Your guide to the California treasurer race: Kounalakis vs. Hawks

The race for California state treasure is wide open since the current officeholder, Fiona Ma, is termed out and running for lieutenant governor.

The front-runner is Democratic candidate Eleni Kounalakis, who was elected lieutenant governor in 2018 and reelected in 2022. She is being challenged by Republican Jennifer Hawks, who has not held elected office and touts herself as a political outsider.

Hawks faces a tough climb in a state where no Republican has been elected to a statewide office since 2006. The most recent Republican state treasurer was Matt Fong, who won in 1994.

The California treasurer is the state’s chief financial manager and responsible for overseeing public investments and issuing bonds to fund major projects like roads, sewers, schools and affordable housing.

The treasurer also serves on the boards of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and sits on bodies that finance projects related to healthcare, small businesses and pollution cleanup.

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Kounalakis is well known in state politics. She is serving her final term as lieutenant governor, a largely ceremonial role that includes seats on various higher-education boards including the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees.

A major Democratic donor, Kounalakis in 2023 launched a campaign to become California’s next governor before dropping out of the race and announcing in August 2025 she would run for state treasurer.

Kounalakis holds a master’s in business administration from UC Berkeley and is the daughter of Sacramento real estate magnate Angelo Tsakopolous. She spent 18 years working for AKT Development, the business her father founded, eventually becoming its president. In 2009, she was appointed to the U.S. ambassador post in Hungary by President Obama.

“I have been using my international experience serving the state as our representative for international trade and investment, which has a very heavy economic development piece to it,” she said this year.

Hawks is a retired businesswoman and a Republican activist. She has served as president of Palo Alto Republican Women Federated, been involved with the California Federation of Republican Women and has gathered signatures for the GOP-led voter ID measure, Proposition 39.

Hawks spent two decades working as an executive assistant at the Sacred Hearts School, a private Catholic school in the tony Silicon Valley town of Atherton, before her retirement in 2021. Before that, she worked in various human resources and office manager roles.

“I am a people person,” Hawks said on Assemblymember Carl DeMaio’s (R-San Diego) Reform California podcast. “I’ll get to know [the] rank-and-file in there, and I will garner their trust.”

Fundraising data will be updated regularly until the election.

Kounalakis told The Times in May she would prioritize responsible management of state finances and investment in housing and infrastructure and protect public employee pensions through transparent oversight of the state’s investment portfolio.

Kounalakis said she would favor greater investment in clean energy while balancing that approach against the need to protect investment returns for public employees’ retirement funds.

Hawks did not make herself available for an interview. But in her candidate statement, Hawks said she would use the treasurer’s oversight role to scrutinize how taxpayer money is managed, advocate for responsible investing and push for greater accountability over state finances.

Hawks has on her campaign website criticized what she sees as government waste in Sacramento, including over high-speed rail, homeless spending and a wildlife crossing.

“California doesn’t need more spending plans,” Hawks’ campaign website reads. “It needs someone willing to ask why past spending failed.”

Hawks is endorsed by conservative political groups including the California Republican Assembly, Reform California, gun rights groups and Republican women’s groups, according to her campaign website.

Kounalakis’ backers include prominent national and state Democratic leaders, members of Congress and the state Legislature, major labor unions, and environmental, LGBTQ and housing advocacy organizations, according to her campaign website.