By Anna Griffin, New York Times
It’s the stuff of bad romance novels, not a modern political ad. But the new digital spot from the California Republican gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, is at least drawing attention — and condemnation, much of it from fellow Republicans.
Plus a whole lot of “huhs?”
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The ad, titled “Just Try It, California,” shows two Generation Z women, both with facial piercings, neon-hued highlights and heavy glam makeup, sitting on a bed in a darkened room. There’s a Pride flag behind them and soft mood music playing in the background.
The woman on the right, decked out in a cropped “Resist” T-shirt, says she can’t believe what she’s about to do. The young woman on the left strokes her hair and tells her not to be nervous.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” the first young woman says. “What if my dad finds out?”
The other woman tells her to close her eyes, takes her hand and says, “I’ll do all the work.”
Cut to their laps, where it turns out they’re casting a vote for Hilton.
A sexually suggestive double-entendre involving the proper way to close a mail-in ballot ends the ad.
The video went online last week, and the negative response — along with the befuddlement — was immediate. Much came from other California Republicans.
“This is a clear example of exactly why good people are walking away from the Republican Party,” the GOP candidate for state superintendent of public instruction, Sonja Shaw, wrote on the social platform X, calling the ad “creepy, weird, disturbing garbage.”
Michael Gates, the party’s candidate for attorney general, also denounced the ad on X, accusing Hilton of using “young women as political tools” and saying “California families deserve better.”
David Townsend, a longtime political consultant in California who has often worked for moderate Democrats, said the video was “too clever by half.”
“Are you equating voting for Hilton with trying to have a lesbian relationship? Are you equating it with grooming?” he said. “It manages to be both offensive and confusing.”
As with most political ads, the attention is the point.
Polls have consistently shown Hilton, a former Fox News host and adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, trailing Xavier Becerra, a former California attorney general and Cabinet secretary under President Joe Biden.
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“The only question is whether he loses by 20 or 25 points, so there’s a bit of a ‘what the hell, why not’ in it,” said Dan Newman, a longtime Democratic political consultant who has worked closely with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Townsend said Hilton is in a tough spot, even without an ad destined for the pantheon of political advertising oddities.
The ad, consultants from both parties predicted, will take its place alongside Carly Fiorina’s “Demon Sheep” spot from the 2010 California U.S. Senate race, which culminated with a man in a sheep costume with glowing red eyes crawling across a field. The Delaware U.S. Senate ad from the same year that began with Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell declaring “I’m not a witch” also came to mind.
Hilton needed President Donald Trump’s endorsement to make it through the crowded primary for governor, in which the top two finishers, regardless of party, advanced to the general election. But in the general election, he faces the reality that “Cruella de Vil is more popular than Trump in California,” Townsend said.
“Becerra was 25 points up before the commercial,” he predicted, “and he’ll be 25 points up after the commercial.”
Jon Fleischman, a Republican consultant and former executive director of the California Republican Party, said the ad was unlikely to win Hilton any votes.
“I didn’t like the ad, content-wise. I thought it was kind of creepy,” Fleischman said. “But it got me talking about the ad to a bunch of people, which means I am talking about Steve Hilton.”
Becerra posted his own response to the ad on X on Sunday. He shared a link to an old New York Times article where he touted “Medicare for All” and wrote, “Steve, just try it!”
“Just Try It” has the glossy, slightly uncanny appearance of video generated by artificial intelligence, although it’s not clear if actual human actors were used and the spot does not contain an AI disclaimer, which Hilton’s campaign has used on some other spots. On X, Hilton said the video is not AI and “was produced by a great and talented director.”
Hilton has used computer-generated images for other campaign material, including a video leading his campaign website Sunday that shows him fighting a Transformers-like “political machine” controlled by sneering AI versions of Newsom and Kamala Harris.
Hilton said on social media on Saturday that he knew that the suggestive ad had offended some people. In a video posted online, he asked “for some grace.” The idea that he’s upset anyone “grieves me,” he said.
Still, he said, most of the reaction he’s heard has been positive: “People have told me it’s genius.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
