By admin 
Early returns in California’s primary election showed Democrat Fiona Ma and Republican Gloria Romero leading the race to the November general election for the state’s second-highest executive office: lieutenant governor.
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Ma was the frontrunner with 20.4% of the votes tallied as of 10:10 p.m. Romero trailed a little behind with approximately 19.6%. Both had chalked up significant leads over the other serious candidates in the splintered race: Fryday (14.2%) and Tubbs (11%). Of the several candidates jostling for the role, only two — regardless of their party — will advance from the primary to the general election.
In the run-up to primary, candidates touted their ideas for California policy overhauls on everything from clean energy to universal basic income.
The job, however, is mostly symbolic unless disaster strikes. The lieutenant governor assumes the top job if the governor is incapacitated or dies. When the governor of California leaves the state, the lieutenant governor technically serves as acting governor. The lieutenant governor presides and can cast tie-breaking votes in the state Senate, though that’s exceedingly rare in California given Democrats’ legislative supermajority.
The lieutenant governor also serves on boards overseeing the state’s public colleges, universities, and community colleges as well as the State Lands Commission and California Commission for Economic Development.
Current Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is currently serving her second of two terms, meaning she was not eligible to run again.
While there was no clear favorite through the campaigning period, candidates brought with them varied advantages. Ma, currently state treasurer, leveraged her decades in Democratic politics for a cash and endorsement boost. She also received the support of Kounalakis. Romero, a former Democratic assemblymember, was endorsed by the California Republican Party.
As state treasurer, meanwhile, Fiona Ma oversees state spending, investment portfolios and bond financing. Before winning her election to the post in 2018, the Democrat served three terms in the state Assembly and won a seat on the Board of Equalization. Her political career got its start in 2001 when she was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2021, a former staffer filed a lawsuit accusing Ma of sexual harassment and wrongful termination for refusing her advances; Ma denied the claims and the state paid $350,000 to settle a related case in 2024.
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In her campaign, Ma cast herself as a “proven problem solver” who would bring her financial acumen as a CPA and state treasurer to bear on challenges facing the state. Her website said she would work to “grow our economy, attract investment, and create high-quality jobs.” She also noted she would be the first Asian lieutenant governor in state history.
Romero, a former professor, shed her Democratic past and formally joined the Republican Party in 2024. Endorsed by California Republicans in this race, she was first elected to the state Assembly in 1998. In 2001, she was elected to the state Senate, where she served as Democrats’ majority leader from 2005 to 2008 — the first woman to hold the post. After she left the Legislature, Romero focused on education, advocating for charter schools and merit-based school standards.
In her campaign in the lieutenant governor race, she made higher education a centerpiece. On her website, Romero said she would “fight to restore merit in admissions, protect academic standards, and stop setting students up for failure.” Romero also vowed to cut through red tape on land use, including working with partners to uncover “untapped energy reserves.” She ran on an informal slate with former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a candidate for governor.
Fryday, who currently serves as California’s chief service officer, received Gov. Gavin Newsom’s endorsement. Before Newsom appointed him to his cabinet in 2019, Fryday served in the U.S. Navy’s judicial arm and served as the mayor of Novato in Marin County. In his current position as chief service officer, he oversees the state’s volunteer programs. He helped launch the California Climate Action Corps in 2020 and expanded the state’s overall service corps.
“We’re feeling good,” Fryday’s campaign manager Justin Kramer said Tuesday night, even as he was coming in third place in early results. “Watching closely.”
Fryday’s platform called for creating a “universal service option” for all Californians as a way to provide job training and expand debt-free pathways to college. The Democrat also said he wanted to speed up permitting for clean energy projects and housing, increase teacher pay and build one million new homes on unutilized public lots.
Michael Tubbs is a special advisor to Gov. Gavin Newsom on economic mobility. After graduating from Stanford, Tubbs was elected to the Stockton City Council at age 21. In 2016, he became the city’s mayor at age 26, making him the youngest mayor ever of any major U.S. city. His youth and championing of a universal basic income pilot program drew national attention. In 2020, he lost the seat to a Republican candidate.
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