One Bay Area resident is hoping to make a name for himself in California’s governor’s race, and his name is Barack Obama.
Alameda resident Barack Denzel Obama Shaw, 56, is among the more unusual names on California’s crowded June 2 gubernatorial primary ballot, which includes 61 candidates and hopefuls such as Thunder Parley and LivingForGod AndCountry Demott.
Barack D. Obama Shaw, 56, a local candidate for California governor from Alameda, shows his campaign flyer during an interview on May 5, 2026. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
“There’s people more educated, better looking, have more properties, more experience, more everything than I do, right?” Obama Shaw said. “But until that person shows up, I’m going to do the job.”
Obama Shaw faces a crowded field on the June 2 ballot, and an uphill battle against more prominent candidates such as Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton, and Tom Steyer.
Born Cecil Shaw III, Obama Shaw grew up in Houston, Texas, where his father was often absent because of his music career, which included an appearance on “Soul Train” in 1974. He has a binder of memorabilia documenting his father’s exploits, adding that his father’s entertainment career inspired him to pursue his own, he said.
But his own career is less discernible.
Known around Alameda as the emcee of “Alameda’s Got Talent,” a semiweekly Friday talent show hosted at Alameda Theatre, Obama Shaw described his profession simply as an “entertainer,” relating himself in the next breath to actor Denzel Washington, and a young President Barack Obama.
Barack D. Obama Shaw, 56, a local candidate for California governor from Alameda, talks during an interview at the Alameda Theatre & Cineplex, where he hosts the “Alameda’s Got Talent” show every week, on May 5, 2026. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
He said he has not forced those connections with the Oscar-winning actor and former president. Instead, he claims strangers have told him for more than 30 years he was like them.
“So I said, ‘What I’m gonna do is I’m going to legally change my name, listen to what the people say, create a great conglomeration of a possibility, represent my grandfather, my dad, represent Denzel Washington and represent Barack Obama, and myself,” Obama Shaw said.
Outside of entertainment, Obama Shaw served in the U.S. Army Reserves between 2008 and 2016, which he said he embraced “like a fish to water.”
That experience helped to shape his campaign slogan, “Honor We Stand,” which he said described the militaristic approach he takes in his life in the way he sits, eats, and greets people. It also serves as a reminder to honor his own life by not taking it for granted, including his own name.
In 2013, he changed his name to Barack Denzel Obama Shaw, comparing his decision to change his name to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s father, who changed he and his son’s name from Michael King to Martin Luther in 1934 as an homage to the 16th century reformist of the same name, according to the National Museum of African American History. Under this identity, which he called “the great unifier,” he said he can express the best values of himself.
“Before I ran for political office, I said my name is going to be Barack D. Obama Shaw,” he said, adding that millions of people still think fondly of the former president. “Enough could possibly like him in California that it may give me a chance (in the governor’s race), and that’s just what it is.”
In 2022, Obama Shaw made his seminal entrance into politics when he spent four months running for mayor of Alameda, finishing third with 6% of the vote. Instead of seeing that mayoral campaign as a failure, he said he viewed it as validating his political potential. If he were to dedicate the next four years to building a coalition of voters to support him for governor, he said, who knows what might happen.
Above the lobby of Alameda Theatre, Obama Shaw bristled with an unbridled confidence about his abilities.
After losing the 2022 mayoral election in Alameda, Obama Shaw took that as a message to aim even higher. This self-belief, he said, firstly comes from his belief in God and secondly comes from Tony Robbins, a motivational speaker whose turns of phrase twist their way into Obama Shaw’s daily vocabulary.
“I studied all the Tony Robbins stuff, you know? This guy is very inspiring, very powerful,” Obama Shaw said. “Words have power. People say, ‘talk is cheap,’ but really people cheapen talk.”
In this way, Obama Shaw’s campaign for governor is not political, but personal. The gubernatorial race is a test of his belief in his own skills, and it represents his efforts to embody the name he’s chosen for himself.
“I’m a visionary. I’m looking way down the line,” Obama Shaw said. “I don’t foresee myself going higher than governor, maybe a representative one day, maybe. But putting my message out here and seeing what the people want, that’s the main thing.”
Barack D. Obama Shaw, 56, a local candidate for California governor from Alameda, at the Alameda Theatre & Cineplex, where he hosts the “Alameda’s Got Talent” show every week, on May 5, 2026. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)