Steve Hilton, the Republican nominee for governor of California, is running an ad in which his opponent, Democrat Xavier Becerra, appears on screen and confesses to something. The Becerra in the ad is not Becerra. He was made by a computer, and the words coming out of his mouth were written by the Hilton campaign.

The ad was reported by the New York Post on October 11 as a Spanish-language spot aimed at Latino families. Metro Weekly reported on October 24 that it is available in English and Spanish.

What the ad shows

A soccer game. A father watching his teenage daughter's team asks, "Who is that?" The coach answers: "New starter. Last week she declared herself a girl." The player is a grown, muscular man with a mustache. He plows through the girls and knocks them to the ground.

The father asks who allowed this. The camera cuts to a computer-generated Xavier Becerra:

"That? That was me. I fought for boys to play in girls' sports, and I'll keep doing it as governor."

"And what if they get hurt?" the father asks. The fake Becerra answers: "Sorry." The ad ends with the father screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

In small print at the bottom: "Ad generated or substanitally altered using artificial intelligence. Ad paid for by Steve Hilton for Governor 2026." (The typo is theirs.)

Becerra never said it

There is no real quote behind the fake one. When CBS News California asked Becerra about transgender athletes last year, he said governing bodies in sports "should decide who plays in the sport," and that "there's nothing in the Constitution that says that you are entitled to play a sport." After being read California's law, he supported it, saying he wasn't interested "in having someone be bullied or someone discriminated because of who they are."

That is a real position, and voters are free to disagree with it. It is not "I fought for boys to play in girls' sports," and it is certainly not shrugging "Sorry" at injured children. Hilton could have quoted what Becerra actually said. He chose to have a computer say something worse.

The ad's soccer player isn't real either. He's a grown man on a team of teenage girls. As Metro Weekly points out, high school sports associations across the country impose upper age limits — typically 19 — on every athlete. And the coach's line, "Last week she declared herself a girl," is the old smear that trans kids change who they are on a whim to win games.

What Hilton says he's doing

Hilton told the Post the ad was meant "to make clear to Latino families that what they're seeing in their kids' schools" is "the direct result of Democrat politicians actions – Becerra supports all this extremism and would make it worse." He said he hears "incredibly strong concerns from Latino parents" and that they're "desperate for someone to help them push back against what they see as crazy, fringe ideologies."

His actual plan is to take away a right California students already have. State law requires public schools to let students join sports teams and use facilities that match their gender identity. Hilton told CBS, "I'd like to repeal that legislation."

Not the first time

Faking an opponent is becoming a habit in Republican campaigns this year. Ken Paxton ran an AI video of James Talarico giving a speech he never gave. Derrick Van Orden posted AI videos putting words in Rebecca Cooke's mouth. Greg Abbott's campaign added a transgender flag to a photo of his opponent talking with a child.

And Hilton has a record of blurring who is saying what in his campaign. His campaign paid two self-described independent journalists more than $72,000, and neither disclosed it while promoting him.

What the record shows

Steve Hilton's campaign built a computer-generated Xavier Becerra and had it say "I fought for boys to play in girls' sports" and "Sorry" to a father whose daughter was knocked down by a grown man. Becerra never said either; he has said sports' governing bodies should decide who plays, and he supports California's current law. Hilton has said he wants to repeal California's law protecting transgender students in school sports.

Source

Steve Hilton Attacks Xavier Becerra With AI-Generated Anti-Trans Ad — Metro Weekly