The Sacramento Bee Editorial Board has endorsed Josh Fryday for California lieutenant governor, giving the state service official a notable boost in a race for one of California’s most quietly powerful jobs.
The board said Fryday’s record on affordability, education access and service programs makes him the strongest choice. That matters because the lieutenant governor is far more than ceremonial: the office presides over the state Senate and holds voting seats on the UC Board of Regents, CSU Board of Trustees, California Community College Board of Governors and Calbright College Board of Trustees.
Fryday is California’s chief service officer, a former Novato mayor and a former Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer who now leads California Volunteers. The Bee reported that the program has grown into the largest service corps in the nation and provides more than 10,000 jobs annually, a detail that gives Fryday’s pitch an immediate real-world footing beyond campaign language. His backers 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.
That endorsement also drops Fryday into a contest that is anything but empty. His opponents include state Treasurer Fiona Ma, former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and Republicans David Fennell and Gloria Romero. The board noted that Ma’s term was marred by a sexual harassment lawsuit that ended in a $350,000 state settlement, underscoring how sharply the field differs on both record and tone.
What separated Fryday in the board’s interviews, it said, was the way he centered California’s affordability gap and tied it to cheaper access to higher education and expanded state service corps programs. That is the campaign’s test now: whether those ideas remain broad promises or become a distinct plan voters can measure against the other candidates’ proposals. The endorsement places Fryday in a stronger position, but in a race for an office that still gets treated like a spare part of state politics, he will have to prove it is anything but.
