CAITLYN MULLING SEN. RUN
Eyes Feinstein’s seat
Caitlyn Jenner said on Sunday that she is eyeing a run for a US Senate seat in California.
“I have considered it. I like the political side of it,” the Olympic gold-medalist, reality-TV star and transgender activist told host John Catsimatidis on his AM 970 show.
“Over the next six months or so, I’ve got to find out where I can do a better job. Can I do a better job from the outside? Kind of working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talking to anybody, or are you better from the inside? And we are in the process of determining that,” said Jenner, a Republican.
Jenner, who as Bruce Jenner won gold in the 1976 Olympic decathlon and came out as transgender in 2015, has worked with the American Unity Fund to educate GOP lawmakers on LGBT issues.
“The perception of the Republican Party is that they are all about rich white guys trying to make money. I would hope in the next generation . . . that we can change the perception of the Republican Party and make it the party of equality,” Jenner, 67, said.
The cultural shift, she added, should not come at the expense of deeply held conservative values.
It should come “along with conservative values, economically, I believe in little things like the Con- stitution. I believe in limited government. I don’t believe in government; I believe in the people of this country . . . I believe in people, not in massive government,” said Jenner, who was married to Kris Jenner, matriarch of the reality-TV show Kardashian clan.
Despite voting for President Trump and attending his inauguration, the lifelong Republican has said she felt betrayed when he rolled back Obamaera protections for transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms in schools.
“When you take away protection in schools, to be honest with you, it is devastating to these kids,” she said in an interview with USA Today last month.
“These politicians say it is to protect their children in bathrooms. But young people will die. And they are transgender. Suicide rates will go up. What if that’s your kid? The federal government is basically saying you don’t really exist. I was outspoken when Trump did that. And I should be.”
As a resident of Malibu, Jenner would likely be running in 2018 for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein, 84, has not said whether she will seek re-election.
The state’s junior senator, Kamala Harris, was sworn in this year. Her term doesn’t expire until 2023.