After Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton advanced to the general election back in June, the first thing he did was head to East Los Angeles, which is considered his Democrat opponent Xavier Becerra's neck of the woods.

He noted at the time that the choice was deliberate:

Hilton spoke Wednesday at a general election campaign kickoff event near the site of a cold food storage warehouse fire that plagued neighborhoods in Boyle Heights.

Hilton .. was joined by supporters across a street from the sprawling burned out warehouse in the community east of downtown Los Angeles.

Hilton said the location represents what he called a "rotting regime" of Democrats elected to political office.

"Think about the people who live here, who had to put up with this," Hilton said. "This is the symbol of Democrat failure."

The Los Angeles Times framed the event as Hilton "pitching himself to California’s abundance of anti-Trump voters," quoting the candidate as saying, "Democrats had 'abandoned' working-class and Latino communities and crushed small businesses."

An essential part of any potentially winning campaign, especially in places where the odds are stacked against you, is to try to appeal to such voters, something Donald Trump has successfully done going back to his first presidential campaign in 2015.

Over the weekend, Hilton was back in the same part of town, and it looked like fun was had by all:

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Hilton was no doubt buoyed by recent polling that showed a single-digit race headed into the fall election campaign season, as RedState previously reported:

It’s a notable shift from other recent polls, and shows that Becerra, who is accused of losing track of tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children during his tenure as Biden’s HHS head, is not exactly setting the electorate on fire.

Relatedly, as we also documented, Hilton revealed a week ago that he had receipts on a $225,000 corruption scheme involving Becerra's former chief of staff, alleging Becerra was aware of it.

RedState's Bob Hoge broke it down:

Here are more details on what allegedly went down: when Becerra was appointed by former President Joe Biden to be his HHS chief in 2020, he wanted his longtime chief of staff Sean McCluskie to come to him, but McCluskie wanted more money. Becerra’s underlings then worked up a scheme to divert $225K from his California campaign account to a consulting firm run by Governor Gavin Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson. The money was then used to pay McCluskie’s wife for a fake job.

McCluskie, Williamson, and a Sacramento lobbyist all separately pleaded guilty to fraud and other charges in the case in late 2025 and May 2026. They are awaiting sentencing.

Hilton said he’s got the proof Becerra knew, and it’s time for the FBI to get back in the game.

As always, stay tuned.