This explainer was originally published by our news partners CalMatters. Be prepared for California’s primary: Sign up for CalMatters' free election newsletter and be the first to know when they update the CalMatters 2026 Voter Guide with information on key primary races.
The four major leading candidates for the office in the upcoming June primary are emphasizing the sway they’d like to have on higher education, such as freezing tuition or cutting back on remedial coursework.
Previous lieutenant governors have used the office as a stepping stone to the state’s top job, including Gov. Gavin Newsom who held the position for eight years before his election in 2018.
What does a lieutenant governor do?
The lieutenant governor is next in line to the governor in case of an absence or vacancy, but much of the job is ceremonial. They stand in when the governor leaves California, serve as president of the state Senate with the ability to break a tie vote and sit on California’s higher education boards. The office has a budget of nearly $3 million.
Source: CalMatters
Big picture
Eleni Kounalakis, who currently holds the position, is next in line if the governor is absent or vacates the office, such as when they’re out-of-state, undergoing surgery or if they die. Kounalakis, who terms out this year, is also president of the state Senate and can cast a rare tie-breaking vote if called upon. Most of her influence lies within higher education, where she sits on all three of the state’s higher education boards.
Because of this, the four major leading candidates for the office in the upcoming June primary are emphasizing the sway they’d like to have on higher education, such as freezing tuition or cutting back on remedial coursework.
Previous lieutenant governors have used the office as a stepping stone to the state’s top job, including Gov. Gavin Newsom who held the position for eight years before his election in 2018.
But it’s still mostly unknown to voters and suffers a poor reputation.
“I called the lieutenant governor sort of the Seinfeld of state government, because nobody knows who it is, and then they think it’s a job about nothing,” Gloria Romero, a Republican candidate, told CalMatters.
The major Democratic candidates include Josh Fryday, who leads volunteer programs in the Newsom administration, state Treasurer Fiona Ma who terms out this year, and former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs.
Here is what each candidate, in alphabetical order, said about how they’d approach the gig.
The candidates
| Josh Fryday |
- Party: Democratic
- Professional background: Governor's cabinet member
Fryday heads Gov. Gavin Newsom’s volunteer office, a role he’s held since 2019. He previously served as mayor of the Bay Area suburb Novato and, before that, was the COO of NextGen America, a climate advocacy organization founded by billionaire and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer. A former Naval officer, Fryday is endorsed by the powerful California Teachers Association.
- California Teachers Association
- California Federation of Teachers
- California School Employees Association
Prior to becoming part of the governor’s cabinet in 2019, he was the chief operating officer of NextGen America, a clean advocacy organization started by billionaire Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer.
He also said he would push for developing more student housing on public land to increase enrollment and create more revenue to stem rising tuition costs.
The former mayor of Novato also emphasized expanding the volunteer service program he helped develop as chief service officer in Newsom’s cabinet. He would like it to include more community colleges and universities. In addition to Newsom’s support, he’s endorsed by the California Teachers Association and California Federation of Teachers.
| Janelle Kellman |
- Party: Democratic
- Professional background: Environmental attorney
Kellman is an attorney and former Sausalito city councilmember. She worked in local government for 10 years before founding a climate nonprofit dedicated to studying sea-level rise. In Sausalito, she served as planning commissioner for four years before taking a seat on the city council in 2020. Kellman grew up in North Pennsylvania and earned her law degree from Stanford.
- California Legislative Jewish Caucus
She’s received support from the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and the LGBTQ Stonewall Democratic Club.
The lieutenant governor has no role in electricity regulation or insurance. But Kellman, a climate attorney, said she would work to cut utility costs by getting rid of extra electricity fees. She also said she’d work with the insurance commissioner to reduce premiums for homeowners who take preventive measures to mitigate wildfire risks.
Kellman spent 10 years in local government on Sausalito’s planning commission and city council and is the founder of a climate nonprofit focused on sea level rise.
She also supports building more student housing.
| Fiona Ma |
- Party: Democratic
- Professional background: State treasurer
- California Labor Federation
- State Building and Construction Trades Council
- AFSCME
Ma has an exhaustive resume in local and state politics: She spent six years in the Assembly after one term on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was on the Board of Equalization for four years before she was elected state treasurer in 2019.
As treasurer, she has issued housing bonds to California universities, which she said has given her “a different perspective” on how to build more student housing.
“Some of them do have land and they are working with some of the developers that have a speciality with building student housing” she said.
Ma is endorsed by construction and hospitality unions. She was accused of sexual harassment by a former employee in 2021, who accused Ma of requiring her to share a hotel room with her and buying her gifts. The state, using taxpayer dollars, settled the lawsuit for $350,000 in 2024.
Ma has repeatedly denied the accusations and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
It took up three years of her life, and voters still elected her, she said. “I still got all the same endorsements that I got the first time I ran in 2018,” Ma said. “I’ve gotten even more support for my lieutenant governor’s race.”
| Gloria Romero |
- Party: Republican
- Professional background: Former state senator
- California Republican Party
- Reform California
A former assemblymember and first woman to become Senate Majority Leader, Romero spent 12 years representing east Los Angeles in the state Legislature as a Democrat until 2010. She switched parties in 2024 and announced her lieutenant governor run as a joint ticket with Steve Hilton, one of the leading Republican candidates for governor.
On how she’d navigate negotiating with the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature and on numerous boards as a rare Republican, Romero said she would individually meet with each colleague to see where their priorities overlap.
| Michael Tubbs |
- Party: Democratic
- Professional background:
- SEIU California
- California Working Families Party
- AFSCME
His ascent as the city’s first Black and youngest mayor at 26 in 2016 garnered him national attention as the son of a single mother raised in a poor neighborhood who climbed his way to full ride at Stanford.
He supports freezing tuition at all public colleges by cutting “administrative bloat,” cutting remedial coursework that doesn’t count toward graduation requirements and streamlining programs for in-demand industries such as nursing.
Tubbs is a special economic adviser to the governor and leads the nonprofit organizations Poverty in California and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, dedicated to implementing universal basic income pilot programs in cities across the state, a flagship initiative of his mayorship.
California’s major public employee union, Service Employees International, is supporting Tubbs.
