The Setup Is Deliberately Misleading
Campaign ads usually ask viewers to vote with soaring music, solemn narration, and enough flag imagery to make a screensaver nervous. Steve Hilton’s new California gubernatorial ad takes a different route. It opens with two college-aged women in a dim room. One has blue hair and wears a “Resist” shirt, while her pink-haired friend sits beside her with a pride flag behind them. The blue-haired woman says she has never done anything like this and worries her father might find out. Her friend urges her to try it, tells her to close her eyes, and offers to do the work. The setup suggests one kind of first-time experience. The ad then reveals the real activity: filling in a ballot bubble for Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Steve Hilton. The new voter says, “I think I liked it.”
The Punchline Is the Ballot Bubble
The reveal is the whole joke, and it works because the ad spends several seconds pointing viewers in the wrong direction. The setting, the dialogue, the hair colors, and the pride flag all signal one political world before the ballot delivers another. Hilton’s message is simple: voting Republican in California can be treated as an act of rebellion. It is less a traditional policy pitch than a prank with a ballot, which may be exactly why it is easier to remember than another campaign promise about fixing everything by Tuesday. Hilton posted the invitation, “Just try it, California,” on X.
Spencer Pratt Gives the Clip a Boost
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt also shared the ad and praised it as “a brilliant ad,” adding, “OMFG.” His reaction gives the clip another bit of political attention beyond Hilton’s own campaign. The exchange shows how modern campaign advertising works: make a short video, add a large dose of innuendo, and let social media handle the distribution. The internet’s political assembly line rarely asks for a committee meeting first, which may be its one remaining efficiency.
The Race Is Still an Uphill Fight
The ad arrives as California’s gubernatorial race heats up with about one month remaining. Democrat Xavier Becerra still holds a wide lead over Hilton, according to the report. The two candidates have held their first, and likely only, gubernatorial debate, hosted by CNN on Wednesday. The report says Hilton trounced Becerra during that debate, giving the Republican campaign a strong moment even as the overall race remains difficult. That contrast is the central challenge for any candidate: a memorable video can seize attention, but it does not automatically erase a large lead. In California politics, even a clever ballot joke still has to survive the ballot.
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