Steve Hilton hopeful despite CA governor race defeat | Full Speech

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 got it. Yeah, exactly. So 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. 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 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 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. 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 want 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... Donors, 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. I want to thank my wonderful friends, some of whom are here tonight. My running mates on the golden ticket, Gloria Romero, Herb Morgan, Michael Gates, Sonia Shaw, Dom Wagner. We have fought together. We've become friends. We've been on the road together. We've had to put up with Herb's jokes for a year and a half. And Tommy, it's been wonderful. It's been a joy to do this with you. I can't thank you enough for stepping up and doing it with such fun. We've had a lot of fun, haven't we? I want to thank the Golden Ticket. I want to thank everyone, as Gloria did. I heard her say that everyone who ran for office this year in California to bring the change we need. Thank you for stepping up and fighting for our state. But I really want you to understand that I really believe that this is just the beginning of the change that we're bringing to California. This really is the beginning. What we've built. In this campaign is a movement. We've built the foundations. Nobody thought that this was going to be an easy task. We said this from the beginning. It is an uphill battle, but we have established the foundations, the foundations that we need to turn our state around and bring the change California so desperately needs. We started that movement, and we are going to finish it together. This is an unprecedented movement. Nobody's seen the energy and the enthusiasm that we've seen. Nobody's seen events and rallies like we've seen in this campaign. Huntington Beach last night, thousands of people coming out. Every day last week, San Diego, Orange County, L.A., Sacramento, Fresno, everywhere across this state, thousands and thousands of people coming out. In support of this movement for change, this is the beginning. We've built a foundation. This is a people-powered movement for change in California. We were up against a machine that's been in power for a very long time now. They think they own this state. They don't own this state. The people of California own this state, and we are going to get it back. They had the money, they outspent us 20 to 1, but we had the people, we had the energy, we had the enthusiasm that they could not match. And that's why I know that this change really is coming. We love California so much. We love California. We're going to fight for California. The fight goes on. And here's the game plan. 2028. We end the Democrat supermajority in the state legislature. 2030, we elect a Republican governor in California. We have a new governor in California. I know it's not the one you wished for, but I do wish Javier Becerra well. But we wish him well. We want our state to be governed properly. But here's my message to Javier Becerra. Enjoy it while it lasts. We're going to have a Republican governor in 2030. We've got the movement. We've built the movement. You're part of the movement. We've got the team. We've got the fighters. You've seen them here tonight. We've got Tony Strickland, David Tangipa. I don't know if you're up for another go. We've got the movement, the team, the people, the energy, the enthusiasm. We can do this, everybody. And the reason we can do it is because this is California. This is California, and we never give up. We keep fighting. That's why this state has had this incredible impact on the world for so long. Because this is the place where people come to challenge the rules and break convention and think that the impossible can be done. That's California, and we know it can be done. We will get it done together. I want to thank all those who fought with us. I want to thank Carl DeMaio down the road in San Diego for the incredible leadership that he's brought to our state. We're going to fight together. We're going to fight to make it happen. We are going to fight to make it happen because this is a state that never gives up. This is the state where we can grow anything, build anything, make anything, do anything. This is the state where anyone from anywhere Can do anything, including the son of Hungarian immigrants who grew up in England, moved to this country, became an American, now stands in front of the California people saying, thank you, thank you for the millions who voted for change in this election. We will not let you down. We will not let you down. We heard you. You are crying out for change, and we will fight for that change with renewed energy, because we know that we can do it now that we've built this movement together. We know what it looks like to put together a positive, creative, high-energy plan for the future of California. We know how to do it. We're just getting started. It's going to happen sooner than people think. One day soon. One way or another, we will bring that change because as we have said all along, this is not a blue state. This is not a red state. This is the golden state. This is the golden state. And we are going to fight with everything we've got. It starts tonight. Our commitment, our pledge to fight with everything we've got to make this beautiful state that we love so much truly golden again. Thank you very much, everybody.