Caitlyn Jenner Running for Governer

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  • Caitlyn during the Web Summit 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. She is on the Q&A stage.

  • Caitlyn Jenner at the 2015 ESPYS Presented by Capital One in Los Angeles. The ESPYS is an awards ceremony that gives awards based on athletics

Caitlyn Jenner, a reality TV personality, and retired Olympic decathlete has officially announced that she will be running for the position of Governor of California. On April 23rd, she took to her Twitter following and officially announced that she will be running for Governor.

Caitlyn Jenner, a 71-year-old transgender woman, gained much of her fame in 1976 as she was a world record-breaking Olympic gold medalist. She has been inducted into many halls of fame such as the Track and Field Hall of Fame, the Olympic Hall of Fame, the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, and the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.

She is also a reality TV personality as she was on Keeping up with the Kardashians, and had her own reality show named I am Cait. She has been on Keeping up with the Kardashians from the start in 2007, as she married Kris Jenner in 1991. I am Cait focused on her gender transition and how being transgender has affected the relationships in her personal life.

Jenner believes that Governor Gavin Newsom, the current governor of California, does not have Californian’s best interest. According to her campaign website, caitlynjenner.com, “In Gavin Newsom’s California, businesses have shuttered, livelihoods have been lost, our economy has been devastated, and our kids still cannot go back to school.”

Jenner has been very vocal about this election, she believes she has a high chance of winning since it is a recall election. A recall election is an election in which citizens can remove an elected official before their term has ended. For a recall election to happen, voters must sign a petition and reach a certain number of signatures. The number of signatures is dependent on the population of the area, for California, that was 1,495,709 signatures.

Jenner has many goals for when she is elected into office. Such goals that are listed on her website include: cutting state regulations, re-opening the economy, reopening schools, and creating affordable housing.

In order to cut down the almost 400,000 state regulations, she proposes to create a group to review all regulations and recommend changes to those regulations. Then she will call for a su

Caitlyn during the Web Summit 2017 in Lisbon, Portugal. She is on the Q&A stage. (Stephen McCarthy/Web Summit)

nset clause to be enacted requiring each regulation to be reviewed and/or renewed every 10 years.

Jenner says that the reason for the sunset clause is to create a dialogue about each new regulation. On her campaign website, she says, “This kind of regular review will force an open, transparent dialogue about each regulation, its intent, its purpose, and its implementation.” A sunset clause is a provision of a law that will expire after a certain date or period unless further action is taken to extend the law.

Jenner believes that California is well overdue for a reopening. She wants to reopen California, so students can be back in school and so that small businesses can get back on their feet.

To reopen, she says that she will listen to scientists, as to not cause another lockdown. “I will listen to the experts. I will put kids back in school and I will reopen our economy so that small businesses can thrive again. I will do everything I can to protect us from further outbreaks.”

She believes that as the cost of living has been increasing and veterans and disabled people have been neglected, the affordable housing crisis has only gotten worse. “A high cost of living, tax increases, rising unemployment, poor planning, and the lack of a commitment to veterans and those with physical and mental health challenges has created the worst homeless problem in America.”

To counteract the crisis, she will appoint a commissioner of housing and real estate, to create short-term and long-term solutions. She will also remove and revisit restrictions that block developers and charities in building affordable housing.

More recently, Jenner has been in a lot of controversies due to her view on transgender athletes. “That’s why I oppose biological boys who were trans competing in girl sports in school. It just isn’t fair,” said Jenner, when asked by TMZ, about her stance on legislation that bans trans girls to play in girl’s sports in school. This is a very hot topic right now as 30+ states are considering legislation, and 5 have already made it law, that would effectively ban transgender athletes from competing based on their gender identity.

Jenner argues that since trans girls may naturally produce more testosterone, and therefore be better in sports, they should not be able to participate. According to Katrina Karkazis, an expert about testosterone and bioethics at Yale University, “Studies of testosterone levels in athletes do not show any clear, consistent relationship between testosterone and athletic performance. Sometimes testosterone is associated with better performance, but other studies show weak links or no links.” However, once trans girls go through puberty blockers, they have less and or equal testosterone levels to cis girls.

More detailed information about her campaign can be found on her Twitter and the campaign website.