California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is formally working for governor in 2026, changing into the most recent Democrat to launch a marketing campaign in a race that would draw a big area of contenders as Gov. Gavin Newsom is pressured out of workplace by time period limits.
Thurmond made the announcement Tuesday after publicly toying with the concept this summer season. He mentioned in July he was contemplating a gubernatorial run however was “absolutely targeted” on his work because the state’s prime colleges official.
In an advert, Thurmond, a former Democratic state lawmaker from the Bay Space who was elected superintendent in 2018, highlights his youth dwelling in poverty, describing how he leaned on public help corresponding to meals stamps and labored at McDonald’s throughout school.
“I didn’t come from cash, energy or affect,” he says within the advert, amid a montage of California governors previous — all white males — whereas an actor taking part in a younger Thurmond, who’s Black, watches on. “My story is nothing like theirs.”
Thurmond was basically orphaned at 6 years previous after his mom, an immigrant from Panama, died, as his father, a veteran, was absent, in keeping with the advert. He cites his Afro-Latino heritage and vows to deal with California’s financial inequality, calling for a better minimal wage, greater pay for lecturers and extra inexpensive housing.
“California could also be working for millionaires and billionaires, however for the remainder
of California, we want actual change,” Thurmond mentioned.
The advert doesn’t goal potential rivals however goals to place Thurmond as an advocate for the working class in a state that’s house to excessive wealth — a dynamic that would form the race if California’s highly effective labor unions get behind his marketing campaign.
The California Lecturers Assn. and different labor unions spent tens of millions to assist get Thurmond elected to the nonpartisan superintendency 5 years in the past.
The one different candidate to this point to have formally launched a marketing campaign is Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat who comes from a rich household of house builders.
California
Hillary Clinton backs Eleni Kounalakis for California governor
Clinton needs to assist her good friend turn out to be California’s first feminine governor.
Thurmond opened a marketing campaign committee for governor in July, and has since raised $101,000, in keeping with submitting data with the Secretary of State’s Workplace, with most contributions coming from unions that symbolize electrical staff, plumbers and boilermakers.
The Oakland Police Officers’ Assn. has additionally contributed $5,000 to Thurmond’s marketing campaign. In 2020, the Oakland college board voted to remove its campus police power amid nationwide protests over the dying of George Floyd. Though Thurmond has spoken out against police brutality and institutional racism, he took a extra tempered approach then, not calling for the removing of officers from colleges however for packages corresponding to coaching in implicit bias.
Thurmond’s run for governor was introduced sooner or later after Newsom signed a invoice that prohibits textbook bans corresponding to these taking part in out in purple states and tried by conservative college boards in California. Like Newsom, Thurmond has leaned into more and more politicized college tradition wars, launching a textbook activity power in June.
Voters overwhelmingly reelected Thurmond final 12 months regardless of criticism of his dealing with of colleges in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and an alleged turnover drawback within the state’s Division of Schooling amid accusations that he was working a poisonous office.
Division of Schooling spokesperson Maria Clayton — Thurmond’s third director of communications in lower than 5 years — left her publish this month and couldn’t be reached for remark.
Thurmond additionally got here underneath hearth in 2021 for hiring a good friend who lived out of state as a prime training official — a choice that violated California coverage and led to at the very least two resignations.
Kounalakis has raised greater than $2.6 million for her marketing campaign, together with the utmost allowable donation of $36,400 from a number of Democratic heavy-hitters. They embody her father,
Angelo Ok. Tsakopoulos, a developer; Susie Tompkins-Buell, co-founder of clothes manufacturers Esprit and North Face; George Soros, a financier who helps many progressive causes; and Sheryl Sandberg, a former Fb government.
Former state Controller Betty Yee additionally intends to run for governor. She mentioned Tuesday that she would make her marketing campaign official subsequent 12 months. As vice chair of the California Democratic Occasion, she is now targeted on getting President Biden reelected.
Yee, who’s Asian American, would vie with Thurmond to turn out to be the primary California governor of colour, and with Kounalakis to turn out to be the state’s first feminine governor.
Democratic Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has additionally mentioned he’s “seriously considering” a run for governor.
Democrats are anticipated to dominate the election, which continues to be three years away.
Supply: www.latimes.com