{"id":294663,"date":"2026-05-01T08:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294663\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T08:32:21","slug":"whos-running-for-california-lieutenant-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/294663\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s running for California lieutenant governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nadia Lathan<\/a>, CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by CalMatters<\/a>. Sign up<\/a> for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

The candidates running for lieutenant governor are apt to hint at the post\u2019s largely symbolic and overlooked status when discussing their ambitions for the statewide office.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that California\u2019s lieutenant governor is mostly a ceremonial position. Eleni Kounalakis, who currently holds the position, is next in line if the governor is absent or vacates the office, such as when they\u2019re out-of-state, undergoing surgery or if they die. Kounalakis, who terms out this year, is also president of the state Senate and can cast a rare tie-breaking vote if called upon. Most of her influence lies within higher education, where she sits on all three of the state\u2019s higher education boards.<\/p>\n

Because of this, the four major leading candidates for the office in the upcoming June primary are emphasizing the sway they\u2019d like to have on higher education, such as freezing tuition or cutting back on remedial coursework.<\/p>\n

Previous lieutenant governors have used the office as a stepping stone to the state\u2019s top job, including Gov. Gavin Newsom who held the position for eight years before his election in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still mostly unknown to voters and suffers a poor reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called the lieutenant governor sort of the Seinfeld of state government, because nobody knows who it is, and then they think it\u2019s a job about nothing,\u201d Gloria Romero, a Republican candidate, told CalMatters.<\/p>\n

The major Democratic candidates include Josh Fryday, who leads volunteer programs in the Newsom administration, state Treasurer Fiona Ma who terms out this year, and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is what each candidate, in alphabetical order, said about how they\u2019d approach the gig.<\/p>\n

Josh Fryday<\/p>\n

Fryday said one of his biggest priorities as lieutenant governor would be to try to get California community colleges to credential more trade workers to help build more clean energy projects and boost the state\u2019s renewable energy supply.<\/p>\n

Prior to becoming part of the governor\u2019s cabinet in 2019, he was the chief operating officer of NextGen America, a clean advocacy organization started by billionaire Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer.<\/p>\n

He also said he would push for developing more student housing on public land to increase enrollment and create more revenue to stem rising tuition costs.<\/p>\n

The former mayor of Novato also emphasized expanding the volunteer service program he helped develop as chief service officer in Newsom\u2019s cabinet. He would like it to include more community colleges and universities. In addition to Newsom\u2019s support, he\u2019s endorsed by the California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Janelle Kellman<\/p>\n

Former Sausalito mayor Janelle Kellman wants to make community college free and expand training programs for in-demand jobs as a member of the state\u2019s higher education boards. But the lieutenant governor is one of 18 members on the UC Board of Regents and has limited capacity to enact a single policy change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s received support from the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and the LGBTQ Stonewall Democratic Club.<\/p>\n

The lieutenant governor has no role in electricity regulation or insurance. But Kellman, a climate attorney, said she would work to cut utility costs by getting rid of extra electricity fees. She also said she\u2019d work with the insurance commissioner to reduce premiums for homeowners who take preventive measures to mitigate wildfire risks.<\/p>\n

Kellman spent 10 years in local government on Sausalito\u2019s planning commission and city council and is the founder of a climate nonprofit focused on sea level rise.<\/p>\n

She also supports building more student housing.<\/p>\n

Fiona Ma<\/p>\n

Finding other ways to generate revenue for Cal State universities outside the general fund is one way Ma would look to lower the cost of housing and tuition. She supports partnering more with private companies to lease out spaces such as campus theaters when they\u2019re not being used.<\/p>\n

Ma has an exhaustive resume in local and state politics: She spent six years in the Assembly after one term on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was on the Board of Equalization for four years before she was elected state treasurer in 2019.<\/p>\n

\""A\"State Treasurer Fiona Ma in the Senate chambers at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 5, 2026. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters\/Pool<\/p>\n

As treasurer, she has issued housing bonds to California universities, which she said has given her \u201ca different perspective\u201d on how to build more student housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of them do have land and they are working with some of the developers that have a speciality with building student housing\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ma is endorsed by construction and hospitality unions. She was accused of sexual harassment<\/a> by a former employee in 2021, who accused Ma of requiring her to share a hotel room with her and buying her gifts. The state, using taxpayer dollars, settled the lawsuit for $350,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n

Ma has repeatedly denied the accusations and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”<\/p>\n

It took up three years of her life, and voters still elected her, she said. \u201cI still got all the same endorsements that I got the first time I ran in 2018,\u201d Ma said. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten even more support for my lieutenant governor\u2019s race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloria Romero<\/p>\n

Romero, a former Democrat-turned-Republican, supports school vouchers to let parents use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school education \u2014 which teachers unions vehemently oppose. She also supports slashing remedial coursework to help students finish their degrees faster.<\/p>\n

A former assemblymember and first woman to become Senate Majority Leader, Romero spent 12 years representing east Los Angeles in the state Legislature as a Democrat until 2010. She switched parties in 2024 and announced her lieutenant governor run as a joint ticket with Steve Hilton<\/a>, one of the leading Republican candidates for governor.<\/p>\n

On how she\u2019d navigate negotiating with the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature and on numerous boards as a rare Republican, Romero said she would individually meet with each colleague to see where their priorities overlap.<\/p>\n

Michael Tubbs<\/p>\n

Tubbs is looking to return to office to help drive down the cost of higher education more than a decade after skyrocketing to political stardom in Stockton as one of the youngest big city mayors in the county.<\/p>\n

His ascent as the city\u2019s first Black and youngest mayor at 26 in 2016 garnered him national attention as the son of a single mother raised in a poor neighborhood who climbed his way to full ride at Stanford.<\/p>\n

He supports freezing tuition at all public colleges by cutting \u201cadministrative bloat,\u201d cutting remedial coursework that doesn\u2019t count toward graduation requirements and streamlining programs for in-demand industries such as nursing.<\/p>\n

Tubbs is a special economic adviser to the governor and leads the nonprofit organizations Poverty in California and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, dedicated to implementing universal basic income pilot programs in cities across the state, a flagship initiative<\/a> of his mayorship.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s major public employee union, Service Employees International, is supporting Tubbs.<\/p>\n

For the record: This story has been updated to correct Fryday’s previous role at NextGen. He was COO, not CEO. Also, Ma did not receive the Democratic Party endorsement. The party has not endorsed a candidate in this race. <\/p>\n

This article was originally published on CalMatters<\/a> and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives<\/a> license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nadia Lathan, CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The candidates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,35072,58578,91057],"class_list":["post-294663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-election-2026","tag-fiona-ma","tag-michael-tubbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}