(INSIDE CALIFORNIA POLITICS) — Among the candidates hoping to take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s job in the recall election this September is Caitlyn Jenner.
The former Olympic athlete and self-described political outsider has never held office, but insist she’s the right person for the job.
She sat down with Inside California Politics’ Frank Buckley this week for a wide-ranging interview.
The 71-year-old Jenner — who won the men’s Olympic decathlon in 1976 and decades later became a reality TV star and came out as a transgender woman — announced her candidacy back in June in a written statement on Twitter.
“The final decision was two months ago, three months ago. I’m watching TV. I’m looking at bad policies. Horrible outcomes, coming across these kids in cages. It just shows you what bad policies can do,” Jenner said, describing when she decided to run for governor.
Jenner said her immigration plan would involve a border wall.
“As governor, I would finish the wall on state land, where you can finish the wall,” she said. “I think we need controlled immigration in this state. We need to know the people that are coming into this state.”
Another issue Jenner aims to tackle is California’s homeless crisis.
“We have to provide some place for those people to go, whether it’s an open field out in some place. Or if you notice at the veteran’s facility, there’s these big open fields and a lot of places there,” Jenner said.
Running against not only Gov. Newsom, but other Republicans like John Cox, Kevin Faulconer and Doug Ose, Jenner is drawing on her experience as an underdog at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
“I went up against the Soviet Union, the greatest athletic machine in the world. And all by my little lonesome in San Jose, California, and beat them,” she said. “This time I want to go to Sacramento, take on a teachers union, and I want to win for your kids. So there’s a lot of fight still left to me.”