LOS ANGELES (AP) – Caitlyn Jenner’s decision Friday to enter the race for California governor injects a jolt of celebrity into a campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom while raising questions about whether a political newcomer can lead the nation’s most populous state as it recovers from the pandemic.
Jenner – an Olympic hero, reality TV personality and longtime Republican – announced “I’m in” on Twitter, joining a growing list of candidates seeking to oust Newsom from office.
“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,” Jenner said in a statement announcing her “Caitlyn for California” candidacy.
Newsom, a first-term Democrat, is facing a likely recall election this year, though officials still are reviewing petition signatures required to qualify the proposal for the ballot. County election officials are required to submit their final signature tallies to the state no later than next Thursday.
The race had failed to attract a nationally recognized contender before the entrance of the 71-year-old Jenner, who won the decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics and is widely known from shows “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and the spin-off “I Am Cait” that debuted after she came out as a transgender woman in 2015.