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9h ago

Ian Calderon, Millennial Ex-Assembly Leader, Enters California Governor’s Race

The 39-year-old casts his run as a generational, tech-forward answer to California’s cost-of-living squeeze.

FILE - Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier, urges lawmakers to approve a measure to give new wage and benefit protections at the so-called gig economy companies like Uber and Lyft, during the Assembly session in Sacramento, Calif., Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Former Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon is running for governor in 2026. He is seen in this May 28, 2018 file photo, speaking during the Whittier Memorial Day Service at the City Hall Peace Memorial event. (Photo by Raul Romero Jr, Contributing Photographer)

Overview

  • Calderon announced his bid in a social media video and followed with an online “Crypto Town Hall.”
  • He says he will prioritize housing affordability as well as relief from high gas, food and childcare costs.
  • In the livestream, he said he would push California to use cryptocurrency like bitcoin for state programs and pledged to hold bitcoin on the state balance sheet.
  • During eight years in the Assembly, he helped enact the $15 minimum wage timeline, worked on greenhouse-gas reductions, and authored an experimental-treatment law; he left office in 2020 to raise his family and comes from a political dynasty that includes two uncles convicted of corruption in 2016.
  • He joins a crowded field including Democrats Katie Porter, Xavier Becerra, Antonio Villaraigosa, Betty Yee, Toni Atkins and Tony Thurmond, with Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco running in a state where Democrats hold a strong registration advantage.