'Our fight goes on': Steve Hilton concedes defeat in California Governor's race

Steve Hilton's camp. This is in Garden Grove and he's just taken the stage. Let's listen in. It is great to be here with so many wonderful friends and supporters. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you've done for our beautiful state and this campaign. We appreciate it so very much. Now, now, I don't know what you think. Maybe I should ask Herb and Gloria. I don't know. Maybe this isn't the best year to be running for office as a Republican when we see what's going on around the country. But I tell you what, this is the best place to be running for office as a Republican because there is nowhere better. There is nowhere better than California. This is the greatest place in the greatest nation on earth. And it has been an honor and a joy to travel this beautiful state, this beautiful state of ours. And I just want to tell you right now, the change we hoped for may be delayed, but the change is coming. Our fight goes on. Our fight goes on. And I'll be there with you. Are you with me? All right. All right. Let's do it, everybody. I love you too. Thank you so much. So I've been to all 58 of our counties in California. No one's done that in a very long time. And I want to tell you that this state, which I've had the honor and the privilege of seeing in a way that nobody else gets to see, it truly is a wonder of the world. There is nowhere like California. There is nowhere like California. And I want to tell you what I've I've seen not just the magnificence of our state. But the fact that so many people in our state are crying out for change, they're crying out for change, and I want to tell you, the thing that I heard from so many people, the thing that I heard from so many people, it wasn't good luck and we hope you do well, it's this. You have to win. Well, it looks like we didn't win. It looks like we didn't win this time. Because people... in this state are crying out for change and it is our responsibility to fight like never before to bring that change to the people of California who really need us now more than ever. So change may be delayed but change is coming. Change is coming and I want to tell you we can all be incredibly proud of what we have built together. I am incredibly proud of this campaign that we have fought. This campaign, positive, creative, dynamic, energetic, focused on ideas, not just complaining about what's gone wrong, but offering solutions to the problems of our state. I am so proud of this campaign and everyone who's played a part in it. This campaign, the best in all of America this year, I am so proud of the campaign we fought. It is a model. It is a model for how Republicans should fight, positive, creative, with solutions. I am so proud of the team that put this campaign together, and I want to thank them tonight. I want to thank my team tonight. I can't thank them all personally, but I want you to know there is no better team in American politics today than the team that worked on this campaign. I am so grateful to them. They're amazing. By the way, I am not the easiest candidate to work with. I have very strong opinions on pretty much everything. So they put up with me, and we put up the best fight we've ever seen in California as a Republican Party. We put up the best fight we've ever seen, and we're going to keep fighting, aren't we? You've got it. Yeah, exactly. So I'm not going to name... I'm not going to name everyone on our team, I just want each of you to know, and I can see you around the room, and every single one of you, whether you're there from day one, or whether you were there with us in the later stages. By the way, one special thing I want to say, our team grew a little bit after the mayor's race in LA, I'm afraid that Spencer didn't make it into the general election, but LA's... Loss was our gain. A wonderful group of people who worked with Spencer on that campaign joining our team and bringing a whole new energy and creativity. And I want to thank Spencer for his support and his fight and energy as well. Now, I'm not going to name. I'm not going to name everyone on the team. I'm not even going to start because I won't be able to get through it because I just would feel so emotional about it. These are people I love and they've just been absolutely amazing. The best team of any campaign in America. I want to repeat that. The way that they've worked, the way that we've fought, the way that we've got along with each other, it is an absolutely incredible team. But there is one person on my team that I will name, the most important, and she's over there, my wife, Rachel, and she doesn't, I shouldn't have said that, she'll hate me for saying that, but here's the truth, and it's a cliche, but it's true, that the person, the people who really bear the burden of these campaigns, it's your family, well, I've been out and about, traveling our state, meeting so many wonderful people, it's the family that really does the work, and I just To acknowledge that, to say thank you to my incredible wife, who I love so much, who is just the best, the best in every way, and to my family. And I want you to say thank you to my family for what they've done for this campaign. Oh dear, now I'm really going to get in trouble. I know. I'm really going to get in trouble now. Oh dear, I shouldn't have said that. Look, I want to thank every single one of you. What a team of supporters we've put together in this campaign, the love and energy, and I just look around again, and so many of you, we've been through a lot together, we've been through So many wonderful times, and there's going to be a lot more, I know, because you are the people that have made this campaign what it is. I want to thank every single one of our supporters here in this room, our volunteers, everyone around the state, everyone who's given money to this campaign. Look, I'm a business guy, and I understand that you can't do anything without money, without your investors, without your customers, and the fact that we had so many people from nothing. We built an army of small dogs. This campaign was funded by the people, not by big business, not by the unions, not by the corrupt interests. This is a people-powered campaign and I want to thank every single one of you who believed in the change that we wanted to bring and that we will bring to California.