We reported last week on former Olympic athlete and reality TV Star Caitlyn Jenner‘s consideration of running for California Governor in the Newsom Recall election.
With a Recall election pretty much a foregone conclusion (1.2 million votes already certified by the Secretary of State with 1.459 million required), it looks like Jenner has decided to make it official, filing the $4,200 to make her run for governor.
BREAKING NEWS: Caitlyn Jenner, a Republican, has filed paperwork to run for Governor of California as Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom is about to face a recall election in the state..
— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) April 23, 2021
Jenner would run on a “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” platform. Jenner even has put together a team of known GOP pollsters and strategists to lend an air of weight to her run.
I’m in! California is worth fighting for. Visit https://t.co/a1SfOAMZQ3 to follow or donate today. #RecallNewsom pic.twitter.com/9yCck3KK4D
— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) April 23, 2021
Let the grifting begin.
Axios got the big scoop:
She’s assembled a team of prominent GOP operatives including Tony Fabrizio, the top pollster on Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Ryan Erwin, founder of RedRock Strategies, and Tyler Deaton, president of Allegiance Strategies.
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She’s also hired Steven Cheung, a former Trump White House and campaign communications hand who worked on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful 2003 recall campaign.
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Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, a personal friend of Jenner’s, has helped her assemble her team but doesn’t plan to take an official title on the campaign.
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The campaign’s website and WinRed donation page are set to go live today.
Jenner said in a statement that “Sacramento needs an honest leader with a clear vision” and that “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.”
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The statement decries California’s taxes as “too high” and criticizes an “over-restrictive lockdown” response to the COVID pandemic including on in-person schooling.
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“This is Gavin Newsom’s California, where he orders us to stay home but goes out to dinner with his lobbyist friends.”
While electing a transgender Governor in California would be a newsworthy first, the reality TV-star’s bid is being viewed suspiciously. The 2003 Recall of Gray Davis gave us film star Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose eight years in office tanked the Republican Party and helped to usher in the progressive stronghold that exists in the state today.
Jenner feels the name recognition alone will carry her across the state. However, name recognition alone does not necessarily evoke a positive response:
I'm so damn tired of this whole damn family.
— DorotheasClosetVintage (@dorotheascloset) April 23, 2021
Same! I have never watched their self promoting show
and never will.— Belle & MrB (@bellewitch66) April 23, 2021
So, registered Republicans lining up to support Jenner’s candidacy is not necessarily a done deal. With an established politician in former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and 2018 Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox in the ring, a Jenner run could do little more than divide the vote needed to get a Republican back in California’s highest office.
Among the Left, Right, and Trans communities, there is no joy in Mudville.
Support for a recall is at 40%, California now has the lowest Covid case count in the country, and everything here is opening back up.
But sure, good luck with Trump’s campaign team.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) April 23, 2021
Caitlyn Jenner has no real support. I don't care about her candidacy. I do care about the ways in which her asinine views will be weaponized against trans people and the ways in which transphobia will go unchecked.
This is purely a vanity campaign, and it's incredibly selfish.
— Charlotte Clymer 🏳️🌈 (@cmclymer) April 23, 2021
Caitlyn Jenner, I can say with immense confidence that us Californians do not support or want you as our governor.
— 💞🕊Heyoka 🕊💞 (@HeyokaEmpath01) April 23, 2021
Trump-loving Caitlyn Jenner doesn’t stand a chance in California, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.
— Elizabeth C. McLaughlin (she/her) (@ECMcLaughlin) April 23, 2021