Better know a CA gubernatorial candidate: Toni Atkins

We’re a long way off from the 2026 gubernatorial election, but 14 candidates – nine Democrats and four Republicans – have already kicked their campaigns to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom into high gear. Some are familiar names and faces; others are not. And of course all of them are, like the rest of us, waiting to see if former California Attorney General, U.S. Senator and Vice President Kamala Harris adds her name to the list. While Harris ponders her future, over the next few months Capitol Weekly will take a brief look at how the current candidates shape up. We’re taking them in alphabetical order, starting with former Senate pro Tem Toni Atkins. 

As a former Assembly Speaker and Senate pro Tem, Toni Atkins brings considerable experience with state-level politics to a wide-open primary for governor.

The daughter of a coal miner and a seamstress, Atkins grew up without running water in the rural Appalachia region of southwest Virginia where she and her three siblings shared an outhouse. Later, when she and her family moved to Roanoke, she was teased for having a hillbilly accent.

She attended undergrad at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virgina, where in 1984 she received a bachelors in political science with a focus on community organizing.

Shortly thereafter she moved to San Diego to be with her twin sister, Tenia, who was pregnant and due to have her first child. At 27, she was named director of clinical services at San Diego’s Womancare Health Center.

During her stint with the center, she helped the operation expand through the acquisition of the Los Angeles Feminist Women’s Health Center and the opening of the Womancare South Clinic in San Diego’s South Bay.

In 1991, she helped establish the first Lesbian Health Fair as part of the LGBT Pride Festival.

A couple years later, she dipped her toe into politics when she worked as a volunteer for Christine T. Kehoe’s campaign for San Diego City Council. Atkins joined Kehoe’s paid staff, then won Kehoe’s seat when she was elected to the Assembly in 2000.

During her time on the council, she completed a senior executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

In 2010, she was elected to the Assembly. Four years later, she replaced John Pérez as speaker.

Atkins jumped to the Senate in 2016, then became pro Tem in 2018. She was the first woman and first open lesbian to hold the position.

What’s going for her: Her legislative experience. Atkins is one of only three California politicians to serve as both Assembly speaker and Senate leader, the other two being Ransom Burnell (Assembly Speaker in 1861 and Senate pro Tem in 1864) and James T. Farley (Assembly speaker in 1856 and Senate pro Tem in 1871-1872).

So, Atkins knows the major interests in California politics and, more importantly, is adept at tapping them for funding and support. (She raised $1.6 million for her bid for governor in the first half of 2024, back when field only included Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Controller Betty Yee.)

She’s known as a champion for the LGBTQ+ community and her credentials as a progressive and policymaker aren’t in question. She would be ready from Day 1 to step into the job and pull the levers of power.

What’s going against her: Her name ID among voters statewide. Atkins has never won a statewide race, but several of her opponents for the Democratic nomination – Kounalakis and Thurmond and Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Biden – have.

Meanwhile, other candidates gunning for the nomination, like Villaraigosa and former Rep. Katie Porter, ca command the spotlight in a way that Akins never has or can even come close to. Atkins may have had two of the most powerful jobs in all of California politics, but outside of the Capitol orbit her fame and notoriety is severely limited.

Overall, Atkins lacks the bombast or star quality that Californians often expect of their most prominent leaders. To win, she’s going to have to keep the eyes of the state on her, which could be a challenge given her unassuming political persona.