California’s superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, has announced he’s running for governor in 2026.
“I didn’t come from money, power or influence,” said Thurmond, speaking in a promotional video that chronicles his childhood and journey to the state superintendent’s office. “California may be working for millionaires and billionaires, but for the rest of California, we need real change.”
Thurmond, a Democrat, has led the state superintendent’s office since 2018. Before that, he represented Richmond in the state assembly, and served on both the Richmond City Council and the West Contra Costa school board. He’s poised to run against Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former state Controller Betty Yee in the governor’s race. Attorney General Rob Bonta has also said he is considering a run for the seat.
Thurmond said his home life was marked by challenges. His mother — an immigrant from Panama who later became a San Jose public school teacher — died when Thurmond was 6, and his father didn’t return to the family after serving in the Vietnam War. Thurmond and his brother were raised by a cousin, and Thurmond said they relied on food stamps and public assistance to make ends meet.
From there, Thurmond attended Temple University and, for his master’s degree, Bryn Mawr College, where he studied law, social policy and social work.
As state superintendent, Thurmond has seen California’s public schools through the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing teachers’ shortage, and the near-constant educational culture wars, often stepping in directly when divisive school board battles melted into chaos.
As some school districts pushed back against policies supporting gender identity, for example, Thurmond repeatedly warned them against doing so. He co-sponsored legislation like the recently passed mandates to create gender-neutral restrooms at every public school and a bill that makes it harder for districts to ban books; and supports a bill that would establish a task force to identify the needs of LGBTQ+ students across California.
Thurmond’s tenure as the state’s top education chief hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In 2021, Politico reported that a toxic work environment caused experienced staff to leave, and last year CalMatters cited sources complaining about his lack of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And his championing of pro-LGBTQ+ rights didn’t sit well with some educators.
This past summer, Thurmond tried to sway Chino Valley Unified’s school board from approving a policy that would notify parents if their child was identifying with pronouns different from those they were given at birth, and was cut off from speaking and forced to leave. The district later approved the policy, though Thurmond and other Democrats have voiced strong opposition to bills that would mandate such notification statewide.
“California has had a lot of governors,” Thurmond said in his promotional video. “My story is nothing like theirs.”
