Steve Hilton

Early life

Hilton's parents, whose original surname was Hircsák (which some sources spell "Hircksac"), emigrated from Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. They came to Britain, initially claiming asylum, and anglicised their name to Hilton. Hilton's father, István, had been goaltender for the Hungarian national ice hockey team and was considered one of the best ice hockey players in Europe during the 1930s. After arriving in Britain, his parents initially worked in catering at Heathrow Airport. They divorced when Steve was five years old

He was given a bursary to Christ's Hospital School in Horsham in Sussex, before studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford.

Career

After graduating, Hilton worked for the Conservative Central Office, where he came to know David Cameron and Rachel Whetstone, who became his wife and, later, Senior Vice-President of Policy and Communications for Uber. He liaised with the party's advertising firm, Saatchi and Saatchi, and was praised by Maurice Saatchi, who remarked, "No one reminds me as much of me when young as Steve." During this time Hilton bought the "New Labour, New Danger" demon eyes poster campaign for the Conservatives' pre-general election campaign in 1996, which won an award from the advertising industry's Campaign magazine at the beginning of 1997. The Conservatives later experienced their worst election defeat for more than half a century, with some journalists speculating that the poster contrasted unfavorably with Labour's more positive campaign. In 2005, Hilton lost to future Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove in the selection process for the Surrey Heath constituency of Parliament.

Hilton talked of the need to "replace" the traditionally minded grassroots membership of the Conservative Party, which he considered to be preventing the party from adopting a more metropolitan attitude for social issues.

It is alleged that Hilton said "I voted Green" after the Labour landslide of 2001, but then worked with Cameron to re-fashion the Conservative Party as "green" and progressive. According to The Economist Hilton "remains appallingly understood". There were reports that Hilton's 'blue sky thinking' caused conflict in Whitehall and, according to Nicholas Watt of The Guardian, Liberal Democrats around deputy prime minister Nick Clegg considered him to be a "refreshing but wacky thinker".

Hilton was satirised by the BBC comedy The Thick of It as the herbal-tea drinking publicist Stewart Pearson.

Hilton was director of strategy for the UK prime minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012, working alongside James O'Shaughnessy, Baron O'Shaughnessy, the Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit. His last memo concerned the advocacy of severe decreases of the number of civil servants in the United Kingdom and further decreases of welfare.

Hilton is a co-founder and former CEO of Crowdpac.com, a Silicon Valley technology start-up company. In April 2016, Crowdpac initiated a beta service in the UK. Hilton resigned from Crowdpac in May 2018. Crowdpac also suspended fundraising for Republican candidates.

In May 2015, Hilton joined the UK research institute Policy Exchange as a visiting scholar.

He is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller More Human: Designing A World Where People Come First, published in May 2015. It advocates smaller, more human-scale organisations and is critical of large governmental and business, including factory farms and banks. With co-author Giles Gibbons, he wrote Good Business: Your World Needs You, published in 2002.

He spent a year as a visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, has been a scholar at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and has taught at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.

In 2023, Hilton initiated Golden Together, a bipartisan research institute, with Lanhee Chen and Gloria Romero. The same year, he proposed a ballot initiative designed to reduce the housing shortage in California. The measure would prohibit private lawsuits related to the California Environmental Quality Act and cap impact fees paid by homebuilders and developers. The San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garofoli termed the ballot initiative a "developer giveaway", noting that it would give developers two of their major desires, but also that it may help stabilize construction workforces and draw more attention to housing issues in California.

Fox News

In November 2016, writing for Fox News, he announced his endorsement for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in the presidential election. Starting in 2017, Hilton presented the weekly show The Next Revolution on Fox News Channel.

On June 1, 2023, Fox News announced that The Next Revolution would be ending its run as Hilton began “to focus on his new California non-partisan policy organization….” Hilton remains with the network as a contributor.

COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and soon after social distancing measures and lockdowns were implemented, Hilton recommended that President Donald Trump end the measures. Hilton criticised "our ruling class and their TV mouthpieces [for] whipping up fear over this virus". Hilton suggested that "the cure could be worse than the disease"; or more specifically that the long-term public health consequences resulting from the economic damage of a lockdown would be worse than the short-term public health consequences of the virus itself. Trump later appeared to mimic what Hilton said in one of his tweets.

In January 2021, Hilton asserted that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the most likely source of the COVID-19 virus and claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president, commissioned the work which resulted in the virus's development. PolitiFact described Hilton's claims as "rely[ing] on a series of unsubstantiated allegations to spin a conspiracy theory about the virus being a lab creation".

2020 election fraud claims

After Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Hilton demanded an investigation into claims of election fraud on his Fox News broadcast, clips of which were tweeted by Trump.

2026 Campaign for California Governor

On April 21, 2025, Hilton officially launched his campaign for California Governor, as a Republican candidate. He also held a campaign announcement event in Huntington Beach. Hilton was endorsed by Republican and fellow gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Gloria Romero announced that she will be his running mate by running for lieutenant governor.

Personal life

Hilton is married to Rachel Whetstone, a former aide (political secretary) to Michael Howard, former head of communications at Google, former senior vice-president of policy and communications of Uber, and current chief communications officer of Netflix. The couple were godparents to David Cameron's son, Ivan, who died at the age of six. Hilton became a U.S. citizen in May 2021 and formally renounced his British citizenship in November 2025.

References

References

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3. (22 June 2020). "Steve Hilton: Why a second Trump term is so important".
4. (2020-03-23). "David Cameron's chief adviser just said austerity cost 130,000 avoidable deaths". [[New Statesman]].
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6. (June 3, 2017). "Fox News's Steve Hilton is a Strong Believer in 'Positive Populism'". Adweek, LLC.
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8. Crowdpac. (2018-08-10). "A stand against Trumpism, a stand for democracy".
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10. Wintour, Patrick. (2 December 2006). "'David's brain' transforms Tory brand". [[The Guardian]].
11. (2021-02-03). "How Steve Hilton became one of the most influential voices on Fox News".
12. Dubner, Stephen J.. (7 June 2017). "He's One of the Most Famous Political Operatives in America. America Just Doesn't Know It Yet.".
13. (14 May 2015). "Rachel Whetstone leaves Google communication role to join Uber". [[The Guardian]].
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25. Iain Watson [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18111271 "Steve Hilton's civil service attack uncovers coalition tensions"], BBC News, 18 May 2012
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32. Hilton, Steve. (21 May 2015). "More Human". WH Allen.
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41. (September 7, 2023). "The culture war goes to court". Politico.
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46. Balluck, Kyle. (2020-03-23). "Fox's Hilton: 'TV mouthpieces whipping up fear' over coronavirus".
47. Mazza, Ed. (2020-03-23). "Trump Repeats Latest Bonkers Fox News Coronavirus Claims In Midnight Rant".
48. (2021). "PolitiFact - No, Dr. Anthony Fauci did not fund research tied to COVID-19 'creation'".
49. "Fox News pundit Steve Hilton pushed a ridiculous conspiracy theory that Dr. Fauci is behind the coronavirus".
50. (2020-11-09). "Trump tweets bizarre string of Steve Hilton clips without comment as he rages at election defeat".
51. Mehta, Seema. (2025-04-21). "Conservative commentator Steve Hilton announces a run for California governor".
52. Stone, Reid. (2025-04-21). "Steve Hilton, Fox News host and ex-British PM aide, joins GOP field for Calif. Governor".
53. (2025-04-21). "Conservative commentator Steve Hilton announces a run for California governor".
54. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-12/gloria-romero-announces-run-for-california-lieutenant-governor
55. (21 October 2021). "How Netflix became 'Hateflix' in the eyes of trans activists".
56. Odone, Cristina. (6 September 2011). "Why every baby needs a power godparent".
57. Miles, Frank. (7 July 2019). "Steve Hilton announces he's applying to become US citizen".