{"id":1330,"date":"2026-06-06T11:40:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2026-06-06T11:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T11:40:06","slug":"chabria-no-mr-hilton-our-elections-are-not-a-joke-its-time-for-you-to-stand-up-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1330","title":{"rendered":"Chabria: No, Mr. Hilton, our elections are not ‘a joke.’ It’s time for you to stand up to Trump."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Well, that didn\u2019t take long.<\/p>\n

A day after California\u2019s primary election, President Donald Trump took to social media with baseless claims of election fraud \u2014 predictable, but also dangerous.
\n\u201cLook what\u2019s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,\u201d Trump wrote in one post.<\/p>\n

Read more A Medi-Cal lifeline keeps Californians at home. Now it faces cuts<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,\u201d he wrote in another, apparently enamored of his latest juvenile slur.<\/p>\n

Never mind that his candidate, Steve Hilton, is in the lead \u2014 for now anyway.<\/p>\n

California has once again become the main dish on Trump\u2019s buffet of bull-hockey as he continues to undermine democracy and consolidate authoritarian power, using this disingenuous and patently untrue narrative that American elections are rigged by shadowy Democratic forces working in collusion with illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n

That last part is called the Great Replacement Theory, the idea that \u201celites\u201d are replacing white people \u2014 and white voters \u2014 with Black and brown immigrants in a bid to destroy white culture. It\u2019s at the heart of Trump\u2019s voter fraud allegations.<\/p>\n

The twist this time is that Hilton, the man who wants to represent all Californians, seems to be jumping on the election fraud conspiracy train with the president. I get it, there\u2019s the MAGA base to feed, and it\u2019s a base that feasts on outrage and fakery. Serving up resentment glazed with lies and propaganda has been the MAGA playbook for years under Trump, a strategy that no one can deny has been heartbreakingly effective.<\/p>\n

But Hilton is a smart man and must certainly know that voter fraud is rare, to the point of being inconsequential to election outcomes. Hilton by his own admission understands voting patterns, and that in this cycle, Republicans have voted early and often by mail, despite Trump\u2019s claims that all vote-by-mail should be suspect. So Hilton understands that early votes have skewed his way, and that later vote tallies will likely favor Democrats.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

True math<\/h4>\n

And Hilton is definitely intelligent enough to expect that in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly three to one, he will not keep the top spot in this primary, and a slim chance remains that he will not make it into the top two. That\u2019s just simple math.<\/p>\n

So if Hilton truly seeks to represent this state as its top elected executive, now is the time to renounce election fraud myths and stand up to Trump\u2019s lies. If Hilton can\u2019t say that he believes our recent election was free and fair, then he has no business being our governor.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that doesn\u2019t seem to be the path he\u2019s taking, even as it seems increasingly likely that he will advance to the general election.<\/p>\n

This week, speaking with far-right podcaster and former Turning Point USA creative director Benny Johnson (who was allegedly duped into working for a Russian influence operation), Hilton said that while \u201cso far we\u2019re not seeing any signs\u201d of cheating, \u201cwe\u2019re going to be all over it. We\u2019re not going to let them do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Hilton was responding to a question from Johnson on whether Hilton will sue over \u201ccheating.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a post-election appearance with Laura Ingraham, the conservative Fox News host who has repeatedly promoted the Great Replacement Theory, Hilton delved into more conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Read more Walters: California\u2019s population is stagnating as immigration and birth rates decline<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cJust to really underline the point that you made about the corruption,\u201d he told Ingraham an anecdote about supposed fraud in a previous election cycle when a \u201cwhistleblower\u201d at the post office told him that they were instructed that a handwritten postmark was acceptable when sorting ballots to deliver to the county registrar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just unbelievable, and of course, that\u2019s why so many people don\u2019t believe the results, but it just undermines confidence,\u201d he told Ingraham, certainly knowing that the post office forwarding a ballot on to a county registrar in no way means it will be certified or counted. Would we really want the USPS deciding which ballots to deliver? Disingenuous on Hilton\u2019s part at best.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing is a joke,\u201d Hilton went on to say of California elections, which of course, is absurd.<\/p>\n

Under scrutiny<\/h4>\n

Thursday, when I asked Hilton\u2019s team to speak with him about his views on voter fraud, they sent back a response that focused on the slowness of the California vote count; voter rolls Hilton has described as \u201cwildly inaccurate,\u201d which is a wildly inaccurate claim; and two instances of actual fraud with voter registration \u2014 not examples of votes that were counted.<\/p>\n

To be sure, all those items are important. Any malfeasance should be punished, and the system should always strive to improve.<\/p>\n

But how hard is it to simply be against fraud, while accurately acknowledging that it is rare and our current system provides accurate results?<\/p>\n

I am against voter registration fraud. I am against vote fraud. I am absolutely pro-democracy, including policies such as mail-in voting that increase participation.<\/p>\n

I do not believe that there is widespread fraud in the California primary, or in American elections in general, because the evidence does not support that conspiracy. I do not believe that Democrats are running a decades-long, nationwide conspiracy to replace white voters with votes from Black and brown undocumented immigrants, because that is both false and racist.<\/p>\n

Pretty basic stuff, and statements in line with the values and common sense of the majority of Californians Hilton says he will represent.<\/p>\n

If Hilton can\u2019t come out and clearly say that Trump is wrong \u2014 about fraud and about the Great Replacement Theory \u2014 can he really be trusted to represent the values of the Golden State?<\/p>\n

Anita Chabria is a Los Angeles Times columnist. \u00a92026 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes June 6, 2026: Natalie Morales, stand up and be counted<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Steve Hilton cannot clearly state that Donald Trump is wrong about voter fraud, he cannot be trusted to govern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nChabria: No, Mr. Hilton, our elections are not ‘a joke.’ It’s time for you to stand up to Trump. - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=1330\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chabria: No, Mr. Hilton, our elections are not ‘a joke.’ It’s time for you to stand up to Trump. - 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