Josh Fryday

• Office: Lieutenant Governor
• Election Date: June 2, 2026
• Candidate: Josh Fryday
• Due Date: April 7, 2026
• Printable Version

Thank you for seeking GrowSF's endorsement for the June 2, 2026 primary election! GrowSF believes in a growing, vibrant, healthy, safe, and prosperous city via common sense solutions and effective government.

As a candidate for state office, your day-to-day responsibilities in office will affect not just San Francisco, but California as a whole. As a representative of the people of California and of San Francisco, the policies you bring to Sacramento should reflect the best of what we have to offer.

The GrowSF endorsement committee will review all completed questionnaires and seek consensus on which candidates best align with our vision for San Francisco and have the expertise to enact meaningful policy changes.

We ask that you please complete this questionnaire by April 7, 2026 so we have enough time to adequately review and discuss your answers.

• Your Policy Goals
• Your Leadership
• The Issues
• Personal
• Thank you

Your Policy Goals

We'd like to get some details about your high-level goals and how you intend to use your elected office to achieve them.

What policies do you hope to change or preserve by running for Lieutenant Governor? Please be specific, and list them in order of priority.

Make it dramatically easier and faster to build housing across California -- cutting permitting timelines, reducing barriers to infill and mixed-use development, advancing CEQA reform, using my seat on the State Lands Commission to unlock public land for housing production, and using my votes on the UC Regents, CSU Trustees and Community Colleges Board of Governors to push universities to build housing on our public land for students and workforce. We have to build at the speed of need, and the need for housing in California right now is incredibly high.

Strengthen workforce pathways that don't require a four-year degree -- expanding apprenticeships, community college-to-career pipelines, and the California Service Corps to reduce student debt and connect people to good jobs.

Use my seat on the UC Regents and CSU Trustees to drive down time-to-degree, reduce cost of attendance, and expand student and workforce housing as core infrastructure on campus land.

Strengthen California's economic competitiveness by cutting regulatory friction for businesses, supporting clean-tech job growth, and expanding international trade partnerships.

Build climate resilience infrastructure -- clean energy permitting, coastal land use, and drought-resilient water systems -- through the State Lands Commission and regional coordination.

Why those policies?

California is the fourth-largest economy in the world, yet we have the worst housing crisis in the nation. That contradiction defines our politics right now. Housing costs are pushing families and businesses out of the state. Young people can't afford to live in the communities they grew up in or work in. Workers without four-year degrees are being left behind even as industries desperately need skilled labor. Our universities are world-class but too expensive and too slow to graduate students into the workforce. We're slowly strangling our own potential and driving our future out of state, unless we take real, concrete action to make real the dream we came here to live. I will use every level the Lieutenant Governor has to make California more affordable for the people who live and work here.

Explain why your #1 goal is your #1 goal.

Housing is the root cause of most of California's other problems. It drives the cost of living crisis, fuels business flight, pushes out the teachers, nurses, and service workers we desperately need, and undermines public trust in government's ability to get things done. And it's a climate issue too. When people can't afford to live near where they work, they're forced into longer commutes, more car dependence, and higher emissions. Building more housing near jobs and transit is one of the most effective climate interventions we can make.

It's also incredibly personal to me. I lived in 17 different homes before I graduated high school. I understand the pain that so many Californians are currently experiencing with this housing crisis.

I've spent my career removing barriers so that people can contribute and build, in communities, in the workforce, and in civic life. The same instinct applies here. We don't have a shortage of demand for housing. We have a shortage of political will to let it get built. California's public educational institutions alone sit on more than an estimated 140,000 acres of developable land. Public housing authorities, surplus state parcels, and underutilized municipal lots add even more. The land exists. The demand exists. What's missing is the urgency to cut through the red tape and build.

As Lieutenant Governor, I will use the bully pulpit, the State Lands Commission, university and college land across UC, CSU, and community college campuses, and every regional convening opportunity available to push that needle.

How will you build the coalition and political capital to enact your #1 goal? What obstacles will you face, and how will you overcome them? Will the power of the office of Lieutenant Governor be enough to achieve this goal?

The Lieutenant Governor doesn't control the legislature or the Governor's budget, but this office has more influence on housing than people realize, through the State Lands Commission, through board governance at UC, CSU, and the Community Colleges where student and workforce housing is a major bottleneck, and through the ability to convene regional stakeholders and publicly champion pro-housing positions.

The obstacles are real: local opposition to new development, slow permitting systems, and political fragmentation between cities, counties, and the state. My approach is to build coalitions that cut across the usual lines, including business groups, labor unions, housing advocates, university systems, and local governments, focused on concrete projects and measurable outcomes rather than ideological positioning. I've done this throughout my career, from creating the nation's largest service corps to helping expand the EITC and more. The Lieutenant Governor's office alone won't solve the housing crisis. But used aggressively to convene the right stakeholders and lead, it can accelerate progress and hold institutions accountable.

We have become the party of good intentions and I will make it my top priority to refocus us on the only thing that matters, which is results.

Will the power of the office of Lieutenant Governor be enough to achieve the other goals?

For higher education reform, yes. The LG's voting seats on the UC Regents, CSU Trustees, and Community Colleges Board of Governors are genuine governance power, and I intend to use them. For workforce development, the office's role in economic development and education policy gives real reach. For economic competitiveness and international trade, the LG has a formal role and I'd use it actively. No single office solves everything, but each of these policy areas has a specific hook in the LG's statutory responsibilities, and I won't treat this as a ceremonial role.

What is an "out there" change that you would make to state or local government policy, if you could? For the purpose of this question, you are not constrained to the office of Lieutenant Governor.

I'd create a universal service year for Californians between the ages of 18 and 25. Not mandatory, but heavily incentivized with a tuition credit, a down payment assistance credit, or job training credentials earned through a year of public service in areas like climate resilience, education support, housing construction, or health care. Other countries have demonstrated that national service programs build civic cohesion, workforce readiness, and a shared sense of stake in the community. California could be the first state to do this at scale. I've spent six years building the infrastructure for it. We're closer than people think, and if I'm elected we will make it a reality.

Your Leadership

We'd like to learn more about your leadership style and plan to execute effectively once you assume office.

Why are you running for Lieutenant Governor?

I'm running because I believe government can actually work, and I want to prove it. I've spent my career in public service, as a Navy JAG officer, as Mayor of Novato, and as California's Chief Service Officer, and in each role I've focused on building things that actually move the needle, not just articulating positions. The Lieutenant Governor's office has been underutilized. It has real constitutional and statutory tools, including board seats at the UC, CSU, and California Community Colleges, a vote on the State Lands Commission, a role in economic development and international trade, and the ability to act as Governor when needed. I want to use those tools to tackle the cost of housing, increase workforce readiness, and build an economy that works for everyone, not just those who already have advantages.

In your own words, what are the core constitutional and statutory responsibilities of the Lieutenant Governor?

The Lieutenant Governor holds voting seats on the UC Board of Regents, the CSU Board of Trustees, and the Community Colleges Board of Governors. These are real governance roles with real votes on how those institutions are run. The LG also sits on the State Lands Commission, which oversees the leasing and management of millions of acres of state-owned land including all navigable waterways. The LG also serves on the Ocean Protection Council and as a non-voting member of the Coastal Commission. The LG chairs the Commission for Economic Development, which provides guidance on job creation, trade, and economic growth across all 58 counties. Taken together, it's a portfolio that spans higher education across all three public systems, land use, coastal and ocean policy, and economic competitiveness. When the Governor leaves the state or is unable to serve, the Lieutenant Governor becomes acting governor. In addition to the bully pulpit, which has power in and of itself, this office has real tools and I intend to use them.

What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?

I have experience delivering real results at every level of the work this office requires. I served as a Navy JAG officer, including disaster relief coordination after the 2011 tsunami in Japan, which taught me how to make consequential decisions quickly and under pressure. I've built organizations from scratch, including NextGen Climate, Golden State Opportunity, and the California Service Corps, each one starting with a vision and a small team and growing into something with real statewide and national impact. At the state level, I took CaliforniaVolunteers and built it into the largest service corps in the country, bigger than the Peace Corps. At the local level, I governed as Mayor of Novato, making real budget decisions under community scrutiny. And as the husband of a public school teacher, I see every day what the cost of living crisis means for working families in this state. That combination of service, organization building, state leadership, and local governance, grounded in the realities of everyday California life, is what I'd bring to this office.

What three measurable outcomes should Californians use to evaluate your success after your first two years in office?

1. Progress toward building a million units of housing committed or under construction at UC, CSU, and community college campuses.

2. An increase in clean energy and coastal infrastructure projects advanced through the State Lands Commission, with a specific number of offshore wind, solar, or coastal resilience projects moved from proposal to permitted status by the end of year two.

3. A concrete expansion of workforce pathway enrollments through the CaliforniaVolunteers and College Corps infrastructure, with more Californians connected to jobs that don't require a four-year degree, tracked by completion and placement rate.

The Issues

Next, we will cover the issues that voters tell us they care about. We hope to gain a better understanding of your policy positions, and we hope that you use this opportunity to communicate with voters.

UC and CSU face rising costs, enrollment pressures, workforce needs, campus safety issues, and public trust challenges. As a voting member of the UC Regents and CSU Trustees, what measurable goals would you set for California's higher-education system over your term (e.g., time-to-degree, cost of attendance, transfer throughput, workforce alignment)? What specific actions will you take within board governance to achieve those goals?

California's public universities sit on some of the most valuable land in the state, and we are not using it to solve the student housing crisis. My top priority within board governance will be pushing UC and CSU to treat campus land as a housing asset, setting concrete targets for student and workforce housing units committed or under construction on every campus, and holding administrations accountable for hitting them. Too many students are dropping out not because they can't do the work, but because they can't afford to stay housed near campus. That has to change. I would set a goal of making the same promise UCLA and UCSD have made to all students on their campuses—guaranteed housing for four years.

Beyond housing, I would work across all three higher education systems to expand College Corps and service opportunities as a pathway to making college more affordable. Students who serve their communities should earn meaningful credits toward their education costs.

I'd set a measurable goal for the number of students participating in service programs across UC, CSU, and community colleges, and push each system to formally integrate service pathways into financial aid and degree planning so that more students can graduate with less debt.

To help with graduation rate and affordability, I will push to continue to expand the credit for prior learning and dual enrollment programs I am working with California Community Colleges on right now.

California faces concerns about business flight, regulatory complexity, housing costs, and global competitiveness. How would you use the office's role in economic development and international trade to strengthen California's competitiveness? Please identify one specific economic indicator (e.g., job growth in key industries, export volume, foreign direct investment) that you would track and aim to improve.

California has the fourth largest economy in the world and the opportunity to lead the global clean energy transition, but we are leaving jobs and investment on the table by making it too hard to build here. We can't credibly sell California as the world's clean energy leader while taking a decade to permit a transmission project or years to approve housing near transit.

As Lieutenant Governor, I would use the Commission for Economic Development and the LG's international trade role to actively position California as the destination for clean energy investment, from manufacturing to technology to workforce training. That means building trade relationships with partners who are competing in the same clean energy sectors we want to lead, and making the case to foreign and domestic investors that California is where this industry gets built.

At the same time, I would use every convening opportunity available to push for faster permitting on clean energy projects, particularly on state lands where the LG has direct influence through the State Lands Commission. California cannot credibly sell itself as the world's clean energy leader while taking years to permit a solar or offshore wind project. The indicator I would track: interconnection wait times. This metric for new clean energy projects have ballooned from under two years to over five years. Building new clean energy projects at the sites of existing or retiring fossil fuel infrastructure could cut those timelines to under a year by using existing grid capacity.

The Lieutenant Governor must assume executive authority when the Governor is out of state and help coordinate during emergencies. How would you prepare for moments when you must act as Governor? Please describe one example from your experience demonstrating your ability to make time-critical, high-stakes decisions under uncertainty.

I would maintain close, ongoing coordination with the Governor's office, the Office of Emergency Services, and department heads so that if I need to step in, I am never starting from zero. I'd conduct regular readiness briefings and make sure my team has the relationships and access needed to move quickly.

The night before the COVID shutdown started, the governor charged me with overseeing a mission to ensure California's foodbanks remained operational. I oversaw the deployment of the national guard, service corps members, and tens of thousands of volunteers to make sure Californians were fed as unemployment rates skyrocketed. I have a demonstrated operational ability, with a strong focus on outcomes, and a proven ability to work with people across the state.

The Lieutenant Governor plays an informal but important role convening local, state, and federal stakeholders on issues such as housing, drought, wildfires, and infrastructure. Choose one issue that requires state–regional coordination (e.g., housing production, drought resilience, port modernization & automation). What concrete steps would you take to convene stakeholders, identify bottlenecks, and produce measurable progress?

Housing. California has set ambitious housing goals but continues to fall short because the gap between state policy and local implementation is enormous. As Lieutenant Governor, I would use the convening power of the office to close that gap in a concrete, accountable way.

The first step is diagnosis. I would bring together city managers, county supervisors, builders, labor representatives, and housing advocates region by region to map exactly where projects are stalling, whether that is permitting delays, financing gaps, infrastructure deficits, or local opposition. The goal is not another report. The goal is a project-level accountability system that tracks what is stuck and who is responsible for moving it.

The second step is action. I would use my seat on the State Lands Commission to identify publicly held land near job centers and transit corridors that can be unlocked for housing, and push UC, CSU, and community college systems to do the same on campus land. Where state agencies are creating bottlenecks, I would use the bully pulpit of the office to name them publicly and push for resolution.

The Lieutenant Governor serves on the Commission for Economic Development and is often a public-facing ambassador for civic participation and governance. How would you use the platform of the office to strengthen voter trust, civic engagement, and transparency?

I've built my career on civic engagement. As Chief Service Officer, I've helped recruit hundreds of thousands of Californians into volunteer and service roles. I'd bring that same approach to the LG's platform: using the office to create tangible opportunities for Californians to participate in solving public problems, not just consume political messaging.

On transparency, I'd commit to publishing clear, public dashboards on the measurable goals I've set for higher education, housing, and workforce development, so Californians can hold me accountable. Trust in government is lost when the government fails to deliver results for citizens. Civic trust is rebuilt through demonstrated competence and honesty about results, not through communications strategies.

The Lieutenant Governor sits on the California State Lands Commission, which oversees offshore leasing, coastal infrastructure, and key decisions that affect the development of renewable energy projects. Please identify one specific project or investment area you would champion, and the measurable outcome you would aim to achieve by 2028.

California has set aggressive clean energy targets, but permitting on state lands has been a bottleneck that slows projects down and drives away investment. California invented the clean energy economy. We should not be losing ground to Texas on clean energy production because we can't get out of our own way on permitting. I would use my seat on the State Lands Commission to directly address that. Specifically, I would champion establishing a clear, predictable permitting timeline for offshore wind and solar development on public lands, so that developers can plan and investors can commit with confidence.

The project area I would prioritize is offshore wind development along the California coast, where the state has significant public land jurisdiction and where the economic and climate opportunity is enormous. By 2028, the measurable outcome I would aim for is a specific number of offshore wind projects moved from proposal to permitted status, with construction timelines established and workforce agreements in place to ensure that the jobs created stay in California.

What do you believe is the most important long-term challenge California must solve over the next decade, and how will your role as Lieutenant Governor contribute to that vision? Please describe both the problem and the measurable progress you would aim to make during your term.

California's most important long-term challenge is also its most basic one: we do not have enough homes. The housing shortage drives nearly every other problem we are trying to solve. It is why teachers and nurses and firefighters cannot afford to live in the communities they serve. It is why businesses are relocating and workers are leaving. It is why homelessness persists despite billions in spending. And it is a climate issue too. When working families are forced to live hours from where they work, we are adding emissions, adding congestion, and adding stress to people who are already stretched thin.

The measurable progress I would aim for during my term: at least a million units of housing committed or permitted on public and campus land, tracked and reported publicly.

The Lieutenant Governor has more tools to address this than most people realize. I would use my seat on the State Lands Commission to unlock publicly held land near job centers and transit corridors for housing development. I would use my votes on the UC, CSU, and Community Colleges Board of Governors to push every campus to build housing on its own land. And I would use the convening power of the office to bring together regional stakeholders, map the specific bottlenecks slowing housing production, and hold institutions publicly accountable for results.

Personal

Tell us a bit about yourself!

How long have you lived in California? What brought you here and what keeps you here?

I am a California Native. I grew up in Novato, went to school and Law School at UC Berkeley, and built my family here. When I left for Navy service, including time in Japan, I knew I was coming back. This is where my wife Mollye teaches, where my kids are growing up, and where every policy decision I care about plays out in real people's lives every day.

What keeps me here is belief in what this state made possible for my own family. My parents didn't have college degrees, but they worked hard and California's public schools gave my brother and me a shot at something better. That's the promise of this state. A place where the circumstances you're born into don't have to determine where you end up. I'm running because that promise is getting harder to keep, housing costs are pushing families out, and the public systems that lifted up my family are under strain. I want to fight to make sure the next generation of kids growing up in California gets the same shot my brother and I did.

What do you love most about California and/or your hometown?

The people, the cultures, the food, the coastline, the mountains, the farms. There is nowhere else on earth with this combination of natural beauty, human diversity, and sheer possibility. I've traveled the world through my Navy service and my work, and I always come home more convinced that California is something special.

What do you dislike the most about California and/or your hometown?

My wife Mollye is a public school teacher. She does one of the most important jobs in California, and every year it gets harder for people living on educators' salaries to afford to live in the communities they serve. That's what I dislike most about California right now. Not the politics, not the bureaucracy, but the lived reality that the state is pricing out the very people who make it work. Teachers, nurses, firefighters, the people who show up every day to hold our communities together, are being pushed further and further from the places they love. When a public school teacher can't afford to live near the school where she teaches, something has gone badly wrong. That's personal for me, and it's why I'm running.

Tell us about your current involvement in the community (e.g., volunteer groups, neighborhood associations, civic and professional organizations, etc.)

Right now I serve on the board of Amazon Frontlines and previously served as board chair of Demos, two organizations I believe in deeply. As California's Chief Service Officer, my day job is connecting Californians to service through the California Service Corps. Before that I served as Mayor of Novato, where community involvement meant showing up for budget meetings, constituent calls, and the unglamorous but important work of local governance. And at home, my wife Mollye teaches in the same public school my children attend, keeping us close to the local community.

Thank you

Thank you for giving us your time and answering our questionnaire. We look forward to reading your answers and considering your candidacy!