Republican Jon Slavet, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, introduced Thursday that he was becoming a member of the crowded area of candidates working for governor subsequent yr to exchange termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Slavet, 58, a former longtime Democrat who has by no means run for political workplace beforehand, stated in an interview on Thursday that he believed that his enterprise background supplied the very best basis to repair the state’s issues — poverty, homelessness, unemployment, power prices — primarily based on conversations with California voters.
“We’re first in the entire fallacious issues,” Slavet stated. “I’m an entrepreneur and an government and a doer. I’ve constructed a number of firms through the years, and my bent is to do and to construct and to make things better.
“I’m not going to take a seat by whereas California goes deeper into the ditch. I’ve a specific background that’s actually related for getting concerned,” he added. “So once I have a look at California and I have a look at the federal government, what I’ve realized is [that] the subtext is that we’ve got government-made issues. In California, they’re man-made issues. And it’s extremely irritating to grasp that, and it’s additionally inspiring, as a result of we will change management. We will change coverage and seriously change the trajectory of the state.”
Slavet joins a crowded area of candidates vying to turn out to be the chief of the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fourth-largest economic system.
For greater than twenty years, gubernatorial elections in California have been dominated by outstanding personalities on each side of the aisle, resembling Newsom and former Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a worldwide celeb, and Jerry Brown, a California political icon.
However the 2026 area is extra staid, making the result of the race troublesome to foretell. Practically a dozen notable Democrats and Republicans are working to exchange Newsom, who can not search reelection due to time period limits. Not one of the candidates working for governor subsequent yr has the star energy of California’s latest leaders, making a wild, unpredictable election in one of many nation’s most costly states wherein to wage a marketing campaign.
The multimillionaire, who has contributed $100,000 to his newly fashioned marketing campaign committee, confirmed that he deliberate on spending no less than seven figures on his bid.
“I’ll put in what it takes to be aggressive,” he stated.
Proposition 50, the redrawing of California congressional districts authorized by voters in November, which is able to increase Democrats’ probabilities to win management of Congress subsequent yr, prompted Slavet to run.
Slavet has lived in California for 3 a long time, presently residing in Palo Alto along with his household. He beforehand labored in media, together with at Wired.com, the web site of a print journal that presciently targeted on how expertise was altering the world.
He then grew to become a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, co-founding Guru.com, a website that connects firms with high-tech staff looking for short-term gigs; main the upscale housing web site Sentral.com; working as an government on the coworking-space-creator WeWork; and serving as a board member of the Silicon Valley Management Group.
Slavet faces a tough path to the governor’s mansion. No Republican has been elected statewide in California since 2006, and the state’s voters has grown extra liberal since then. And there are two more-prominent Republicans within the race — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Additionallly, Slavet didn’t vote for Trump within the final three presidential elections, although he lauds the president’s document.
“I feel Trump is good. I feel he’s a doer. I feel he will get s— completed,” Slavet stated. “I feel that America wanted a shake-up. We’ve a really calcified system of presidency spending, lack of execution. So I feel Trump’s completed large good.”
Slavet has extra private wealth than his GOP rivals. However California voters have an extended historical past of rejecting wealthy, self-funding candidates of both occasion. And there are wealthier individuals within the race or eyeing it.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democratic local weather warrior and hedge-fund founder who not too long ago introduced his gubernatorial bid, has already put $20 million into his marketing campaign effort. Fellow billionaire Rick Caruso, who spent greater than $104 million — largely his personal cash — on an unsuccessful 2022 Los Angeles mayoral marketing campaign, is pondering working for governor subsequent yr or working once more for mayor.
