Sen. Steven Bradford Announces 2026 Run For Lieutenant Governor

Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) announced on Monday that he will be running for the Lieutenant Governorship in 2026, becoming only the second major candidate to launch a bid for that position following state Treasurer Fiona Ma.

A graduate of CSU Dominguez Hills, Bradford worked for several decades at SoCal Edison, IBM, and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. In the late 1990’s, Bradford went into politics being elected as a Gardena City Councilman. There, he served for 12 years, with one year including a stint as Mayor. In 2009 he was elected to the Assembly, serving from 2009 to 2014. While in office, Bradford became known for his bills and hearings regarding utilities, as his experience at SoCal Edison helped placed him on the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce. These included bills that warned homeowners of natural gas pipelines going through their property, as well as new solar subsidy bills. During this time, Bradford was best known for trying to stop an ice cream truck in Hawthorne because he didn’t think that they had a business license and allegedly flashed his lawmaker I.D. badge.

Two years after leaving the Assembly, Bradford was elected as Senator. While he has passed dozens of bills during this time, he was widely known for his bill allowing NCAA players to be paid when their image is used, and for being one of the main supporters of reparations, including being on the state Task Force. While the former soon became the norm nationwide as states quickly followed California, reparations turned out to be much more divisive. The task force originally tried to get direct cash payments and had tried to recommend a plan that would have cost the state up to $800 billion. This received widespread backlash, with so many Californians from across the political spectrum being opposed to the plan that Task Force members came out and said “STOP focusing on the monetary part of the plan.” Another figure of $1.2 million given to each black resident was also scrutinized. Newsom himself opposed cash payments and nearly two quarters of Californians opposed cash reparations and the job the task force was doing. Bradford himself was often cited as one of the main people trying to get the state to spend over their means on reparations, but to no avail.

Despite this, Bradford has moved ahead with a few reparations-related bills this semester. Numbering 14 in total, none of them mention anything about cash payments, with Bradford’s intentions falling far short of what he wanted because of mass public opposition.

Unable to run for reelection this year due to term limits, Bradford had been rumored to be looking at many potential races in 2026. But on Monday, he made up his mind and opted to run for Lt. Governor.

Bradford to run for Lt. Governor

“A lot of people hear this job title, Governor, and think it’s a really sexy position, but it’s really in the weeds,” said Braford to Politico on Monday. ““I went to school to be a doctor. I met [California’s first Black lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally] in my senior year and he encouraged me to get involved in my community, and I switched my major to poli sci.

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

While the 2026 Gubernatorial race is quickly becoming crowded, with Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, former Controller Betty Yee, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) all already joining up, Lt. Governor has been more slim pickings. As of Monday, only Ma and Bradford had entered the race. And for Bradford, the climb may be a bit difficult.

“He was known as the utilities guy, then the NCAA athlete payment guy, now he is known as the guy behind reparations,” explained Tessa Floyd, a Bay Area-based political analyst, to the Globe on Monday. “The narrative against him will be that he pushed for major spending, hundreds of billions, at a time where California is not doing great financially.  He got some more local based victories, like helping out with the Bruce Beach thing, but he’s trying for sweeping changes when most people don’t want them.”

“And now he wants to be Lt. Governor. What he did with the reparations, and what they tried to do before common sense prevailed, will really hurt him. He won’t get a lot of votes, statewide, by promoting how much for reparations he was. He should instead focus on his utilities record. Having a Lt. Governor being in tune with wildfire issues and such could be seen as a perk by many voters. The NCAA thing, well, he can get a lot of younger voters with that one. Reparations? Outside of a few demographics, it won’t get him anywhere and would likely hurt him. People saw quickly how crazy they really were.”

More candidates are expected to join the 2026 Gubernatorial and Lt. Governorship races soon.