With the symbolic passing of the golden bear pin, Democratic businessman Stephen Klubeck announced Monday night that he is dropping out of the gubernatorial race and endorsing Rep. Eric Swalwell, a prominent Trump critic and close ally.
Klubaker shared the news during an appearance on CNN with Swalwell, saying the Bay Area Democrat will be “the greatest leader in the great state of California.”
“I’m happy to say tonight that I will be merging my campaign into his and turning over all the hard work I’ve done to him,” Klubeck said.
The announcement caps off the entrepreneur and philanthropist’s first-ever political campaign, which he funded through the fortune he amassed in real estate. In a recent UC Berkeley poll co-sponsored by The Times, Klubeck received support from less than half of 1 percent of registered voters surveyed.
Klubeck said he launched the campaign because he couldn’t find a qualified candidate — until Swalwell threw his hat into the ring last week, injecting energy into a relatively dull campaign.
Swalwell, who wore a pin in the lapel of his navy blue suit, thanked his friends for their support and said he looked forward to using Klubeck’s expertise in an effort to bring more housing and small businesses to the Golden State.
Swalwell, a former Republican who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, said he is seeking the governorship to counter the threat President Trump poses to the state and improve housing affordability and homeownership for Californians.
In an interview Monday night, Swalwell doubled down on his proposal to implement a telephone voting system, despite sharp criticism from the White House and his two Republican gubernatorial challengers, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative political commentator Steve Hilton.
Swalwell said the proposal would make democracy more accessible, arguing that if phones are secure enough to access financial and medical records, they could be secure enough to vote.
The endorsement from major Democratic donor Klubeck is good news for the congressman, who is seeking to make a splash in an unusually broad public campaign to lead the world’s fourth-largest economy and the country’s most populous state.
About 44% of registered voters said at the end of October that they did not have a preferred candidate for governor. The recent decisions of former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla to drop out of the race are further confirmation that the state’s top office can be won by anyone.
Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
