2.3 million people voted for Steve Hilton in the primary election.
Posted by On with Kara Swisher, Checked
- Sources
- 3 support2 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 90%
On with Kara SwisherAug 10, 2026
The certified AP results show Steve Hilton received 2,277,318 votes (24.6%) in the June 2026 all-party primary, which rounds to 2.3 million. NPR's tally (2,277,315) and CNN's (2,277,318) match, and the extraction dropped only the phrase 'to be the challenger', which does not change the figure.
What was said
… Um Why are you the person to fix this? Well, the sort of literal, factual answer to the question is that, um, 2.3 million people voted for me in the primary to be the challenger. Um, and so the question behind that is, well, why did I succeed in the primary, beating even Tom Styer with his hundreds of millions of dollars? It's good, you know, money doesn't buy politics. Yeah, exactly. …
On with Kara Swisher · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. AP's certified California governor primary results list Steve Hilton (GOP) at 2,277,318 votes, 24.6%.[1]
Supports. NPR's primary results list Hilton at 2,277,315 votes, and CNN's list 2,277,318, consistent with the AP certified figure.[3][4]
Context. Earlier partial-count snapshots (about 1.1 million votes in early reporting, and 2.1 million in a June 9 AP report) reflect counts taken before the final tally and do not contradict the certified total.[2][5]
Sources
5 sources: 2 fact-checkers, 2 tier 2, 1 not rated
- 1California Governor all-party primary resultsapnews.com · fact-checker · cited for: supports
- 2Hilton, Becerra lead primary race for California governorreuters.com · fact-checker · cited for: context
- 3California Primary Election Results 2026npr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 4Live results: California primary election results | CNN Politicscnn.com · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 5It's official: Becerra, Hilton move on to November governor's electionmercurynews.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
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