Olympic gold-medalist and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner announced Friday she will be running for governor of California in the upcoming election following a successful petition to recall current Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
Jenner will be running as a Republican, further crowding the field of the party which orchestrated the original recall vote against Newsom. “Small businesses have been devastated because of the over-restrictive lockdown,” Jenner said in the statement Friday. “An entire generation of children have lost a year of education and have been prevented from going back to school, participating in activities, or socializing with their friends. Taxes are too high, killing jobs, hurting families, and putting an especially heavy burden on our most vulnerable people.”
Jenner said she would make a formal announcement of her candidacy in “the coming weeks,” but that she has fully filed the paperwork for her run. “California has been my home for nearly 50 years,” Jenner wrote in their Friday statement. “I came here because I knew that anyone, regardless of their background or station in life, could turn their dreams into reality. 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. Sacramento needs an honest leader with a clear vision.”
Newsom quickly emailed supporters Friday saying that “she is working closely with Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign manager and the person behind his small-dollar fundraising success. So we’re going to need help keeping up with Caitlyn’s personal wealth and ability to raise money from right-wing donors now that she has Trump’s team with her.”
California LGBT activists have been skeptical of Jenner’s bid. “It’s a desperate grasp for publicity that would almost be comical if this recall weren’t such a dangerous threat to the health, safety and civil rights of trans Californians,’’ said Samuel Garrett-Pate from Equality California, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. “The Trump Administration spent four years attacking the trans community — trans students, patriotic trans service members, trans patients in hospitals and trans people experiencing homelessness. Caitlyn said so herself.”
