{"id":319222,"date":"2026-05-16T19:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319222\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T19:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T19:56:13","slug":"how-californias-political-culture-is-hostile-to-women-running-for-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/319222\/","title":{"rendered":"How California\u2019s political culture is hostile to women running for governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the past 100 years, the surest path to becoming governor of California has been to first get elected to statewide office. Of the 14 men<\/a> \u2014 and they have all been men \u2014 to serve over the last century, five were lieutenant governors, four were attorneys general, and one a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n

There were a couple of outliers \u2014 celebrity actors Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger \u2014 but as a rule a governor\u2019s resume had to include an apprenticeship in a lesser statewide office.<\/p>\n

It is not clear, however, whether that trend will continue. Sadly, it seems the state\u2019s stepping-stone offices haven\u2019t paved the way for women.<\/p>\n

The good news is that after years of struggle, women have begun to move up the state\u2019s political pipeline. They hold four of the state\u2019s seven constitutional offices and 48 percent of the seats in the Legislature.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the top of that pipeline remains plugged. Although a record 14 women governors <\/a>are serving in the country today, California remains one of just 19 states to never have one.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s political culture today is not welcoming to women candidates for its highest offices.<\/p>\n

In 2019, there was a panel discussion in Sacramento in which Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, <\/a>Treasurer Fiona Ma <\/a>and Controller Betty Yee each asserted her interest in running for governor. All had the requisite experience based on California history.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happened since? Kounalakis dropped out to run for treasurer instead. Ma assessed the situation and chose to run for lieutenant governor. Yee entered the race but ultimately dropped out.<\/p>\n

A fourth woman with stellar experience also tested the waters. Toni Atkins, who is both a former Assembly speaker and one-time leader of the state Senate, also dropped out.<\/p>\n

What these highly qualified women had in common was an inability to raise the massive amount of campaign funds needed to compete for the governorship in a state with more than 23 million voters and 15 television markets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s long been recognized that women candidates, particularly women of color, face a more difficult challenge in raising money from a male-dominated donor network. That has never been more true than in California today, where political purse strings are largely pulled by a tech industry boy\u2019s club that lavishly spends on campaigns. It is a group that has not generally favored women candidates.<\/p>\n

Consider that 15 California billionaires <\/a>concentrated in the Silicon Valley \u2014all men \u2014 have combined to spend more than $14 million to promote a candidate for governor who, unlike the four women cited above, has zero experience in state government.<\/p>\n

The same effect is exhibited further down the ballot, in the race for lieutenant governor. Ma, the leading woman in the race, surprisingly has raised more money than her two male rivals. But massive independent expenditure campaigns by donor elites, mostly Silicon Valley tech bros, are boosting the men competing against her.<\/p>\n

In contrast to Treasurer Ma, her two rivals have never served in a state elected office. It seems apropos that among those who have given <\/a>the maximum amount <\/a>to candidate Josh Fryday is a co-founder <\/a>of Men\u2019s Wearhouse.<\/p>\n

Women who seek the state\u2019s highest offices still face cultural obstacles as well. Check out the Sacramento Bee\u2019s recent endorsement <\/a>of Fryday over the state\u2019s treasurer. It says the male candidate passes the \u201cbeer test.\u201d It must be a guy thing, I guess.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter,<\/a> the remaining candidate with a chance to become the state\u2019s first woman governor. She dropped sharply in the polls after videos circulated that some said showed she lacked the \u201ctemperament\u201d to be governor.<\/p>\n

The temperament test seems to apply only to a certain set of chromosomes. As Porter noted<\/a> during a recent boisterous debate with her six male opponents, \u201cIf these bullies, these boys bullying and bickering, hasn\u2019t been enough to raise questions about their temperament, I would really challenge that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, it is time for all Californians to challenge this notion that women are second-tier candidates.<\/p>\n

Steve Maviglio is a political consultant who served as press secretary to former California Gov. Gray Davis and deputy chief of staff to former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the past 100 years, the surest path to becoming governor of California has been to first get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,58578,70134,63287,133280,36310,133279],"class_list":["post-319222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-fiona-ma","tag-governor-of-california","tag-lieutenant-governor","tag-lieutenant-governors","tag-statewide-office","tag-women-governors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319222","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=319222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}