Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:53
#SwellInterview | JANELLE KELLMAN -Candidate for California Lieutenant Governor in 2026
Hi, this is Deborah Pardes, and this is my swellcast. If you are new to swell. Welcome. We are about to dig into an interview with Janelle Kellman, and she is running for California lieutenant governor in 2026. It's not often that we get to speak with the candidates or early in her campaign, and I'm really happy that we get to start this now and let's see where it goes. It's the nature of swellcasts where we can add voices over time
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:25
And I know this is kind of jumping into the big statement that people have to make about when they're a candidate, but I want to start with this big thing, and then we'll go back to some smaller details, but give it to us. Like, give us your stump moment when you're on that podium. M and you're saying all the right things. Let's hear it now so that we can just feel you
So that's the type of thing, if you want to talk about coastal adaptation to sea level rise, you want to talk about offshore wind. These are the roles. And I think it's really important that we have folks who understand what those roles do, how important they are to the state of California, how important they are to economic growth, how important they are to the future and our resilience and our overall vitality
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:05
And how would you integrate your understanding of how other places do things? Right. How will you bring those relationships into California, California, when you are lieutenant governor and really help the blue economy emerge and be like, awesome because of all the things you've seen go right around the world?
And what issues are we trying to solve, and how do better partnerships with our oceans, with our natural environment facilitate that? And I'll just give you two quick examples of things that I learned when I was traveling. The first is around kelp. Kelp occurs naturally, of course, and kelp farms support California coastal communities a number of ways, from local fisheries and ecotourism, to reduce the impacts on our shores from storms
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:53
Thanks for that answer. And the next question has to do with public education. It's a big one. I know you could probably spend a lot of time on this, but we're just giving a little taste. What are your thoughts about integrating important initiatives into public education so that in the classroom, these young, beautiful minds are really, excuse me. Understanding how they can be part of the solution?
You. I'm so glad you brought up education. I think education is the basis of an opportunity for everybody. And while education comes in different forms, I think it has to be top of mind for everybody in California. And as you know, it's really one of the reasons that I've decided to run for lieutenant governor in 2026. The lieutenant governor is the only state wide office that serves as a member of every governing board overseeing California's public higher education system
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:52
Thanks for that. And I want to go into this area of environmental law. Now, a lot of us don't know what it means to be an environmental lawyer, but that's okay. What's more important is that you've been one and you've also been an entrepreneur. And because you understand business and you understand law and you understand politics, what do you think are your priorities in terms of changing some laws that could help California be protected from some bad actors?
And although I've been working on environmental issues my entire life, I've also enjoyed a varied career across law, business and innovation. And critically, that has allowed me to better understand different perspectives. So I guess my main takeaway is that there is no silver bullet or single piece of legislation. But ultimately, we have to have a commitment to solve big, hard problems and more than anything, more than a single policy or program
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:49
Thanks for that. And my final question of this round is just something that if I was sitting and having coffee with you, I'd ask. So I'm going to ask it here. What are your worries about this campaign? I know there's fundraising and all that stuff. That's always a concern, and it's always, how do you amplify your message to the most people?
And I wasn't particularly fast, but I was very steady and very consistent, which is sort of who I am as a person. And I found that I initially was doing very well because I would start off and get passed by a lot of runners who go out too hard. And then the last third of the race, I would just pick them off. And I was finishing on the podium. I was winning my age group. I was doing really well