Caitlyn Jenner attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 92nd Oscars at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on February 9, 2020. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Lacroix / AFP)
LOS ANGELES 鈥撀� Olympic champion and Kardashian clan member Caitlyn Jenner said Friday she has filed paperwork to run for governor of California, in a bid to become the first transgender American to win such a high-profile post.
鈥淚鈥檓 in!鈥� the 71-year-old transgender icon and former decathlete said in a statement, adding she will formally launch her campaign 鈥� presumably as a Republican 鈥� in the coming weeks.
Jenner is the most high-profile non-politician to run for governor since Hollywood legend Arnold Schwarzenegger clinched a shock victory as a Republican in California鈥檚 2003 recall election. He served as governor for more than seven years.
Jenner鈥檚 bid is considered a longshot by experts.
But it comes as Gavin 黑料社om, a suave 53-year-old Democrat from San Francisco, faces a backlash over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly his stay-at-home order that hit the state鈥檚 businesses and families hard.
California is expected to hold its second-ever recall election sometime this year, as the state鈥檚 anti-黑料社om petition appears on track to secure the necessary number of signatures to trigger a recall vote.
鈥淚 am a proven winner and the only outsider who can put an end to Gavin 黑料社om鈥檚 disastrous time as governor,鈥� Jenner said in the statement.
She noted how 黑料社om attended a now-infamous lunch last year with lobbyists at an opulent Napa Valley restaurant during a partial lockdown.
鈥淪mall businesses have been devastated because of the over-restrictive lockdown (and) an entire generation of children have lost a year of education and have been prevented from going back to school, participating in activities, or socializing with their friends,鈥� she said.
Jenner added that her run 鈥渨ill be a campaign of solutions, providing a roadmap back to prosperity to turn this state around and finally clean up the damage 黑料社om has done to this state.鈥�
Jenner, as Olympian Bruce Jenner before her 2015 transition, was married to Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian family whose television show 鈥淜eeping Up with the Kardashians鈥� has been a two-decade hit.
Bruce鈥檚 transition to Caitlyn Jenner was documented by the show鈥檚 cameras and helped introduce her to a new generation of supporters.