The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board has endorsed Josh Fryday for California lieutenant governor, putting its weight behind the state’s chief service officer as the campaign for one of California’s most overlooked posts heats up. The board said Fryday’s record on affordability, education access and service programs makes him the strongest choice.
The endorsement matters because the lieutenant governor does more than wait in the wings. The office presides over the state Senate and holds voting seats on the UC Board of Regents, the CSU Board of Trustees, the California Community College Board of Governors and the Calbright College Board of Trustees, giving the job a reach that can shape both legislation and higher education.
Fryday, a former Novato mayor and former Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer, now leads California Volunteers. The Bee reported that the program has grown into the largest service corps in the nation, larger than the Peace Corps, and that it provides more than 10,000 jobs annually. In its endorsement interviews, the board said Fryday stood out for focusing on California’s affordability gap, proposing cheaper access to higher education and backing expanded state service corps programs.
His support already reaches across Sacramento and Washington. Endorsements include Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, the California Teachers Association and California Environmental Voters.
The race is not Fryday’s alone. State Treasurer Fiona Ma, former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and Republicans David Fennell and Gloria Romero are also in the field. The Bee noted that Ma’s term was marred by a sexual harassment lawsuit that ended in a $350,000 state settlement, a reminder that voters are weighing not just experience but judgment.
That is the friction in the contest: the lieutenant governor role has long been treated as ceremonial, yet the office carries real power in the Senate and on the state’s education boards. The endorsement suggests editorial leaders now see the post less as a backup plan than as a place where one vote and one gavel can still matter.
What happens next is whether that framing changes how voters see the race. Fryday has the backing of a growing list of prominent allies, but Ma, Tubbs and the Republican candidates still have time to argue that the office should be judged on something more than institutional importance alone.
