The Daily Signal - Republicans Surge in California Jungle Primary Twist | Victor Davis Hanson

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

While California Democrats thought they could swarm the gubernatorial general election ballot with Democrats and win, Republicans had other ideas.  As of now, Republican candidates Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton are leading the jungle primary neck and neck, with Bianco at 16% and Hilton at 17% approval rating, explains Victor Davis Hanson on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”(00:00) California Recall Shock (02:04) Jungle Primary Backfires (03:02) Newsom Record Under Fire (04:55) Wildfires And Rebuilding (05:40) Outmigration And Taxes (07:54) Fraud Exposé Smear (09:09) Boondoggles And Green Failures (09:59) Energy Refineries Gas Prices 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠  Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027  👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything, like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. We're starting to see something a little strange in California. As of right now, state polls show that to replace Gavin Newsom as governor in our jungle primary,

the two leading contestants, Chad Bianco, a sheriff from Riverside County, and Steve Hilton, a former Fox commentator, entrepreneur, and naturalized U.S. citizen from Britain. Our neck and neck. Hilton is at 17. Bianco is supposedly at 16. And then the next two candidates, 13 and 12, are Eric Swalwell, we know, from the first. Fang Fang notorious incident. And then Kathleen Porter, we know from the incident. You're out of my fucking shock.

The Democrats, remember, made this system because it's such a blue state. They would just swarm the ballot with viable Democrats. And the contending Democrats would be the first and second candidate on the general election ballot. And there wouldn't be any Republicans at all. This is kind of backfired. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen. We're starting to see something a little strange in California. As of right now, state polls show that to replace Gavin Newsom as governor in our jungle primary,

the two leading contestants, Chad Bianco, a sheriff from Riverside County, and Steve Hilton, a former Fox commentator, entrepreneur, and naturalized U.S. citizen from Britain, or neck and neck at 17 and 16. Hilton is at 17. Bianco is supposedly at 16. And then the next two candidates, 13 and 12, are Eric Swalwell, we know, from the Fang Fang notorious incident.

And then Kathleen Porter, Kathleen Porter, we know from the incident where she was caught abusing one of her staffers and screaming and yelling while on tape. The Democrats, remember, made this system. thinking that they would, because it's such a blue state, they would just swarm the ballot with viable Democrats, and the contending Democrats would be the first and second candidate on the

general election ballot, and there wouldn't be any Republicans at all. This is kind of backfired. We don't know how long it's going to last. A lot of people think that the Democrats have so gerrymandered elections, local elections, and statewide elections. elections and federal elections, and there's so many such money on the Democratic side, and there's such, we'll call it, balloting irregularities, and we have the highest number of illegal aliens that it's impossible for these two candidates to win, either one of them. But the thing to remember is that they're leading. This is unheard of, and it's a direct response to whom, Gavin Newsome. Gavin Newsom, remember, was on the board of

supervisors of San Francisco County. Then he was mayor of San Francisco. Then he was lieutenant governor of the state. And now he's been governor for five years. He's been in continuous public office for almost 30 years. No one, no one in elected office is more responsible for what California is today, whether you believe it's great or awful. But whatever your opinion of the status of the state is, Gavin Newsom deserves the credit. So he wants to run for president, I guess on the agenda that I want to do for the United States, what I did for California. That's going to be very hard, Gavin. We have the highest income taxes. We have among the highest sales taxes. We have the highest gas taxes. We have the highest gas taxes. We have the highest. We have.

have the greatest number of homeless people. One out of every three people who are admitted under any circumstances to a hospital have diabetes. One out of three people in the United States who are on public assistance are in California. We have the highest gasoline taxes. We're in the bottom 10% of schools based on scores. San Francisco recently had the highest property crime rates per capita in the nation. It's not safe in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, all of the Oakland, all of these major cities. More importantly, there's been a lot of, I guess you would call it, acts of omission and acts of commission. Gavin Newsom is not concerned with the effect of why.

his policies about fire prevention, which are basically green policy to let things burn in a natural society. So we've had horrific forest fires. We've had the Pacific Palisades fire where nothing has been rebuilt, nothing. They wiped out the Pacific Palisides neighborhood. These fires did due to human culpability. And apparently their larger agenda is to drive out these wealthy people, not let them rebuild their single family wealthy homes and put more dense living for, I guess, the underserved. But the next thing to remember is that we have the highest out migration. About 300,000 people a year leave California, and we know who they are. They're the upper middle class, professional class, and the very wealthy, especially with the new billionaire tax

that's envisioned that the legislature will foist upon us. Then we have the acts of overt commission. If you think about it, we have three ways to get from the south of the state to the north, the 101, the 99, and the federal I-5. None of them, none of them have three lanes in each direction unimpeded. They all have either two lanes for vast expanses like the I-5 or parts of 101 or they have bottlenecks that's in the 99. And so the 99 freeway is the most dangerous highway driven per mile in the United States. The American Trucking Association tries to avoid it. We also have 70,000 licenses that were issued to people who had no English comprehension, and many of them were here illegally. And now Gavin Newsom is fighting the Department of Transportation's efforts to

decertify those licenses. And you put it all together and you ask what Gavin Newsom is going to run on. And the answer is he's not going to run on any of it because it's a disaster. So what is his strategy? His strategy is no one hates Donald Trump and the MAGA movement more than I do. And so what does that mean? That means he goes to his social media team and he says in the most vulgar way, I want to smash his mouth. He goes to the security conference overseas, tells the Europeans you have knee pads as if you performed a sex act on Donald Trump.

He says to Christy Noem, the former Secretary of Transportation, you're going to have a bad day, which many people felt was a direct threat. We've had a crusading young 23-year-old journalist who's exposed the Somali fraud, which may be the biggest in our history. It could approach $9 billion. of stolen state and federal funds.

Now he's in Los Angeles, and he's looking at all sorts of fraud, from hospice care to autism to just general welfare and entitlement programs that don't exist, but funnel money to Democratic constituencies who in turn support Democratic candidates. And what's Gavin Newsom? Did he praise Mr. Story? Did he say, Shirley, did he say, Nick's, surely, you're doing a great job?

We come to California and we can find out no. He did the crudest thing possibly. He sent out a social media message implying from the photograph and the caption that this young man was a pedophile, that he was looking for young kids to sexually molest. That was the implication. That's who is now governor right now. He has never had a private job that he got on his own. He was the creation of the Getty family and his own well-connected parents.

He's been in office for 30 years, and he's overseen all of these disastrous programs. High-speed rail. It was originally forecasted at $40 billion. We're going to very soon get up to $40 billion, and we will not have one inch of track laid. We will never probably ever have a high-speed rail beyond Bakersfield to Merced, which will lose money every year, and yet we keep pouring billions into it, why these critical freeways are neglected. We have a green agenda, and yet the Monterey battery storage plant,

which is essential to capture solar-generated electricity for nighttime use, has blown up twice. We had a big $2 billion solar plant in the Mojave Desert. It's being dismantled. It's inefficient, and it's harmful to wildlife. It's been dismantled. what could save us. We have about the fifth highest of the 50 states reserves in gas and oil.

What's Gavin Newsom doing? He's fighting the federal government that wishes us to expand oil production. Where does California get their gas? Well, they get it from oil, but where does the oil come from? The oil comes mostly from Saudi Arabia, and it's imported, and the gas has to be imported, our special blend, from Japan. He's driven out two refineries, and we will see this year, I should say this summer, gas at somewhere between $7 and $9 a gallon. And one thing we know about Gavin Newsom, will he take credit for that, responsibility for that?

Will he say this is what happened and be accurately descriptive and honest, and there's no way in the world? He will blame whom, Donald Trump and the Iran War. That's who wants to be the President of the United States. and that's who wants to do for the United States what he did for California. Beware. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal.

Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at Victor Hanson.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition. You know, Thank you.