CalMatters interviewed five leading candidates who are competing for the notoriously anticlimactic gig of lieutenant governor. Here’s what they said.
The four major leading candidates for the office in the upcoming June primary are emphasizing the sway they’d like to have on higher education, such as freezing tuition or cutting back on remedial coursework.
Previous lieutenant governors have used the office as a stepping stone to the state’s top job, including Gov. Gavin Newsom who held the position for eight years before his election in 2018. The lieutenant governor is next in line to the governor in case of an absence or vacancy, but much of the job is ceremonial.
They stand in when the governor leaves California, serve as president of the state Senate with the ability to break a tie vote and sit on California’s higher education boards. The office has a budget of nearly $3 million. Eleni Kounalakis, who currently holds the position, is next in line if the governor is absent or vacates the office, such as when they’re 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’s higher education boards. Because of this, the four major leading candidates for the office in the upcoming June primary are emphasizing the sway they’d like to have on higher education, such as freezing tuition or cutting back on remedial coursework.
Previous lieutenant governors have used the office as a stepping stone to the state’s top job, including Gov. Gavin Newsom who held the position for eight years before his election in 2018.
“I called the lieutenant governor sort of the Seinfeld of state government, because nobody knows who it is, and then they think it’s a job about nothing,” Gloria Romero, a Republican candidate, told CalMatters. 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. Fryday heads Gov. Gavin Newsom’s volunteer office, a role he’s held since 2019.
He previously served as mayor of the Bay Area suburb Novato and, before that, was the COO of NextGen America, a climate advocacy organization founded by billionaire and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. A former Naval officer, Fryday is endorsed by the powerful California Teachers Association.
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’s renewable energy supply. Prior to becoming part of the governor’s cabinet in 2019, he was the chief operating officer of NextGen America, a clean advocacy organization started by billionaire Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer.
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. The former mayor of Novato also emphasized expanding the volunteer service program he helped develop as chief service officer in Newsom’s cabinet. He would like it to include more community colleges and universities.
In addition to Newsom’s support, he’s endorsed by the California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers. Kellman is an attorney and former Sausalito city councilmember. She worked in local government for 10 years before founding a climate nonprofit dedicated to studying sea-level rise. In Sausalito, she served as planning commissioner for four years before taking a seat on the city council in 2020.
Kellman grew up in North Pennsylvania and earned her law degree from Stanford. 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’s 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. She’s received support from the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and the LGBTQ Stonewall Democratic Club.
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’d work with the insurance commissioner to reduce premiums for homeowners who take preventive measures to mitigate wildfire risks. Kellman spent 10 years in local government on Sausalito’s planning commission and city council and is the founder of a climate nonprofit focused on sea level rise.
Ma is a longtime state official, having served in top elected roles at various executive agencies. Since 2019, she has been state treasurer, the state’s top asset manager and financier, where she oversees the world’s fourth-largest economy. She previously was on the Board of Equalization from 2014 to 2018 and was a San Francisco supervisor. A former assemblymember, Ma served four terms in the state Legislature and was second-in-line in Assembly leadership during her final term.
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’re not being used.
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. As treasurer, she has issued housing bonds to California universities, which she said has given her “a different perspective” on how to build more student housing.
“Some of them do have land and they are working with some of the developers that have a speciality with building student housing” she said.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. It took up three years of her life, and voters still elected her, she said.
“I still got all the same endorsements that I got the first time I ran in 2018,” Ma said. “I’ve gotten even more support for my lieutenant governor’s race. ”Romero, a former longtime Democratic lawmaker who served nearly 12 years in the state Legislature, became a registered Republican in 2024 after years of expressing discontent with the Democratic Party. She differs with Democrats on school choice, COVID-19 policies and gender identity.
From 2005 to 2008, Romero was Senate majority leader, the first woman to serve in that role. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, a political ally, asked her to be “on the ticket” with him. Romero, a former Democrat-turned-Republican, supports school vouchers to let parents use taxpayer dollars to pay for private school education — which teachers unions vehemently oppose. She also supports slashing remedial coursework to help students finish their degrees faster.
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 aOn how she’d 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.
Tubbs leads a nonprofit dedicated to ending poverty in California. In 2016, he drew national media attention when he became the youngest and first Black mayor of Stockton at age 26 with a compelling life story: He was raised by a single mother in a poor neighborhood before receiving a scholarship to Stanford. As mayor, he piloted a universal basic income program. Tubbs served one term before he was ousted by a lesser-known Republican.
He was appointed as a special economic adviser to the governor in 2021 to address the inequitable impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. 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.
His ascent as the city’s 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. He supports freezing tuition at all public colleges by cutting “administrative bloat,” cutting remedial coursework that doesn’t count toward graduation requirements and streamlining programs for in-demand industries such as nursing.
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 KPBS keeps you informed with local stories you need to know about — with no paywall. Our news is free for everyone because people like you help fund it.
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