Caitlyn Jenner announces run for California governor
Reality television celebrity and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner announced a bid for California governor early Friday morning as Gov. Gavin Newsom faces the threat of a recall election.
Jenner, a Republican and high-profile transgender advocate, has hinted at the potential run for weeks but confirmed in a statement Friday she had filed paperwork to solidify her campaign.
“California has been my home for nearly 50 years. I came here because I knew that anyone, regardless of their background or station in life, could turn their dreams into reality,” Jenner, 71, wrote on Twitter. “But for the past decade, we have seen the glimmer of the Golden State reduced by one-party rule that places politics over progress and special interests over people.”
If the Newsom recall qualifies for the ballot, as expected, voters would be asked two questions: first, whether Newsom should be removed from office, and second, whom do they want to replace him? Newsom is barred from being a candidate on the replacement ballot.
Currently the Secretary of State’s Office is verifying the more than 2 million signatures on petitions to recall Newsom. About 1.5 million valid voter signatures are needed to qualify the recall for a statewide election later this year.
A crowded field
Jenner is just the latest Republican to jump into the expected gubernatorial race, joining others such as businessman John Cox, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Rep. Doug Ose.
Jenner said that the strain on small businesses during California’s pandemic restrictions, as well as the loss of in-person education for children, had pushed her to run.
“This isn’t the California we know. This is Gavin Newsom’s California, where he orders us to stay home but goes out to dinner with his lobbyist friends,” she wrote, an apparent reference to Newsom’s widely publicized French Laundry dinner back in November.
Jenner first gained national recognition as a 1976 gold medal-winning Olympic decathlete, and later on the reality television show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
She wouldn’t be the first celebrity to made a bid for the governorship in a recall election; Austrian American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Democrat Gray Davis during a recall in 2003.