Gov. Gollum to the mix? Only time will tell.

Final thought: Hopefully Hilton can find another way to make a fool of himself besides a losing campaign for governor.

If not, I’ll wait in the tall grass.