California voters will see Barack Obama on the June 2 governor primary ballot, but the man behind the name is not former President Barack Obama. He is Barack Denzel Obama Shaw, a former U.S. Army Reservist and one-time Alameda mayoral candidate now chasing the state’s top job.
The ballot appearance is drawing attention because California’s gubernatorial primary comes with 61 candidates and a route to the November general election for the top two finishers. Shaw, who legally changed his name in January 2013 while serving in an eight-year stint in the U.S. Army Reserves, said the name was meant to signal a new identity shaped by music, leadership and the public figures who inspired him.
“Rappers always have some kind of handle. Superheroes too. Names they go by that aren’t their real names,” Shaw said, explaining why he left behind his birth name, Cecil Shaw III. He said that after high school people told him he resembled Denzel Washington, and later Barack Obama, and he wanted “a uniform that didn't come off, something that's was going to remind me of the new me: a person of hope, a person of music, a person of leadership.”
Shaw said the name also tied him to his family history. His father was a musician who appeared on shows like Soul Train, and his grandfather was a known associate of soul music pioneer Ray Charles. He said he wanted a name that honored that background along with Washington and Obama, adding, “It’s a name that represents hope,” and arguing that Obama “made the impossible possible for people that looked like me, to become President of the United States.”
That admiration is not just symbolic. Shaw said Barack Obama was a guiding force in his campaign and was also the reason he joined the army in 2008, because he “trusted he would be level headed and would be starting wars all over the place, and I trusted his leadership.” He said witnessing Obama’s rise to the presidency was “the greatest moment of my life” and that he wants others to feel that kind of hope again.
But the candidate’s pitch does not stop at admiration for a Democratic icon. Shaw said he is willing to work with President Donald Trump to get things done, citing the military principle of respecting authority even when he disagrees with the person in office. “What I learned from the military is you respect the rank…even if you don't like the person, you always respect the rank,” he said. “I respect the rank, the title of this is President of the United States,” he added, saying, “Now, I don't like what the man is saying, or the thing he's doing, but he is the President.”
Shaw is running on pledges to eradicate homelessness in California, secure more land for housing and bring an additional $26 billion to the state budget. He also says he respects the media, values communication and would govern with transparency and honesty. He finished third in Alameda’s 2022 mayoral race with 6 percent of the vote and said afterward, “I was able to hold my own,” adding, “I did pretty good for someone with no experience in politics.”
The final debate among seven leading candidates was held on May 14, but the real test comes on June 2, when California voters decide whether Shaw’s name recognition becomes actual support. In a race crowded with Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, the question is whether a ballot line that reads Barack Obama helps him break through or simply makes him the most watched long shot in the field.
