Caitlyn Jenner has made it official.
The reality TV star and former Olympic decathlete has filed the paperwork to run for governor of California in an attempt to unseat Democrat Gavin Newsom.
“California has been my home for nearly 50 years,” said Jenner on her gubernatorial website. “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.”
A fundraising effort is underway on WinRed, a conservative fundraising site.
Jenner has been contemplating a run for some time, and has surrounded herself with GOP operatives, including Tony Fabrizio, who ran polls on Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, and Steven Cheung, a former special assistant to Trump.
Jenner, a longtime Republican and prominent transgender activist, does not seemingly plan to run as a Trump Republican, however. Once a supporter of Trump, she withdrew that backing when he barred transgender students from using the bathrooms of their choice.
“I believed I could work within the party and the Trump administration to shift the minds of those who most needed shifting,” she wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece at the time. “Sadly, I was wrong. The reality is that the trans community is being relentlessly attacked by this President.”
While Newsom has faced rising opposition in the state and Jenner has high name recognition, she faces an uphill battle. The state is widely Democratic, and no major Democrats have stepped forward to oppose him. Other Republicans, including Richard Grenell, who served briefly as the acting director of national intelligence, are said to be considering runs as well.
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