Caitlyn Jenner files paperwork to run for governor in California's recall election...

 

Jenner in 2015. UN photo.

Caitlyn Jenner has filed paperwork to run for governor in California's recall election. NBC News. Jenner will be running as a Republican in a recall election where anyone can run. Jenner is probably the most notable name to go up against Gavin Newsom and is a celebrity known for sports, reality TV and LGBT activism. Jenner is running on a platform of opposing one party rule in California and against Coronavirus lockdowns. Jenner may face an uphill battle against Newsom and whoever else decides to run if the recall election happens as she burned many bridges with Republicans when she broke with President Donald Trump in 2018. 

I’m in! California is worth fighting for. Visit https://t.co/a1SfOAMZQ3 to follow or donate today. #RecallNewsom pic.twitter.com/9yCck3KK4D

— Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) April 23, 2021

My Comment:

Note: for the purposes of this post I will be referring to Caitlyn Jenner with female pronouns. This is less about believing that she is a woman and more about not getting my blog banned for misgendering someone. 

It's pretty clear that the California recall election is going to be another clown show and it looks like Caitlyn Jenner is going to try and play the role that Arnold Schwarzenegger played during the last one. I do think she has a chance as crazy as that sounds. Newsome is very unpopular these days and there is a lot of anger towards him and his covid policies. Almost anyone could beat him now. 

But is Jenner the person to do it? I am not sure. The elephant in the room is the fact that she is transgender. I think there are a lot of people of both parties and independent of either, that would not vote for her just based on that. Given the unconscionable behavior of many high profile trans-activists recently and the fact that many if not most people are uncomfortable at best with the very idea of changing your gender I think Jenner might lose quite a few votes for that. 

Would I vote for a transgender person? It really depends. I think that the general trans-community needs quite a bit of pushback after they began to insist that children should be put on puberty blockers and that a five year old is ready to begin transition. I know I would have trouble voting for a trans activist, that's for sure. 

But if I liked the candidate's platform or really hated who they were running against? Sure, why not? If the choice was between a trans version of President Trump in 2020 or the normal version of Joe Biden, I would be voting for Trump. And in this case against Newsom I probably would vote for Jenner if there were no other viable candidates. He's really that bad. I won't go so far as to endorse Jenner as I don't know what the rest of her platform looks like or who she will be running against, but if it's between her and Newsom, I'm choosing her. 

There are other reasons to support and not support Jenner than the trans-elephant in the room. I personally think that she has had too many incidents in her past to really support. She was involved in a fatal car accident that left someone dead, even though that really wasn't her fault. And I think most people thought she was a joke even before she transitioned due to being involved in the Kardashian/Jenner reality TV train wreck. 

The biggest problem for Jenner though is the fact that she is a former supporter of President Trump. That's a deal breaker for much of the left, not like they were going to vote for anyone with a (R) in front of their name anyways. She won't have support of much of the LGBT community (and given the current war between the L and the T factions, she probably wouldn't have had universal support there anyways). But what is really going to hurt is the fact that Trump is still the leader of the GOP and people aren't going to forgive her for dumping him in 2018 over an issue that isn't even relevant anymore thanks to Joe Biden (transgender people in the military). 

If I was Jenner I would be doing anything in my power to get President Trump to endorse her. If he does than Jenner has a real chance of becoming governor. Newsom is unpopular and the anti-lockdown platform that Jenner is running on is probably going to be pretty popular as people get vaccinated and people really start to wonder why on earth everything is still locked down. The Trump endorsement might get a lot of Republicans to hold their nose and vote for her. Hell, it would even advance her cause of advancing the transgender community. Plus I think Trump might even do it as he seemed rather pro-trans outside of the military thing, which just seemed like common sense pragmatism than anything else. 

I do have to say that this whole situation is just bizarre. It's very possible that the first transgender politician to hold a major office will be a Republican of sorts (California GOP is a different breed but still, it counts). If you would have told someone back in 2000 that in 2021 that Bruce Jenner was now Caitlyn Jenner and is running for Governor and might actually win despite that fact you would have been looked at like a crazy person.