Hilton Challenges Beshear's 2028 Pitch, Points to Newsom's Stalled High-Speed Rail

On Friday night, on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear made a case that the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential ticket should be led by a governor. Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for governor of California, was on the same program and answered him with a question about a project in Beshear's own party.

Beshear had been discussing possible Democratic contenders. His argument was that governors can point to tangible results that set them apart from President Donald Trump. "What Democratic governors have are receipts," he said, and he suggested the test was whether a governor has built the housing. Hilton cut in: "Have you built the high-speed rail?"

The exchange followed Maher's mention of California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a possible 2028 candidate. Newsom has not formally announced a presidential campaign. Maher conceded the point to Hilton, saying the Republican would "have a field day" with it, and added, "No, you're right."

Hilton's campaign manager, Matt Ciepielowski, followed up in a statement to Fox News Digital. He said that if Beshear thinks the rail project is something to brag about, he should try buying a ticket, citing billions spent, years of delay and no way for Californians to ride it. He said Hilton would end state funding for the project on his first day as governor, arguing that Californians struggling with their own bills should not keep paying for Sacramento's failures.

State Sen. Tony Strickland, a Huntington Beach Republican and vice chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, joined the criticism. He said the project should have been defunded when Newsom took office in 2019 and that it will never be built as originally promised. He also pointed to the latest controversy over consultants' travel spending, saying they treat taxpayer money like a personal ATM and predicting the project will be remembered as one of the most wasteful in California history.

The numbers behind the argument are large. Voters approved nearly $10 billion in bonds in 2008. An April estimate put the full project's cost at about $126 billion, against an original figure of $33 billion, and no high-speed track had been laid as of that report. In its 2026 business plan, the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimated that finishing the initial Merced-to-Bakersfield segment would cost $35.7 billion, with passenger service targeted for 2033. Its financial records showed roughly $15.7 billion spent through February.

Oversight has also drawn attention. A September investigation by the project's independent inspector general identified about $81,000 in consultant travel expenses that appeared to violate state regulations and another $543,000 that appeared impermissible under contract terms, with some overlap between the two totals. Questionable charges included premium transportation and visits to gyms, a nightclub and an escape room. The authority outlined corrective steps: added oversight, employee training and efforts to recover payments found to be improper.

The authority maintains that construction is moving forward. In an October update, officials said they had completed 66 major structures and nearly 90 miles of guideway in the Central Valley, and they stressed the project's expected transportation, economic and employment benefits. Fox News Digital asked Newsom and the authority for comment and had not received a response.

What to watch is whether the rail issue becomes a central line of attack in the California governor's race, and whether Newsom answers the consultant expense findings and the cost estimates as his national profile grows.