Caitlyn Jenner Just Announced She's Running for Governor of California

Olivia Harvey
·2 min read
Caitlyn Jenner
Caitlyn Jenner

Joe Scarnici, Getty Images for Annenberg Foundation

Caitlyn Jenner, former Olympian and current reality TV star, has just declared that she is running for governor of California. Jenner, running as a Republican, is seeking to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in an upcoming recall election. A recall election allows constituents to force a state official to step down from their seat and be replaced with a new winning candidate.

Despite her party alignment, Axios reports Jenner will not be running as a Donald Trump-aligned Republican, though she's assembled a team that consists of a handful of former Trump officials including Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio, former Trump White House and campaign communications hand Steven Cheung, and Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager and close friend to the Jenner family.

Jenner's team also includes founder of RedRock Strategies Ryan Erwin and Tyler Deaton, president of Allegiance Strategies.

"Sacramento needs an honest leader with a clear vision," Jenner said in a statement, per Axios, adding, "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." Jenner believes California's taxes are too high and that Newom's lockdown response to COVID-19 was "over-restrictive." She added, "This is Gavin Newsom's California, where he orders us to stay home but goes out to dinner with his lobbyist friends."

She shared a press release on her Instagram this morning, captioning it, "I'm in! California is worth fighting for."

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Though Jenner is working closely with former Trump personas and publicly supported Trump until 2018 when he walked back guidelines that would protect trans peoples' rights to use the public bathroom that fits with their current identity, Jenner believes her "socially liberal" views as a trans woman will balance out her "fiscally conservative" ideals and draw in a crowd of supporters.

Jenner is not the only candidate who will potentially run if the majority of the voting population votes to recall Newsom—only 40% of those polled are in favor of a recall. However, her advisers state that her public image will likely make her a frontrunner in a potential gubernatorial race.