Sen. Stephen Bradford announces 2026 run for lieutenant governor – California Globe

Sen. Stephen Bradford (D-Gardena) announced Monday that he will run for lieutenant governor in 2026, becoming the second major candidate to launch a bid for the post after state Treasurer Fiona Ma.

A graduate of CSU Dominguez Hills, Bradford spent decades working for SoCal Edison, IBM and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. In the late 1990s, Bradford entered politics as a member of the Gardena City Council. He served there for 12 years, including one year as mayor. In 2009, he was elected to the Assembly, where he served from 2009 to 2014. Bradford was known for his service while in office. utility bills and hearings, as his experience at SoCal Edison helped land him on the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. Among them were bills of warning homeowners with natural gas pipelines running through their propertiesat the same time new solar subsidies. During this time there was Bradford famous for trying to stop an ice cream truck In Hawthorne, he didn’t think they had a business license and flashed his legislative credentials.

Two years after leaving the Assembly, Bradford was elected senator. While he passed dozens of bills during this time, he is widely known for his bill The NCAA allows players to pay when their image is usedand for is one of the supporters of restorations, including being on a state task force. Recently ex became the nationwide norm as states quickly followed California’s reparations turned out to be more divisive. The task force initially tried and tried to get direct cash payments propose a plan that would cost the state up to $800 billion. It met with widespread opposition, with many Californians across the political spectrum opposing the plan. Task force members came out and said, “STOP focusing on the money part of the plan.” Other A figure of $1.2 million per black resident was also carefully considered. Newsom himself opposed the cash payouts, and two-quarters of Californians supported cash payouts and work is a work group was doing. Bradford himself was often mentioned as one of the main people who tried to get the state to spend more than its own funds on reparations, but to no avail.

Despite this, there is Bradford moved forward with several bills related to compensation this semester. A total of 14, none of which say anything about cash payments, Bradford’s intentions fall short of what he wants due to public opposition.

Bradford, who could not run for re-election this year due to term limits, has been rumored to be considering a number of potential races in 2026. But on Monday, he made up his mind and decided to run for lieutenant governor.

Bradford is running for lieutenant governor

“A lot of people hear that position, governor, and think it’s a really sexy position, but it’s really in the weeds,” Braford told Politico on Monday. “I went to school to be a doctor. I met (California’s black Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dimali) my senior year, and he encouraged me to get involved in community service, and I changed my major to political science.

“Californians are struggling and I want to address issues like housing affordability, the mental health crisis, gun violence, homelessness, underfunded schools, climate change and the cost of living. While California has led the nation in adopting smart, forward-thinking policies, the reality is that we need to do more to solve many of our challenges.”

As the 2026 gubernatorial race fills up fast, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former controller Betty Yee, Chief of Staff Tony Thurmond and Senator Tony Atkins (D-San Diego) all already joined, and the lieutenant governor was a slim pick. As of Monday, only Ma and Bradford entered the race. And for Bradford, promotion may be a bit more difficult.

“He’s known as a utility man, then he’s known as an NCAA athlete paymaster, and now he’s known as the guy behind the payoffs,” Tessa Floyd, a Bay Area political analyst, told the Globe on Monday. “The narrative against it has pushed California into huge spending, hundreds of billions, at a time when it’s not doing well financially. He had a few more local wins, including assists The Bruce Beach casebut he tries to make radical changes when most people don’t want to.”

“And now he wants to be the lieutenant governor. What he did with his compensation and what they tried to do before sanity took over really hurts him. He’s not going to get a lot of votes statewide by promoting how much money he got in compensation. Instead, he should focus on his utility bills. The fact that the Lt. Governor is in tune with forest fires and similar issues could be seen as an advantage by many voters. The NCAA thing is that it can get a lot of young voters with it. Compensations? Aside from a few demographics, it’s not going to get him anywhere, and it’s probably going to hurt him. People quickly realized how crazy they were.”

More candidates are expected to join the 2026 Governor and Lieutenant Governor races soon.