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Tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal enters California Governor race
He listed his priorities as protecting abortion rights, enacting stricter gun control, supporting immigration, and advancing LGBTQ rights.
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Staff Reporter - Wed, 27, Aug 2025
- 18:01 EDT
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Ethan Agarwal / x/@@ethanagarwal
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal on Aug. 25 announced his candidacy for California governor in the upcoming 2026 elections.
In a video statement launching his campaign, Agarwal framed California’s major challenges as stemming from infrastructure failures, citing high housing costs, soaring utility bills, weak public transportation, and wildfire recovery.
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“Every major problem that California has is an infrastructure problem,” he said, calling for fewer regulations, greater investment in construction, and higher wages for workers in the sector.
He listed his priorities as protecting abortion rights, enacting stricter gun control, supporting immigration, and advancing LGBTQ rights. At the same time, he stressed his economic approach. “I am also fiercely pro-capitalism, pro-meritocracy. I believe in equal opportunities, not equal outcomes, because that’s the only way it’s ever worked,” he said.
I'm running for Governor of California.
— Agarwal for Governor (@ethanagarwal) August 25, 2025
I think California is the greatest state in America and I want us to realize our full potential.
Don't vote for me if you think things are generally ok; you have plenty of other candidates to choose from.
If you think California's… https://t.co/42sh1kvDS4 pic.twitter.com/VGBMa5VscV
He also emphasized the role of artificial intelligence in the state’s future. “AI is what the internet was 30 years ago. We can’t afford to lose out on this,” Agarwal said, pledging to make California the hub of the AI economy by supporting software, hardware, and data centers.
On crime, Agarwal said offenses such as drug dealing, vandalism, and shoplifting are “killing small businesses” while advocated expanding the police force. In education, he argued for performance-based teacher evaluations and higher compensation, describing teachers as “some of the most selfless people in our society.”
In a LinkedIn post, Agarwal urged voters to see his campaign as a reset for California’s government. “Don’t vote for me if you think things are generally ok; you have plenty of other candidates to choose from. If you think California’s government needs a hard reset, visit ea4ca.com,” he wrote.
His campaign has drawn early backing from the technology community. Y Combinator President Garry Tan, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, and Tribe Capital’s Arjun Sethi have hosted fundraising events in his favor.
Agarwal, 39, is best known as the founder of the audio fitness app Aaptiv and fintech startup The Coterie, which together raised more than $140 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Amazon, and Disney.
Born in Montreal in 1985 and raised in Los Gatos, he is the son of Vinod Agarwal, a former McGill University professor who founded semiconductor firm LogicVision, which went public in 2001. He studied economics and political science at Johns Hopkins University, earned an MBA from the Wharton School, and worked at Lehman Brothers and McKinsey & Company before turning to entrepreneurship.
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