Republican Jon Slavet, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, announced Thursday that he was joining the crowded field of candidates running for governor next year to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Slavet, 58, a former longtime Democrat who has never run for political office previously, said in an interview on Thursday that he believed that his business background provided the best foundation to fix the state’s problems — poverty, homelessness, unemployment, energy costs — based on conversations with California voters.
“We’re first in all of the wrong things,” Slavet said. “I’m an entrepreneur and an executive and a doer. I’ve built multiple companies over the years, and my bent is to do and to build and to fix things.
“I’m not going to sit by while California goes deeper into the ditch. I have a particular background that is really relevant for getting involved,” he added. “So when I look at California and I look at the government, what I’ve learned is [that] the subtext is that we have government-made problems. In California, they’re man-made problems. And it’s incredibly frustrating to understand that, and it’s also inspiring, because we can change leadership. We can change policy and radically change the trajectory of the state.”
Slavet joins a crowded field of candidates vying to become the leader of the nation’s most populous state and the world’s fourth-largest economy.
For more than two decades, gubernatorial elections in California have been dominated by prominent personalities on both sides of the aisle, such as Newsom and former Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a global celebrity, and Jerry Brown, a California political icon.
But the 2026 field is more staid, making the outcome of the race difficult to predict. Nearly a dozen notable Democrats and Republicans are running to replace Newsom, who cannot seek reelection because of term limits. None of the candidates running for governor next year has the star power of California’s recent leaders, creating a wild, unpredictable election in one of the nation’s most expensive states in which to wage a campaign.
The multimillionaire, who has contributed $100,000 to his newly formed campaign committee, confirmed that he planned on spending at least seven figures on his bid.
“I’ll put in what it takes to be competitive,” he said.
Proposition 50, the redrawing of California congressional districts approved by voters in November, which will boost Democrats’ chances to win control of Congress next year, prompted Slavet to run.
Slavet has lived in California for three decades, currently residing in Palo Alto with his family. He previously worked in media, including at Wired.com, the website of a print magazine that presciently focused on how technology was changing the world.
He then became a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, co-founding Guru.com, a site that connects companies with high-tech workers seeking short-term gigs; leading the upscale housing website Sentral.com; working as an executive at the coworking-space-creator WeWork; and serving as a board member of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
Slavet faces a rough path to the governor’s mansion. No Republican has been elected statewide in California since 2006, and the state’s electorate has grown more liberal since then. And there are two more-prominent Republicans in the race — Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Additionallly, Slavet did not vote for Trump in the last three presidential elections, though he lauds the president’s record.
“I think Trump is brilliant. I think he’s a doer. I think he gets s— done,” Slavet said. “I think that America needed a shake-up. We have a very calcified system of government spending, lack of execution. So I think Trump’s done tremendous good.”
Slavet has more personal wealth than his GOP rivals. But California voters have a long history of rejecting rich, self-funding candidates of either party. And there are wealthier people in the race or eyeing it.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, a Democratic climate warrior and hedge-fund founder who recently announced his gubernatorial bid, has already put $20 million into his campaign effort. Fellow billionaire Rick Caruso, who spent more than $104 million — largely his own money — on an unsuccessful 2022 Los Angeles mayoral campaign, is pondering running for governor next year or running again for mayor.
