All-In PodcastSteve Hilton & Spencer Pratt: Fixing California, Cheaper Gas, Ballot Fraud & CA Republicans
All-In Podcast
Introducing Steve Hilton 0:00
The segment opens with Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for governor of California and a British-born immigrant who settled in the state in 2012, later becoming a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur. He frames California as a place that once embodied everything admirable about America, innovation, energy, ambition, and the industries born there, from entertainment in Los Angeles over a century ago to today's tech sector and its leading agriculture industry.
Sixteen years of decline 2:30
Hilton lays out the state's condition after sixteen years of one-party Democratic control. California now has the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment rate, and the highest cost of living in the country, along with the highest housing costs, which he says is why millions of people are leaving. Chief Executive Magazine has ranked California fiftieth out of fifty states for business climate for more than a decade.
How one party rule breaks down 4:02
Hilton argues that one-party rule, whether from the left or right, always produces an insular elite obsessed with its own interest groups rather than the public. He points to Sacramento's ties to donors, unions, and trial lawyers, noting that a business started in California has a ninety percent chance of ending up in litigation. Last year the legislature passed 1,118 bills, a stack Hilton says was printed out and stood twice his height, arguing nobody, including Governor Gavin Newsom, actually reads it before signing. He pledges to cut California's regulations from over 420,000 down to under 200,000 by the end of his first term.
Closing the polling gap 7:00
Hilton describes the race as "the people versus the machine," pointing to a shrinking gap in polls, from thirty points behind on primary night down to eight points in the latest survey. He describes traveling to all fifty-eight counties and hearing from voters, including lifelong Democrats at a 9/11 memorial event in Sacramento, that they plan to vote for him this year, with business owners warning they will leave the state if change doesn't come in November.
The plan and the opponent 12:30
Hilton says roughly a quarter of voters remain persuadable, mostly non-college-educated working people focused on cost of living. His platform includes canceling high-speed rail, cutting government headcount by ten percent, ending funding for nonprofits he says worsen homelessness, and making the first $150,000 of income tax-free. He wants to lower gas prices from six dollars toward three dollars by removing hidden taxes like the low carbon fuel standard and the cap-and-invest program, and to cap vehicle registration at a flat $73 by abolishing the DMV. He criticizes his opponent, Javier Bisera, a thirty-six-year career politician, citing former Obama and Biden officials Susan Rice, who called him an "idiot" and "an ass," and another Biden cabinet official who said running a large agency isn't his skill set.
Spencer Pratt joins the conversation 21:00
Media personality Spencer Pratt, who ran for Los Angeles mayor after his home burned down, joins Hilton on stage. Pratt describes the political establishment as a "corrupt criminal mafia cartel" rather than merely a machine, and credits his campaign's viral AI-generated videos to a grassroots creative effort built around simply telling the truth, saying the message mattered more than the AI tool itself.
Disputed ballots and voter turnout 24:31
Pratt recounts his mayoral race, where he was leading by ten points before a third-place candidate overtook both him and the leading Democrat through mail-in ballots, including 43,000 ballots he links to signature-witnessing rules loose enough that a witness could sign with just an X or a smiley face and vouch for tens of thousands of ballots. He argues the fix isn't stopping fraud outright but getting enough registered Republicans, some 200,000 in Los Angeles, to actually show up and vote.
Drugs, nonprofits, and public money 27:00
Hilton closes the segment with a story about Langer's Deli near MacArthur Park, a nearly eighty-year-old business that nearly closed due to surrounding chaos before customers rallied to save it. Despite a Los Angeles district attorney and U.S. Attorney cracking down on drugs and gangs, Hilton describes visiting MacArthur Park on a Tuesday morning and finding dozens of people using drugs in public, which he attributes to four nonprofits that show up daily handing out crack pipes, needles, and drugs, funded, he says, by taxpayers.
Street Vending Destroying Local Business 28:31
Steve Hilton describes visiting a Latino couple who have run a shoe store in South Central LA for fourteen years, paying taxes, rent, and licensing fees. Right outside their door, two full city blocks of sidewalk are taken over by illegal street vendors selling shoes and clothing without paying tax, rent, or complying with any regulation. Hilton traces the problem to a 2018 Sacramento bill that legalized street vending statewide, stripping cities and counties of any power to stop it. He argues this shows California has become a place where doing the right thing is punished and doing the wrong thing is rewarded.
Fifty Thousand Vendors, Missing Reservoir Money 32:02
Spencer Pratt adds that there are reportedly fifty thousand food vendors in the city, most without even the twenty one dollar permit, yet the city council approved five hundred thousand dollars in funding to give many of them proper carts. Meanwhile his own town burned down because the Department of Water and Power failed to repair a reservoir cover that would have cost two hundred thousand dollars to fix.
Launching a Campaign Amid Disasters 33:30
Pratt recounts launching his general election campaign in Boyle Heights, the site of a warehouse fire that burned for a week while Mayor Bass was out of town, during which eighty five million pounds of rotting meat sat for five weeks producing flies, stench, and disease in a working class Latino neighborhood. He argues the city needs to remove incompetent leadership this year and frames his campaign message as simple common sense rather than partisan politics.
A Plan for Ten New Cities 36:00
Before leaving, Hilton mentions a plan being published that day proposing ten new cities for California, arguing the state still has the talent and energy to become a magnet for business and building again if regulations, lawsuits, fees, and taxes are cut back. He says California only lacks a good governor to unlock that potential.
Ballot Harvesting and Voter Fraud Claims 38:31
Pratt and the hosts debate whether fraud cost him the mayoral race. Pratt clarifies he is not alleging fake ballots but describes California's legal ballot harvesting system, where mail in ballots are separated from their signed envelopes once received, making it impossible to audit which ballots came from which signatures. He describes DSA aligned canvassers going door to door, sometimes paid, repeatedly pressuring residents to fill out ballots in a way his own campaign's door knockers were not permitted to do, and argues this practice, while legal, functions like a loophole. He says without evidence he would not claim fraud caused his loss, attributing it instead to around two hundred thousand Republicans not turning out.
Voter Rolls and Empty Parking Lot Ballots 45:01
Pratt raises the issue of California not clearing outdated voter rolls, including people who have moved away or died, and mentions an empty downtown LA parking lot registered as an address that receives hundreds of mailed ballots. He calls for voter ID to be put on the ballot, comparing it to needing identification to board a plane.
Palisades Fire Lawsuit and Rebuilding 47:03
Pratt explains he cannot rebuild his home until a mass tort lawsuit with ten thousand plaintiffs against Gavin Newsom's state parks, the city, and the Department of Water and Power is resolved. He says a New Year's Eve fire in the Pacific Palisades was left to smolder against state park protocol ahead of a known wind event, that whistleblowers and depositions show park employees photographed smoking hillsides without acting, and that reservoirs remain empty months later, with a makeshift hose now supplying water to the area. He notes dead brush around communities was left uncleared for sixty years, and cutting it without authorization can bring fines for disturbing protected plants.
Why He Ran and What Comes Next 51:30
Pratt explains he ran for mayor mainly to stop Karen Bass by enforcing laws neither she nor her opponent intend to enforce, such as protecting small businesses from illegal vendors. He says he is now producing content aimed at truth rather than partisanship, has begun engaging with people in New York, and once considered turning Skid Row into data centers as a way to fund infrastructure repairs. He declines a suggestion to pursue reality television, saying image crafting ruins it, and closes by criticizing the DSA's platform, including positions like abolishing the police, as something people should read for themselves rather than dismiss as conspiracy.
Closing exchange 55:30
The segment ends briefly, with a light aside about gassing things up, before Steve Hilton thanks Spencer Pratt and wraps the conversation with a quick, friendly sign-off.
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