BeforeCaitlyn Jennerlaunched a campaign for governor of California last month, she hadn’t beenall that politically active.
In fact, she said in a new interview, she didn’t see the point in voting as a California conservative in the most recent presidential race.
But now she feels the state needs her help.
Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash in aninterview that aired Tuesday morning, Jenner said she didn’t cast a ballot for former PresidentDonald Trumpin 2020, despite her Republican background and despite having turned to some of hisformer officialsto help with her own campaign.
“I didn’t even vote … Out here in California, it’s like, why vote for a Republican president? It’s just not gonna work. I mean, it’s overwhelming,” Jenner, 71, said.
She continued: “It was voting day and I thought, ‘The only thing out here in California that I worry about, which affects people, is the propositions that were out there,’ and I didn’t see any propositions that I really had one side or the other. And so, it was Election Day and I just couldn’t get excited about it. I just wanted to play golf so I said, ‘I’m not doing that.’ "
Asked why she expected people to be excited for her own campaign, Jenner joked, “‘Cause I’m cute and adorable.”
Speaking with Bash, Jenner acknowledged that some of Trump’s own staffers now worked for her — but said that the overlap had nothing to do with her support, or lack thereof, for the former president.
“I’ve never even talked to Trump about any of this stuff. We’re in that post-Trump era. I am very fortunate. I know people in the Republican Party … honestly some of the best people in the Republican Party have jumped on board to help me with this program,” Jenner said.
She added that who her campaign staff had worked for before was of no concern to her, provided they were skilled at their jobs.
“It makes no difference,” she said. “They work politics, you know, and that’s what they do. If Ted Cruz had gotten elected and Trump didn’t, they would have probably worked for Ted Cruz.”
Caitlyn Jenner.MediaPunch/Shutterstock
Jenner, who is running as a Republican, has made an effort to downplay her partisanship. That’s largely because, as she noted to Bash, conservatives have little sway in California, where Trump remains widely unpopular.
Jennerspoke during the 2016 Republican National Convention, saying then that Trump would be “very good for women’s issues,” and she later attended his 2017 inauguration.
By 2018, she had renounced her support for Trump, writing in aWashington Postop-ed that she was “wrong” tothink he would work on behalfof transgender people like herself.
“[Trump] has ignored our humanity. He has insulted our dignity. He has made trans people into political pawns as he whips up animus against us in an attempt to energize the most right-wing segment of his party, claiming his anti-transgender policies are meant to ‘protect the country,’ " she wrote. “This is politics at its worst. It is unacceptable, it is upsetting, and it has deeply, personally hurt me.”
Jennerannounced last monththat she is running for governor. “I’m in!” the formerKeeping Up with the Kardashiansstar said in astatement.
“Sacramento needs an honest leader with a clear vision,” she said, taking aim at the state’s current leader, Democrat Gov. Newsom, who has been under increased criticism amid theCOVID-19pandemic and now faces a recall election.
Nonetheless, polls so far have shown a recall of Newsom will be an uphill battle for his challengers.
Caitlyn Jenner.Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty
Though Jenner has no political experience, she touted her “great ability to listen” to people in her conversation with Bash, saying she would work across the aisle if elected. She has pitched herself as a “disruptor” and outsider.
She’s also described herself as more moderate than some other Republicans, when it comes to immigration. She has said she supports the southern border wall but also backs a citizenship process for people who entered the country illegally.
“I’ve been on the Republican side just because of conservative economic principals — lower taxes, less regulation, the list goes on … But also on the other side, I’ve much been more like the Democrats,” Jenner told Bash on Tuesday. “I realize that there are social issues that are out there that people need help, and government can play a role in that.”
She also told Bash that she wanted to directly confront what she said was an overwhelming “exit of California — people are leaving it in droves.” She tied that to her own anti-regulation, anti-tax platform.
“They’re leaving for one reason and that’s [the] overbearing, over-regulated, over-taxed system that we have in this state. People don’t want to leave. Honestly, that’s why I’m doing this. I don’t want to leave California. But if I have to, I will. It just makes financial sense,” she said.
Asked directly what she would do to ensure people don’t leave the state if she was elected governor, Jenner said she would work to limit taxes and regulations: “No more regulations, no more taxes, everybody take a big, deep breath, and let’s see what we can do.”
source: people.com
