Caitlyn Jenner, the transgender Olympian formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is seriously considering running for Senate in California—as a Republican.
During an interview with radio host John Catsimatidis on Sunday, Catsimatidis asked Jenner what she thought would come next in her fight to make transgender issues more mainstream.
Jenner replied that she would consider elected office, saying, “Yeah, I would look for a senatorial run.”
“I like the political side of it,” Jenner explained. “I work very closely with a group called the American Unity Fund whose mission statement is to get the Republican Party to do a better job when it comes to all LGBT issues. That’s my issue.”
Jenner, who has been a lifelong Republican, changed her gender, but didn’t change her political beliefs.
After receiving a slew of awards in 2015 for coming out as transgender, including the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award and Glamour magazine’s Woman of the Year award, she rattled the liberal left in 2016 when she backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in the Republican primary, and then backed then-Republican nominee Donald Trump in the general election.
Despite her previous support for Trump, and that she was reportedly personally invited by the President to attend his inauguration, she has since been critical of the Administration’s views on transgender rights.
“Over the next six months or so, I’ve gotta find out where I can do a better job,” she said, about her potential political run. “Can I do a better job on the outside? Kind of working the perimeter of the political scene, being open to talk to anybody? Or are you better off from the inside? And we are in the process of determining that.”
If Jenner ran in 2018 in her native California, she would face a tough challenge—both in the Republican primary, where her gender identity could be a stumbling block with conservative voters, and in the general election against Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who has been serving in the U.S. Senate since 1992.