Who is operating in 2026 to exchange Gavin Newsom as California governor? | NESMAG

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Top job: California controller
Biggest splash: During Yee’s tenure as controller, her company uncovered tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} of native authorities misspending and questionable monetary practices at state businesses.
Particulars: Yee, 66, was born to Chinese immigrant dad and mom and grew up in San Francisco, the place the household lived in a one-room residence behind their dry cleansing enterprise. Yee lives within the Bay Area together with her husband, Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs. She is a Democrat.
Campaign launch: March 2024

Yee served as state finances director beneath former Gov. Davis earlier than profitable a seat on the California State Board of Equalization in 2006 and once more in 2010. She was elected state controller in 2014. Her audits and investigations from the controller’s workplace, she stated, discovered greater than $4 billion in misused funds. She received reelection in 2018, and her second time period led to January 2023.

Yee has emphasised her monetary background and finances expertise, each of which might attraction to California voters because the state grapples with a historic shortfall. Budget projections counsel the following governor might stroll right into a difficult fiscal atmosphere if state income doesn’t rebound.

When she introduced her marketing campaign, Yee spoke about how her modest beginnings crystallized her deal with the significance of economic well being. As a younger lady, she managed the books of the household enterprise and noticed firsthand how a foul week meant reducing again on groceries and different important spending for her and her 5 siblings, she stated.

A 2022 Times report detailed how Yee gave behind-the-scenes recommendation to a politically linked firm searching for a $600-million no-bid authorities contract to offer COVID-19 masks and raised questions on her involvement. Yee has stated that she had no monetary curiosity within the contract and that the recommendation was the identical she would supply any enterprise homeowners.

Yee serves as a vice chair of the California Democratic Party.