NEW YORK – The reconfirmation of Gavin Newsom at the helm of California will have to go through an unexpected challenger: Caitlyn Jenner. Reality TV star with Kim Kardashian, gold in decathlon at the Montreal ’76 Olympics, American transgender icon, at the age of 71 Jenner announced his candidacy among the Republicans. The goal is to win the “recall election”, the early election to 2021, compared to the natural deadline of November 8, 2022, in which voters can end the governor’s mandate early through a vote requested by petition.
More than 1.5 million signatures have been collected so far. The story recalls the precedent of 2003 when the faded Governor Gray Davis was rejected in the “recall election” by the Californians, who preferred a Hollywood star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the last Republican to win. It won’t be easy to repeat. The Democrat Newsom, after a period of crisis, has risen in the polls, coinciding with the marked improvement in data linked to the pandemic. According to a Public Policy Institute of California survey, only forty percent of voters are in favor of an early vote and more than fifty percent approve of the governor’s work. But Jenner can have an unpredictable impact, given the short time to campaign: he’s a TV celebrity, reality star with Kim Kardashian, and a civil rights activist advocating transgender people. “We need honest leadership with a clear vision – he wrote in his first official statement – to bring back to the Golden State that glare that a single party has reduced, putting politics above the interests of the people”.
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Born in New York State as William Bruce Jenner, a former football champion and decathlete, the former athlete announced his gender transition in 2015, aged 66. She has since adopted the name of Caitlyn, and officially changed the gender. It was around that time that she became a star of a reality show, “I Am Cait”, which focused on the theme of sexual identity transition, and which made her the most famous transgender woman in the world. A supporter of Donald Trump, Jenner distanced herself from him in 2018 following the former president’s decision to ban transgender students from choosing which bathroom to go to at school. “My hopes for him were misplaced,” Jenner commented.
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She will not be the Trumpian candidate, nor of that part of the electorate that is not inclined to transgender issues, but she is a character who will catalyze media attention in the coming months, a decisive aspect in a state as large as California. He will not have Trump’s support, but he will be able to count on some of his old advisors. Heading over $ 100 million in personal fortune, Jenner has built a super team formed by the king of conservative pollsters Tony Fabrizio, strategists Ryan Erwin and Tyler Deaton, who have worked with Trump in the past. The communication was entrusted to Steven Cheung, former advisor to the tycoon, and the man who led the campaign of the Schwarzenegger of which Jenner hopes to repeat the success.
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