Silicon Valley venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya endorsed efforts to oust Governor Gavin Newsom and launched a website announcing his own potential candidacy.
Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive who is now CEO of the venture capital firm Social Capital and a minority shareholder of Golden State Warriors, has not submitted any form to the California Secretary of State or taken any other concrete steps to apply.
He did not immediately return a request for comment from SFGATE.
On Monday, he tweeted a link to its website “Chamath for California Governor”, which contains only the text “California is a mess – it is very expensive, our teachers are underpaid and our schools are not good enough”, followed by six policy proposals:
- Create a “0% State Tax” (which probably means revoking the State Income Tax).
- Increase teachers’ minimum wages to $ 70,000 per year (Glassdoor estimates that in 2021, the average annual salary for a teacher in California ranges from $ 40,000 to $ 60,000).
- Making California “the global hub for all technology and climate jobs”.
- Allow students to choose their schools by offering free school vouchers.
- Ensure profit sharing agreements (ISAs) “so that you no longer need to obtain student loans”.
- Give families $ 2,000 for each new California-born child.
If the recall effort succeeds in collecting 1.5 million valid signatures, a recall election will be held later this year. If the recall fails, Palihapitiya would have to run in 2022. In either case, he would be the first Democrat to enter the race. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer – a Republican – has announced a government exploratory committee.
FEC records show that Palihapitiya donated tens of thousands of dollars to state Democratic parties last year. In May 2019, he donated the maximum individual amount to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign in the Democratic primaries before she gave up almost a year later. He then donated $ 250,000 to a fundraising committee that supported President Joe Biden in the general election.