This Political Experiment Could Save California!

These are independently elected positions. That's still true technically, of course. People have to vote for us one by one. And I've always seen this job of turning around California as a team effort. It's not just one person. This is not some nice sort of phrase golden ticket. No, it's really true that if we work together with a common aim and agenda, we're going to all be more successful and we're going to more easily achieve what we want for our beautiful state. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Steve Hilton Show. We got our golden ticket for California coming up today. You may have seen my announcements last week. Gloria Mero running with me for lieutenant governor. Michael Gates for attorney general. They are both here going to lay out how we are going to work as a team to save our beautiful state of California. And Susan Shelley is here with some incredible stories, including on a big, big change that could be happening because of the Supreme Court in terms of election integrity, and in particular, this insanity where election day is extended beyond election day and votes are counted days and days after the election. That all could be coming to an end because of something that has just happened. So stay tuned for that. But I want to start with something that we are putting out as a campaign today, which is a really, really important part of the story. about what's gone wrong in California, and will be a big part of how we turn it around and win the election in November, which is the sheer cost of everything. Now, it's a little bit of a parallel with what we did a few weeks ago in relation to fraud. And of course, these two things are connected. So do you remember back when the Minnesota fraud scandal erupted? I said, however bad the fraud is in Tim Walz's Minnesota, you could be sure that it's a thousand times worse in Gavin Newsom's California. And then we went about trying to put some numbers on that, launched a whistleblower tip line, califraud.com. By the way, if you're in California or know someone in California that is still open, we are still looking for whistleblower tips, so please get involved in that. And then we analysed it, me and my partner in this, Herb Morgan, also part of our golden ticket running for state controller in California. We looked at the data, we looked at the tips coming in, the budgets, the reported fraud and error rates. We put all that together to do a preliminary estimate of the size of the fraud in California. We put out a report the other week called Califraudia, and we put out our estimate, which is at least $250 billion of fraud in California. And that number is going up the whole time as we dig in deeper. So the point there is, we took a general point, the fraud is worse in California, and we tried to put some numbers on it. And that's exactly what we're doing today with this question of everything costing more in California. So this is a point I make the whole time. In every forum, I've started doing these town halls now, which are great, by the way. If you see one near you, please come along. We've done Pasadena, Danville, and Morgan Hill in the Bay Area. Lots more to come. We're traveling the state with these town halls. And most of the questions, so far at least, have been something to do with this absolutely crippling issue that everyone has to deal with in California, which is the cost of everything. We are 50th out of 50 on affordability, 50th out of 50 states. And so we make that point generally. Everything's too expensive. The taxes are too high. Gas prices, rent, all of that, right? The most expensive in the country. As we're making that point generally, and today we move, just as we did with fraud, to the specifics because we've done a calculation. we've looked at all the main categories of spending for a regular californian household or individual some of them i've mentioned rent gas prices for your car utilities so that's electric water home insurance all these different costs and we've done a very basic calculation which is that we for each of these we've gone to real data sources and said well what is the national average what is the national average for how much people pay for these things across america and then we've taken the California average. What is it for the average Californian, the cost of these things, to make a very simple comparison? And that's what we've calculated. We're calling it the Democrat tax. The cost, the extra cost, the surcharge that you pay in California purely because of Democrat policies, the extra that you pay here in California because of the fact that we're now 16 years of one-party rule. And the only way you can look at this is that this is the cost of Democrat policies. You can't possibly blame Trump or whatever the Democrats want to do because we've compared it to the rest of the country where Trump is also the president. So this is purely the extra in California. And here's the number when you add it all up. These are averages, remember. The average Californian versus in the rest of America. and the total is nearly $35,000 a year. It's $34,700 and something. And so we've published that today and that's out there, 35 grand extra. It's an enormous amount of money. That's the average. But we've also produced a calculator so that you can work out what it is for you based on exactly your costs. It's a very simple tool. You can go to californiademtax.com or share it on social media, californiademtax.com, and you can put in your own amounts, the real numbers that you pay for rent, how much you pay for gas, roughly, your electric bill, and so on, all the key components, and then calculate how much extra you're paying. So this is just a way of bringing home to people the cost of voting Democrat for all these years. it's not cost free it's a very high cost and you can work out exactly what it is for you and of course the real point is to make the argument that it's time for change we cannot go on like this in california and you're going to be seeing this week and for the rest of the campaign me focusing on my plans to bring those costs down to reduce the burden that everyone is laboring under in California is an absolute nightmare. So please check it out. And of course, share it. So I'd love you to do the calculation. It's very simple. You go through this. It's a super easy website to use. And then you get your Democrat tax number. How much are you paying extra because of Democrat policies? And then share it on social media so everyone can see. And the more that we bring it home to people, the more you personalize it, I think the greater our chances of really getting everyone to see that this is all avoidable. We don't have to pay the Democrat tax. We just need to stop voting Democrat. All right, joining us now, Susan Shelley. I'm excited about what we're going to talk about today because it totally connects the story that you brought to us today. We brought two really big, meaty ones. And the first one we're going to talk about is tax and the sneaky ways they're increasing tax. And of course, it completely connects to what I was talking about at the top of the show, which is our calculation of the extra costs that Californians are paying purely for Democrat policies, where we took the average on everything from gas, groceries, rent, utility, all those things, and the tax burden, including state and local taxes, added it all up to say, well, how much more are we paying in California just because of Democrat policies. And the total is nearly $35,000 for the average Californian. $35,000, it's a huge amount of money extra just for being in California under one party rule. Now, we've also got this calculator where people can go and plug in their own specific precise information to them and get the exact number for them. But the average is $35,000. And that includes taxes. Tax is a big part of that, of course, because our tax burden is much higher than the national average. So it's just outrageous. And what you've got today is another example of the sneaky way they keep adding to our burden. Tell us what's going on. Well, no doubt you've noticed that the sales tax is very high in California. We have the highest state sales tax in the country at seven and a quarter percent. But there's something in state law to protect taxpayers that limits local taxes to 2% over that 7.25%. However, the legislature regularly allows exemptions. They allow these cities to go above, or special districts to go above that 2% cap. And there is a new bill that is racing through the state senate right now, SB 762. Now, this is for a city with a population of 26,000 in Contra Costa County. It's the city of Hercules. And they currently have a sales tax of nine and a quarter percent. So that's at the cap. Right. That's at the cap. However, it can go higher by a half percent already because one of these exemptions was put through for BART, for the transit system. So they could already go half a percent higher. This is a new bill, Senate Bill 762, that will allow an additional 1%, which could take it, I don't know if I do the math correctly, about 10 and a quarter. Nine and three quarters. Ten and three quarters. It could go way up. The current sales tax, the highest in the country, is in the city of Palmdale and the city of Lancaster in LA County. They're at 11 and a quarter because of this kind of thing where there are more and more exemptions allowed for higher sales taxes. And one of the reasons this is especially dangerous is because of the Supreme Court's ruling in California Cannabis Coalition versus City of Upland in 2017, which allowed a loophole that said special taxes do not need a two-thirds vote, as the Constitution requires, if they're put on the ballot by a, quote, citizens initiative. So now you have the stage set, a special interest group, a union, a group of companies that are going to get the contracts to do particular types of work, they can do an initiative. They can write their own tax increase. They can pay to collect the signatures. They can direct all the money to their own interests, and then they evade the two-thirds vote. So that protection of the two-thirds vote for these kinds of city taxes is gone, because all it would take is for a union in the city of Hercules to put some kind of special tax on the ballot, and they can go 1% above the highest rate they've already got. And this is very dangerous. So that's already the case because of the upland ruling. It's already easier to raise taxes for a special purpose than it's supposed to be. And then these special bills that go through are overriding the state law that says there's a 2% cap on local sales taxes. So you add those two things together, you're lifting the cap, and you're making it easier to pass the taxes. and the combination I see is going to be this year you're going to see this on your ballot in June you're going to see this on your ballot in November there will be more and more sales tax increases in every city in California because it has been made easier and the legislature is just allow it they're just enabling this because even the the basic legislative rules that say a bill has to be in print for 30 days before they can move it through committees, they did a gut and amend on this one. And it's racing through the Senate. So they just can't raise your taxes fast enough in California. It's incredible. It's an insatiable demand for more of our money. And we get worse results on everything. I mean, it's just outrageous. And the way that they're just the arrogance of doing this to push it through. And it's also the corruption, because you outlined it just there. It's these special interests. And often the union, I mean, you saw it in LA with the housing, the mansion tax. We talked about this before, pushed by the people who get the money, the nonprofits and the unions. So they put it on the ballot. So they spend the money to put it on the ballot by collecting signatures. No one really knows what's going on. The tax is put on and then they receive it. It's just total corruption in broad daylight. And the layers of taxes that can happen because these are all separate groups that are doing it. In the city of Los Angeles right now, the firefighters union is circulating an initiative for a half cent sales tax, a half percent sales tax in the city of Los Angeles to fund the fire department. Obviously, the city council should be funding the fire department. But what they're doing is they're saying, well, we don't have to because you can go out for a tax. And the voters will say, well, yes, we want to fund the fire department. It's really bad. And so the, to be really clear about it, because these numbers and they get very fiddling. You're so on top of all the details. So just to be, I just want to recap, if I may. So is it the state law or the state constitution has the 2% cap? It's in the revenue and tax code. So it's the state law, statutory. 2% is the maximum, but they've done these things to evade it, which mean, first of all, that they can add an extra. So does that mean that the effective cap now is 3% extra? Is that right? Or is it unlimited? It will be in the city of Hercules if this bill passes. So what they're doing is, for instance, in Los Angeles, to raise the sales tax for homelessness services, it was AB 1679 that allowed the repeal of an existing quarter cent temporary tax and the replacement with a half cent permanent sales tax increase. And that was enabled because we were already over the cap in Los Angeles. It was enabled by AB 1679. So this is SB 762. These are city by city. Each bill for a different city. For a different city, for a different reason. And is there any limit to the cap? Are they saying, I'm just trying to understand, is there an effective new cap of 3% over the seven and quarter, or is there really no limit? There's really no limit because they raise it with each additional bill that they've decided to pass. So they could go higher and higher and higher. And they have. So first of all they breaking the cap And then secondly the Upland ruling is the way they get it actually voted in because you don need what you should have which is the two majority of the local vote They say, actually, you don't need that. You need a simple majority. So they make it easier to pass. Right. And that's for special interest taxes. That Upland loophole is for special interest groups that want to pass their own tax increase and direct the money to themselves. They do not have to meet the constitutional two-thirds vote. But the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is doing something about this. You can go to saveprop13.com because Prop 13 has restrictions on, for instance, how to pass special taxes. It says two-thirds. And what this initiative will do, this is an initiative petition for a constitutional amendment that would be on the ballot in November. And it says two-thirds means two-thirds. no exceptions because it's an initiative or it's special interest or it's whatever. Two-thirds means two-thirds. The Constitution means what it says. We have to get that on the ballot. We need a million signatures by the middle of February, and you can get the petition at saveprop13.com. Okay, this is really important. Just to, again, recap, this is the new version of what you already successfully got on the ballot for 2024, which was you, Hal Jarvis, and the Business Roundtable, which was the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, you qualified it for the ballot. Yes. And that had all this protection in it, right? That had this and other protections in it, yes. Right. And then it was yanked by the Supreme Court outrageously. Yes. It was taken off the ballot. Exactly. Governor Gavin Newsom sued to have it taken off the ballot, and the Supreme Court went along with that, and they took it off the ballot. It's unbelievable. Despite their protocol, which is you don't hear pre-election challenges, you let the people speak, and then you decide the legality, except when it's something that Gavin Newsom doesn't want, and then they just did his bidding. So this is a slimmed down version of that built to withstand any legal challenges. Is that right? That's exactly right. It protects the two thirds vote and it also repeals excessive real estate transfer taxes, which Prop 13 also prohibited. Very good. Very important. So this is really big. We've got a pair of very important ballot initiatives for November that are going to be really powerful in their own right, but also really powerful in getting out the Republican vote, which is what I will need to win my race and also the other races. We got Gloria Romero and Michael Gates on the show today, the golden ticket, plus Herb Morgan running for controller. You know, we all need a big Republican turnout and the two ballot initiatives that are going to really, this is what's so, it's all coming together this year because Save Prop 13 really mobilizes Republican voters. So we've got to make that happen. And of course, the other big one is voter ID and the voter ID initiative is going very well. pretty much there in terms of signature collection. So now we've got to all focus on Save Prop 13. So it's saveprop13.com, correct? Correct. Very good. Okay. I will be out there. I've got my marching orders. I'll be right there pushing that one. Very, very important. Okay. How are you doing, by the way, on the signatures? Where are we? Well, we're more than halfway to what we need, but we need a really strong finish. We need a strong final month. You can print the petition from your computer. You can print it at home on one page of one sheet of letter-sized paper, and that's an official petition. And then just fill it out, sign it, mail it back to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in Sacramento. The address is on the petition. Fantastic. All right. Second story. This is an interesting one. I haven't seen this at all. Second story is that the Supreme Court of the United States just issued a very interesting ruling that said congressional candidates have standing to challenge laws, state laws, that threaten election integrity. This is very significant because it's about an Illinois law that allows ballots to come in for 14 days after the polls close and be accepted as valid. And one of the congressional candidates said this is unreasonable and this causes my campaign to have to pay poll watchers and campaign staff for two weeks past the election date, and this isn't right. And two lower courts said, well, I'm sorry, but candidates don't have standing because this is a law that affects everyone equally. It's just as bad for everyone else, and therefore candidates have no special standing. But the Supreme Court saw it differently. And five of the justices said election integrity is enough of an injury for a candidate. The threat to election integrity is enough of an injury to give the candidates standing to sue. Two of the justices, Amy Coney Barrett and I think Elena Kagan, said, well, we would do it differently. We would say that the injury is financial because the candidate has to pay for poll watchers and campaign staff. But interestingly, Chief Justice John Roberts made it a much stronger decision. And he said candidates can sue to challenge laws that threaten election integrity. The significance for California is that we have one of those laws also. We accept ballots for seven days past the close of the polls. And there's another case out of Mississippi where they have, I think, five days past Election Day to accept ballots, and somebody's suing over that. The RNC, Republican National Committee, and others are suing over that. And they have standing as a political organization. They were granted standing. And the Supreme Court said they will hear that challenge to this five days past Election Day rule. So I think we're on track here to clean up our elections in two ways in California. Voter ID, as you said, and then getting rid of these laws that are really fraud enabling. Because it allows, I mean, let's just be honest, it allows politicians to look at the election results, see how many votes they need. And then it enables fraud to get them in after the fact. So you don't even need a postmark in California. Literally, if the voter dates the ballot with a pen and writes the election date on the ballot, that's valid. That's enough. And so it's just fraud enabling. It's very easy to game the system. It's absolutely unbelievable, that part. I mean, we've talked about that before, but it's just every time you hear it, it's just so shocking. So just to be clear, so this is just a congressional candidate that sued, but this would apply to the law, not to the race. Is that right? Well, there's a federal law that says elections are the, what is it, the second Tuesday after the first Monday. It's election day. And that's in federal law in three or four different places. And because this is a ruling about federal law, it would probably not apply to races in California that didn't have a congressional candidate on the ballot. But congressional candidates are on the ballot every two years. So that would only then allow mischief in California alone, where if there was a special election like Prop 50, well, that involved congressional candidates, but it was a redistricting thing, which was a state issue. So if you had a local election in an off year or some other election where there wasn't a congressional candidate, it appears this decision wouldn't apply. But we don't know. So we will see as it works its way through the courts. So when are we expecting a ruling, the usual thing, like sort of summer next year, June? Well, the Illinois case is going back down to be heard on the merits because all they decided was standing in that case. So that starts over again. But the Mississippi case, that we could have a decision by July because that one they're hearing. And it's the same point about that's the five days. Exactly. That's the same point about it violates the single election day rule in federal law to have ballots accepted for more than election day. Wow. So just to be clear, does that mean that if that goes the right way, all state laws that extend the election date beyond election date in this way are illegal? I believe so. It could strike down the laws in 30 states. You don't require a candidate to sue. It's just that's the ruling. You can't have these laws. If the court decides broadly enough, then all of these rules would fall. That's huge. Yes, it is. And that could happen by July. I haven't spotted that at all. It just happened. It just happened last Thursday, I think, Wednesday or Thursday. Wow. The Mississippi or the Illinois or both? The Illinois case was Wednesday or Thursday. The Mississippi case, the court announced in November that they will hear that challenge. Because two lower courts said no. So we're going to throw it out. But the Supreme Court heard Mississippi's appeal and said, I think I have that backwards. Mississippi was challenging the fact that the appellate court was agreeing with the RNC about the dates not being. The appellate court agreed that you could not accept ballots past Election Day. Mississippi challenged it. That's what the Supreme Court's going to hear because Mississippi wants to defend that five-day law. And the Supreme Court has agreed to hear that challenge. Wow, this is huge. I really missed this. It could be a big difference. It could make a big difference because we saw during COVID that there were all these changes that were made to election rules. And really, we haven't had a good national discussion without yelling at each other about how it's working. You know, people want to say, oh, well, you know, you're spreading misinformation or whatever about elections. But this is not a question of spreading anything. This is what they've changed the law to be. And we should have a conversation about whether we're happy with the outcome and how this is working. And that's what the Supreme Court's going to do. And what's helpful about this is that it starts to move us in the right direction because there's so many components of the undermining of confidence in the elections. So you've got that combination of, like we have in California, all mail-in ballots just being sent out. You know, I took Benny Johnson last week down to see some examples of homelessness fraud in Los Angeles. And two of the examples we showed him, and one of them, his video on it's gone pretty viral, is a place that we found where you've got this former homelessness shelter that's now been demolished. It's just, you know, empty ground with a porta potty on it. Nothing there at all. 26 people registered to vote there, etc. You know, and there's another place with no residential housing. It's a homeless services thing. No one lives there. 246 people registered to vote. So their ballots will be sent. Who knows what's going to happen? No one lives there. It's just this is what goes on. But you've got all these different elements of the voter, of the confidence being undermined. You've got the all-male-in ballots, the voter rolls that are completely out of date with, you know, millions of people now being removed because of the fact that they've moved out of state or they've died or their duplicates in different addresses or whatever it may be. Then you've got this extended period of voting after Election Day. You've got the machines. I mean, there's so many things that have happened to make people lose confidence in elections, and we have to correct them one by one. And that's why this is really helpful. If we can just at least do these two things, voter ID and no ballots after Election Day, that's a great progress. That would be tremendous progress because really these are all removing the longstanding protections against the ancient art of ballot box stuffing. You don't need servers in Serbia or complicated electronic machinery to figure out how to steal an election. It's a very old practice, ballot box stuffing. And we have removed, in the last few years in California, we have removed a lot of protections against it and also against voter impersonation. If you don't have voter ID, you can have a situation. You know, in California, we have this law that says we have vote centers. We're not voting in local precincts anymore. So your neighbors don't recognize you necessarily. So unfortunately, it is possible in California to impersonate voters very easily. You could take a carload of activists, a copy of the voter rolls, drive around to vote centers, which are open 11 days before Election Day, and cast ballots in somebody else's name. And all you have to do is give the name and address, sign the book. Those signatures are never verified. It's not like mail ballots. The signatures in the poll books are never checked or verified. So you can impersonate someone. You can walk in. They have to give you a ballot. They can't say, I know you're not that person. They have to give you a ballot. That person votes the ballot. It will count. You can't get it out of the box again. It will count. And if the real voter shows up, they're told, you already voted. And they have to vote provisionally. And at the end of the count, the provisional ballots are verified. Is the voter registered? Did the voter already vote? Well, somebody did. So the ballot that gets thrown out is the real voter. What prevents that? Voter ID prevents that. It's really crazy. But we're, you know, we're working hard to clean it up. Susan, fantastic. Thank you, as always. That was great. Really, really informative. Really appreciate it. And see you next time. Thank you, Steve. Joining me now, I am so proud to welcome my friends and partners in the golden ticket for California. Gloria Romero running for Lieutenant Governor, Michael Gates running for Attorney General. All right, here we are, the golden ticket. I'm so excited. My friends Gloria Romero, Michael Gates here with me. Of course, we're missing one member of our ticket, Herb Morgan, but he's been on a lot when we've been talking about the fraud story, and we're going to be on the road, all of us across the state. We've got a lot of work to do to take back our beautiful state. And we're excited about it. So let's start, I think, this conversation with just for those of you who don't know. I mean, Gloria and Michael, you've both been guests on the show. We've had a lot to talk about over the year, but over the years. But if anyone just, you know, seeing you for the first time, let's just do a quick intro. Let's go with Gloria, my running mate for lieutenant governor. Tell everyone just your quick summary of your story and why you ended up here on this ticket. Good morning And Steve I very proud to be your running mate as Lieutenant Governor for California 2026 part of the golden ticket along with Michael and Herb of course I running because I saw as a Democrat for decades that one party ruling Sacramento was further ruling the state. I tried reforming the system, but yet the party really lurched to the far left. And finally, like Ronald Reagan once said, I didn't leave the party. the party left me. So I walked away from the Democrat Party. I became a Republican. I endorsed Donald J. Trump. And my number one issue is pushing for dramatic reformation, transformation of education in California. And as Lieutenant Governor, working with Steve as Governor, there's so much that we can do to bring back quality education to a golden state once again. It's a huge issue. And we'll get into the specific roles of the lieutenant governor, which, of course, education is a really big one, particularly with the UCs. But just for those who don't know, I mean, you were a very serious and senior and respected figure in the California political scene. You were leader of one of the chambers in the state Senate. Tell us a little bit about that and which area you represented. I was a Democrat out of a union household. I mean, from the old Kennedy Democrats, part of the Bill Clinton Party of Moderation Party. But I became the majority leader of California and I was the first woman elected to that historic post. It means that I know where the bodies are buried and that will come in very handy when Steve is governor. I worked with, you know, pushing on education reform. I became the chair of the Education Committee and fought for reforming and transforming the education system, going up against, as a Democrat, the most powerful political force in California, and those are the teachers' unions and the alphabet soup of education, you know, special interests in Sacramento. I represented in East Los Angeles and a good part of the east side of LA County. So I saw especially how a failed education system was hurting my constituents. And I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our time. My mother had a sixth grade level of education. When I fought, I fought for people, mothers like her today, who want our children to do well. And education is the key to a great economy and a thriving economy for California. And, you know, you talked about fighting. I mean, there's no better description of Michael. You and I first met when I started hanging around in Huntington Beach. I was at your launch to support you along with Gloria last week, your campaign for Attorney General of California. And I said there, obviously, I'm running for governor of the whole state and I can't have favorite places. But my favorite place is Huntington Beach for many reasons. I launched my own campaign there. Tell us your story, Michael. Yeah, so both. Thank you to both of you for being there and endorsing me and supporting my kickoff. I am running for attorney general. And, you know, people know me as a fighter. I was the city attorney of Huntington Beach, the elected city attorney of Huntington Beach for 10 years from 2014 to 2025. I served then in Washington for the year during 2025 for the Department of Justice as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ Civil Rights Division. And that's where I got a lot of experience enforcing elections laws. And I spent, like I said, pretty much all of 2025 enforcing various civil rights laws, but including in specifically elections integrity laws. But I've been known as a fighter for years. I'm the outsider. I entered this race to fight for everyday Californians, because as you and I and Gloria know, the Sacramento elitists, that class of, that governing class of elitists, they're completely out of touch with everyday Californians. And we have not only been forgotten and ignored, but we've been abused. They are basically, you know, as you know, ripping us off. And so I've just been passionate about fighting for the people. That's why I left a really good law practice in 2014 to enter the race and become the elected city attorney of Huntington Beach to fight for the people. And frankly, most of my fights have been against Sacramento. So really, if there's anybody who's been in the boxing ring taken on Sacramento, I don't know anybody better than myself, frankly. So I'm ready for the fight. I want to take the fight to Sacramento to actually fight for Californians. And we've done a lot with these fights, as you know, Steve, and I know we'll get into some detail, but whether it's fighting crime, reducing homelessness in Huntington Beach, as you know, Huntington Beach is really sort of known as the land of the free and home of the brave in California. It's the 23rd largest city in the state of California, 482. And so it's a big city with a lot going on. But what we've done is we've done right by the citizens, by reducing homelessness by over 60%, by reducing crime by double digits, We fought Newsom when he tried to shut down our beaches during COVID and we got our beaches opened up again. We adopted our own voter ID law here in Huntington Beach. And I was the architect of that voter ID law. So it's all about for the people, by the people in Huntington Beach. And I want to bring that to Sacramento. Yeah. I mean, that's why we first when I first came across Huntington Beach and the incredible resistance that you were putting up to this tyranny from Sacramento, particularly Gavin Newsom, was over the housing issue. And you push back so strongly on that, along with with our friend Tony Strickland. And then one thing after another, you know, housing, voter ID, sanctuary state. I mean, there's so many things where you were the leading fighter. Yeah. And one of the one of the one of the things I want to add, too, is even parental rights. I mean, I've been out on social media and a lot of people have asked me, you know, what about parental rights? You're talking about voter ID and all these other important issues. But even on parental rights, I don't know if you remember, but AB 1955, the state law that was passed that basically mandated that teachers in the classroom keep secrets from parents about their children's gender identity. I sued the state of California, and that lawsuit is still ongoing. But even fighting for parental rights, I mean, as you know, Steve and Gloria, we're just fighting for common sense. We're just fighting for everyday Californians. We're fighting the nonsense that's coming out of Sacramento. Yes, exactly. I mean, it's incredibly powerful. And that's the attitude, the spirit of you and everyone in Huntington Beach that I just feel is so powerful. That's why I'm thrilled that we're all together on this ticket. Gloria, let's talk about the, by the way, one last thing I should say, just striking how much you got under Gavin Newsom's skin. I was just watching a bit of his latest podcast with Ben Shapiro, where Ben just completely humiliated him, where he just couldn't answer any of the direct questions that Ben Shapiro put to him. But there's one moment that was so interesting where Newsom, as his usual way, sort of brags about what a great job he's doing and so on. And Ben was pushing him on housing and why it's such a disaster in California. And Gavin was like, well, I've fought local areas on Huntington Beach. Literally, the first thing he mentioned was Huntington Beach. You really got to him. It was brilliant. So, Gloria, let's talk about the role, because one of the things that you and I have been saying as we've been explaining this partnership that we have is that there normally isn't a partnership, that these are independently elected positions. That's still true, technically, of course. All three of us, plus Herb, we're running independently. People have to vote for us one by one. But the lieutenant governor and the governor, I mean, it's just never been a partnership. And I've always seen this job of turning around California as a team effort. It's not just one person. And so talk a little bit about that and how it's been done before and how we're going to change that. Yes, the lieutenant governor, I have often called the Seinfeld of state government. It's sort of, what do you do? And in the past, what many politicians have done is basically try to fail up into that post and then just sort of wait to check the health of the governor. You know, is he alive today? Or to wait to say, I'm in line. I'm next to become the governor of the state of California. And basically to be silent. I don't find many people who can even identify who the lieutenant governor is today or what they've even done. So, Steve, when you first spoke to me about creating this ticket, it was very intriguing, creative, and I think also transformational. And that's what we're going to do as the golden ticket in California. It's really transformative. I have no doubt about your health, so I don't need to check your health every day on the record. I don't need to worry about failing up. Like you said, I've led the state before. I want to use, work with you, Michael and others, fighting for a reform of the state and highlighting education. And if you look at the lieutenant governor position, it's very important because the lieutenant governor serves as an officio member of the Board of Regents, which oversees the University of California, a trustee for the California State University System, and as a governor on the Board of Governors of the Community College System. Remember that almost half of the entire California budget is spent on education. And yet, as I point out, even as we speak in the column that ran today in the California Globe, it's the national holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. And I authored this article, which I actually do every year, pointing out that year after year, While the politicians just talk about Dr. Martin Luther King and go to a parade to celebrate, meanwhile, minority children, all children, but especially African-American children in schools named for Dr. Martin Luther King are left to languish. If I can just say that today in California, we find that 20% of African-American children are at basic levels of proficiency in mathematics, and it's not much better for reading and language arts. In one school in California, there are many, I highlight them, but in one school, for example, in Redmond, we find that 97% of African-American kids are not at basic levels of proficiency in the MLK school that they acknowledge. So this is the challenge. And with Michael joining the team, he's emphasized his fight for parental rights. Steve and Michael, you know that as a senator, I fought for parental rights and school choice because I was one of those Democrats. It kind of irked the Democratic Party, but I was one of those Democrats from the beginning who fought for school choice, not to be forced to go to just the neighborhood school that they're assigned to and sit there and take it. But I fought to change, to modify zip code education, to fight for charter schools, I am one of those, or I was one of those Democrats who believed in opportunity scholarships and vouchers because education is the key to the American dream. And Steve, working with you, championing parents as taxpayers and families trying to work with us, with Michael trying to preserve. Imagine we're trying to just preserve the rights of parents to know what's happening with their kids in the school. with my fight in terms of looking at quality educational opportunities and choices so parents can be the architects of their children's dreams. I think we're going to be a strong parent coalition on this ticket. It's very powerful. And I just want to add one quick thing for looking at the role of the Attorney General. So I think that one of the things that's really powerful for me about this partnership that we're going to have is that, of course, I'm running as an outsider, I've never run for office before, to take on the swamp and the corruption in Sacramento. And I'm very clear eyed about that. Of course, I have experience working at the highest level in a government back in the UK. So I understand a bit about how bureaucracy protects its interests and how strongly they're going to fight back for what we need to do. But the really brilliant thing is that, of course, you do have that experience in Sacramento. So as I'm trying to navigate that, it's going to be very helpful to have you by my side where you know as you said you know where the bodies are buried and as I often say you know how Sacramento works or rather how it doesn't work and so I think that's going to be a really good balance there. Michael the attorney general role there's two ways I'd love you to talk about it one is your agenda so you're what you're going to be doing proactively with that role and the issues you want to focus on and then from my perspective, it's incredibly important because I know that the big changes that we need to make as a team and to sort out the mess of California, there's going to be a lot of legal pushback. And so having an incredibly strong expert legal mind with that fighting spirit is going to be important across the board, not just on your agenda. Yeah, no. So that's I appreciate that question because I do get asked quite a bit. Well, if you're attorney general, what does that mean? Does that mean you're the attorney for the governor? Can you really do anything? And let me tell you, there's a lot that the attorney general can do. If you look at the state of California's constitution, the people, the constitution reflects the people's will, right? The voice of the people. The California Constitution delegates a lot of responsibility to the attorney general, independent of any other executive or office in the state government. So there's a lot that can be done in addition to collaborating with the governor and the lieutenant governor as well. So, for instance, on day one, we can aggressively start enforcing all state laws. And that may seem cliche or obvious but as you know and I think this is one of the reasons that you and Gloria are running is the Sacramento elites have basically said well Californians have to get used to or be willing to suck up certain ales of society We have to be willing to live with a certain amount of crime or a certain amount of homelessness We have to be willing to live with high gas prices or high tax rates If you going to be a Californian you have to be willing to suck that up. They're normalizing all of these things that 20 years ago, politicians used to run against or try to fix or look down on, right? But now the elites in Sacramento say, no, no, you have to live with that, right? So they're not enforcing criminal laws. In fact, as you know, Prop 36 to Newsom and Attorney General Bonta, I guess that's optional, right? They didn't even build in any infrastructure support to enforce and implement Prop 36, which is the will of the people passed by flying colors, and now there's no provision for it in next year's budget. Thank you, Newsom and Bonta. So just to answer your question, on day one, we're going to enforce all criminal laws aggressively. Prop 36 is going to be enforced with or without funding. We're going to look for ways to enforce it in areas where it doesn't require funding. And then in other ways, we are going to push for funding for the rest of enforcement of Prop 36. We're going to enforce all laws related to homelessness. For years, we've been told, we can't really do anything about homelessness. We just sort of have to live with it. Absolutely not. I mean, that was a ruse from the beginning. That was basically Sacramento saying, we're just not going to do our job. And yeah, they've pointed to different court decisions and whatnot, but that does not change the fact that there are vagrancy laws in the books. There are camping laws on the books. There are loitering laws in the books. There are public intoxication laws on the books, all of which can be enforced on day one. So we're going to start cleaning up homelessness, not with lip service and rhetoric, but with action. We're also, just a couple more quick things, we're also going to be compliant with all laws, including federal law, Title IX. We are going to protect our girls in schools and in sports throughout the state of California. No longer is the system going to attack our young girls and our young women. We're going to defend our police. We're going to offer aid and assistance to local cities where their police are being sued for doing their jobs. We are going to aggressively defend our police and our sheriffs up and down the state of California when they simply go out to do their job. They are no longer going to be thrown under the bus or sold down the river because they were doing their jobs. We're also going to tackle fraud, right? All of the fraud that we're hearing about, whether it's in the homeless industrial complex or in healthcare or wherever it may be, the attorney general's office is going to be aggressively pursuing any allegations of fraud. And heretofore, Attorney General Bonta has done nothing on that front, literally nothing. Not a single press release, not a single press conference, hasn't lifted a finger in any of that. And then finally, we're also going to be assisting cities who want to become charter cities. There are a lot of general law cities out there. There's 482 cities in the state of California, only 121 charter cities. Charter cities give cities the ability to govern themselves better, more independently from state government. The attorney general's office is going to offer whatever resources we have available to help those cities become charter cities so they can have more independence from Sacramento. Because as you know, and Gloria knows, nothing good comes from Sacramento. We want to empower cities to govern for themselves. And so all of these things, Steve, just to answer your question, can be done on day one. in addition to all of the other cooperation that you and I and Gloria can do in Sacramento when we're there to liberate Californians, to fight for Californians, and to give California back to Californians. Fantastic. So a couple of observations, then one more question for you, Michael, and then we'll finish with Gloria. So first of all, my observation, I'm just thrilled, I'm just feeling energized just listening to both of you, just two points. First of all, specifically about how much we're aligned and how we see things the same way. Just everything you've just said about charter cities and, you know, one of the main themes of everything I've worked on and argued for and written about, you know, 30 plus years in policy and politics and government has been the decentralization of power, fighting big bureaucratic centralized government. And so I just love, love the way you're talking about charter cities. And the other point that really comes across very strongly to me personally, just hearing the both of you, is that, you know, there's a huge amount to fix in California. They've made such a mess of everything. And when I think about all the areas that we need to address and really where I tend to focus, really my focus tends to be the core economic issues. Gas prices, electric bills, taxes, the bloat in government spending, endless regulations that make it impossible to run a business. I'm a small business owner. you know I used to run restaurants and so on so to me that's really where I'm going to be really focusing and the fact that we'll have you there Gloria on education and Michael on these other areas on crime and fraud and all those things it's just a really truly me it shows how this team way of thinking about it is exactly what we need to really be powerful in the changes we made it can't be just one person that's ridiculous you know I've built businesses over the years it's always about a team. It's the only way you make good things happen. Quick last question for you, Michael. Big topic, immigration, sanctuary state law, all of that insanity. Where are you going to be coming from on that? Well, like I said, we're going to make sure that we enforce and comply with all laws. And what we see right now with the sanctuary state fight between the states and the federal governments is an actual fight over the federal authority. And what states need to do was recognized federal authority. There are immigration laws on the books, and those federal authorities preempt state and local authorities on anything related to immigration. There was a previous attorney general opinion that was issued about 20 years ago that basically said, and this is from California, attorney general opinion said that there cannot be sanctuary policies at the state and local level that violate federal law. And clearly under Title VIII, the U.S. Code Section 1324, doing anything actively to harbor illegal immigration is a violation of federal law. So we are going to comply with that. And that means doing our best to protect our communities, to protect our families by following the law and enforcing criminal laws, including allowing the feds to enforce their criminal laws. And if anybody wants, I just wanted to throw out there, if you don't mind, if anybody wants more information on my campaign, if they could go to gates4ag.com. That's G-A-T-E-S, the number four, ag.com. And you'll get an idea of my history, including actually starting a criminal prosecutor program in Huntington Beach, its first ever local prosecutor program in 2017. And that's what's reduced crime by double digits in Huntington Beach. We can do that throughout California. I would like every city in the state of California actually to have their local prosecutor program. I want a local prosecutor in every single city out of 482 in the state of California to be fighting crime. When we fight crime at that level and take crime seriously, we will have our communities prosper. Businesses will no longer then have to leave the state in droves. Our families will be safe. They can walk down the street to the local market without fear for their safety or their life. We have got to enforce our criminal laws. And in addition to all of those great things, I've also spent my career defending police in court personally, multimillion dollar cases where I've gotten defense verdicts, defending our police officers and our Orange County sheriffs in court. So my only point in saying all this, Steve, is, and this is why you asked me to join the team, I know, that I've literally done all of this. And I've done far more, whether it's election law enforcement, defending police in court, fighting crime, voter ID, whatever the issue is. I've done far more than your typical attorney general candidate. And I want to bring all of this to Sacramento because it's all going to benefit regular Californians, everyday Californians, and we're going to make California safe and prosperous again. It's honestly, it's so exciting. I'm really thrilled about the way it's come together. Last word to you, Gloria. Well, let me also point out how the aging for California will work, a golden ticket. And I'll use education again, too, as that central glue. The governor of the state of California appoints all members to, for example, the State Board of Education. Very powerful in terms of determining and advocating for education policy. But the appointees have to be approved. Well, guess who serves as the president of the California State Senate? The lieutenant governor. which would make me a very influential voice in terms of pushing through, working with to get the appointees nominated and approved on these boards. The attorney general plays a very critical role because we should anticipate that there will be some resistance to some of the policies that we hope to bring about. But I want to point out that some years ago, 13 brave California kids sued the state of California, looking for common sense in rethinking and restructuring how tenure, which is a major issue in some of the blockage we find in transforming our schools, how that's done in California. That was called the Vergara case. At that time, the attorney general was, guess who, Kamala Harris, who wanted to fail upward into her next position. And she, as attorney general, sided with the powerful obstructionist California Teachers Association against the 13 brave kids and their parents trying to bring about change. with Michael as our Attorney General, myself as Lieutenant Governor, with Steve as Governor, we can imagine that we can have the kind of quality education system in California that actually works as a public education system for kids rather than a public work system for adults. So I'm excited about that angle as well. It's brilliant. I mean, it's really good. I love the way you've both put all that together, that the connections between us in office are going to be incredibly important in the partnership we have in making all of it happen. It really is true. This is not some, oh, nice sort of phrase, golden ticket. No, it's really true that if we work together with a common aim and agenda, we're going to all be more successful and we're going to more easily achieve what we want for our beautiful state. Let's leave it there for now. We're going to be together a lot, I know, in the next weeks and months. But before we go, very important, And I want everyone to make sure that they're following your campaigns, following you on social media. So let's start with you again, Michael. Just remind everyone you're the website that you've got. You need money, right? I mean, I know as a candidate, this is we're up against a big, big machine, the corrupt union. So web address, social media. Let's get that from both of you. Thank you very much. So my website, as I said before, is Gates, the number four, ag.com. Gates, the number four, ag.com. And as Steve mentioned, financial support is huge. If we're going to take on the machine, we need your help. So we have been doing very well raising money. I've only launched a week ago and we're doing very well, but we need more help if we're going to take on the machine, the establishment in Sacramento. So if you could donate anything large or small, I'd appreciate it. And if there's members of the audience out there who are thinking, I just don't donate to campaigns, I can't afford it. I've been asking those individuals to consider making a donation in this case because we have a rare opportunity, I think, in this election cycle to make a massive difference and make a massive change. And if you even a modest donation of $17.76 for this 250 year of our nation's independence, $17.76 would be huge. And imagine if I got 100,000 of those donations, that would make a real impact on the campaign. So if there's anything that you can do, I'd appreciate it. And my X account is Michael Gates, E-S-Q. That's Michael Gates, E-S-Q on X. You can also find me on Instagram at Michael.E.Gates. And any support that you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Yes. And just want to be really clear. people who've helped me in the audience and elsewhere i love it i appreciate it we're doing really well we announced our fundraising number last week we're leading everyone it's fantastic but if you want to help me please help gloria please help michael we are a team and we we all need to rise up together all right uh gloria where can people support you very easy gloriaromero.com to give campaign contributions. If Michael's going to go for the 1776, I'm going to ask for the 250. But I'm asking people, and it's all patriotic. We all work together. If you can max out small donors, whatever, but we've got to really, you know, fast forward because as I've said, the Lieutenant Governor, nobody ever thinks about. It's one of the most obscure offices or it's been treated as such. On X, we're very active and my handle is at Gloria J. jromero at Gloria J. Romero. We appreciate all the support. We do have to raise funds independently, but we are working to be elected as a team. Wonderful. Thank you both so much. Great. See you very soon. Thank you. The golden ticket. We're on our way. Thank you. All right. That's our show for today. Hope you enjoyed it, found it informative. I certainly did. Please support our campaign, stevehiltonforgovernor.com. Support Gloria and Michael as you heard earlier. Do the calculation to find out what you're paying. Extra for Democrat policies. CaliforniaDemTax.com And we will see you back here for next week's episode of The Steve Hilton Show. Follow us on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. See you soon, everybody. Thank you.