a republican running for governor made a sapphic first-time ad, and the forbidden thing is voting for him. i need to lie down.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

via Steve Hilton's post, the New York Post, Mediaite, TheWrap, the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

A girl with blue hair and a "RESIST" shirt sits on a bed under a Pride flag. A girl with red hair tells her not to be nervous. "I've just never done anything like this before. Like, what if my dad finds out?" "Just try it. Look, give me your hand. Close your eyes, and I'll do all the work."

This is a campaign ad. For a Republican. Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host running for governor of California against Democrat Xavier Becerra, posted it on X on Thursday with the caption "Just try it, California." We watched all 52 seconds so you don't have to, and we still had to.

what happens in the ad

The reveal: the red-haired one is guiding the other's pen to fill in Hilton's bubble on a mail-in ballot. "I think I liked it," the first-timer says, per Mediaite. Then, holding up the envelope: "Now lick it." End card. Hilton for governor.

The Post reports it is the first spot in "a six-figure television and digital ad campaign aimed at Gen Z and millennial voters." Hilton's own statement on it was about the cost of gas: "You do not have to become a Republican to want a different result. You do not have to like me. You just have to look at the last 16 years and ask if you are willing to try it." The post had more than 25,000 likes by Saturday morning.

is it ai?

Depends who you ask. The Post describes the women as "AI-generated." TheWrap says it was not, and reports Hilton told a user it was "produced by a great and talented director," whom he did not name. We could not find that reply ourselves, so we will leave it there.

The politics are easy to read. Mediaite and TheWrap both put Hilton 22 points down in the RealClearPolitics average, and the pitch is to frame voting Republican as a little experiment you try once and keep from your father. Bold, in a state where the experiment of being a lesbian is legal and the experiment of being a Republican is the thing people hide.

The part we cannot stop thinking about is the casting. When a Republican campaign wanted to make its candidate feel transgressive, forbidden and a little thrilling, it reached for two queer girls. Somebody in that office knows exactly what is hot, and it is not the platform.

the right hated it more

By Saturday the loudest reviews were coming from Hilton's own side. Michael Gates, the Republican running for California attorney general on Hilton's "Golden Ticket" slate, said in a press release that he "emphatically" denounced "the use of young women's sexuality as a political tool," the Orange County Register reports; the Register says he was not consulted about the ad. Sonja Shaw, running for state superintendent, posted on X: "Shame on you ... for reposting and cheering this creepy, weird, disturbing garbage," adding, "We have lost our way. Embarrassing."

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills called the ad "grotesque" on a Facebook Live, the Los Angeles Times reports, and said it promoted lesbianism among young women. A widely shared post on X claimed he would rescind his endorsement over it. He did not: the Times reports he said he still supports Hilton over Becerra.

Hilton is not sorry. "It's a provocative and humorous way of making a point, right? Which often the best communication does," he told the Times, which also reports the ad had nearly 5 million views by Saturday afternoon. He said it does not conflict with his positions on gender-affirming care and youth sports, because those apply only to minors. Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat, called it "a bizarre and desperate ad from a person who has attacked the LGBTQ+ community and stands with Donald Trump."

So to recap: a Republican made his party feel the way a lot of queer kids feel, briefly scandalized and then a little curious, and his own ticket mate put out a press release about it. Hilton, per the Times, is due to speak to a Log Cabin Republicans chapter in Palm Desert on Monday. We assume the ad will play well.