Global Courant 2023-04-26 15:04:57
Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, announced that she is entering the race for governor in 2026 to replace the state’s current governor, Gavin Newsom.
Newsom, who has been governor since winning the 2018 election, is barred from seeking re-election due to term restrictions. He has said he will not challenge President Biden for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024, although the governor’s raising of his national profile in recent months has sparked speculation of a run for the White House.
Kounakis made the announcement on social media on Monday.
“My family and I owe everything to our state. I will fight fiercely to make sure EVERY Californian has the chance to walk the path of the CA dream just like me,” she wrote in a tweet.
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California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, a Democrat, has announced that she is running for governor in 2026. (Getty)
If elected, Kounalakis would become the first woman to serve as governor of the Golden State. She was the first woman to be elected lieutenant governor in 2018, when she succeeded Newsom, but not the first woman to hold the position, as Mona Pasquil was named acting lieutenant governor in 2009.
Three women are major California gubernatorial party nominees, but they failed to win their respective elections. Democrats Dianne Feinstein in 1990 and Kathleen Brown in 1994 and Republican Meg Whitman in 2010 all failed to win general election victories.
Kounalakis was re-elected lieutenant governor in November.
If elected, Kounalakis would become the first woman to serve as governor of California. (Getty)
“As a proud mother, daughter, advocate and leader, I know the struggles Californians face and have the experience and guts to bring meaningful change to our state,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will fight fiercely to build a future where everyone – regardless of race, class or immigration status – will have the same opportunities that my family and I had.”
She was born in Sacramento in 1966, but is the daughter of an immigrant, as her father immigrated to the US from Greece.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom is barred from seeking re-election in 2026 due to term restrictions. ((AP photo/Rich Pedroncelli))
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“Like many immigrants, her family had humble beginnings and understood the value and opportunity this country offers,” reads Kounalakis’ campaign website. Her father worked in the fields and later as a waiter in the California governor’s mansion. Little did young Eleni know that just a generation later, she would serve as the first woman elected Lieutenant Governor in the very place where her father began his American dream. .”
Kounalakis is the only candidate to have announced a gubernatorial run. Two of California’s last four governors, including Newsom, served as lieutenant governors just before being elected governor.
