Top job: California controller
Biggest splash: During Yee’s tenure as controller, her agency uncovered tens of millions of dollars of local government misspending and questionable financial practices at state agencies.
Particulars: Yee, 66, was born to Chinese immigrant parents and grew up in San Francisco, where the family lived in a one-room apartment behind their dry cleaning business. Yee lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs. She is a Democrat.
Campaign launch: March 2024
Yee served as state budget director under former Gov. Davis before winning a seat on the California State Board of Equalization in 2006 and again in 2010. She was elected state controller in 2014. Her audits and investigations from the controller’s office, she said, found more than $4 billion in misused funds. She won reelection in 2018, and her second term ended in January 2023.
Yee has emphasized her financial background and budget experience, both of which could appeal to California voters as the state grapples with a historic shortfall. Budget projections suggest the next governor could walk into a challenging fiscal environment if state revenue doesn’t rebound.
When she announced her campaign, Yee spoke about how her modest beginnings crystallized her focus on the importance of financial health. As a young girl, she managed the books of the family business and saw firsthand how a bad week meant cutting back on groceries and other essential spending for her and her five siblings, she said.
A 2022 Times report detailed how Yee gave behind-the-scenes advice to a politically connected company seeking a $600-million no-bid government contract to provide COVID-19 masks and raised questions about her involvement. Yee has said that she had no financial interest in the contract and that the advice was the same she would offer any business owners.
Yee serves as a vice chair of the California Democratic Party.
