SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — California state senator and Republican nominee for governor Brian Dahle believes that he can beat Gov. Gavin Newsom if people get to know him.

“We’re going to let people know who I am,” Dahle said in an interview with FOX40 News. “If you get my opponent and I in a room (with 100 people) and give me an opportunity, I think I can get 51 of them.” 

Dahle said Newsom tends to focus on national issues like abortion because he can’t campaign on what he’s done for the state, pointing to a number of topics affecting California.

Newsom declined to sit down with FOX40 for an election-focused interview, but we did speak with the governor last month about a variety of issues facing the state.

Dahle has criticized the state’s definition of what constitutes a violent crime as being too loose. He has also promised to appoint stricter members to the state parole board.

“On crime, I would make sure people who are repeat offenders— as governor, I will make sure they serve out their time and they’re not on our streets victimizing Californians,” Dahle said.

Energy use in California

In response to high gas prices in California, the state senator said he would suspend the state’s tax on gas and use the budget surplus to maintain the roads.

“The fastest way to help Californians drive down their cost of living is energy,” Dahle said. “…We pay 76% higher for electricity as well. That drives up the cost of food. That drives up the cost of everything in California.”

The senator said California should become energy independent by continuing to drill for oil within the state but also expand the use of renewable energies that are not wind and solar.

“We need to tap into geothermal electricity which is all over this state,” Dahle said. “It’s hot water that’s already made in the ground. You pump it out, you make electricity, you put the water right back in the ground. It doesn’t need sun and it doesn’t need wind to generate green energy. I want to promote that.”

According to the California Energy Commission, in 2021 geothermal energy accounted for around 5% of the energy generated within the state.

The growing population of unhoused Californians

Dahle says the issue of homelessness in California does have a lot to do with drugs but he also sees an administrative component that needs changing. 

“… Gavin Newsom has set up a bureaucracy from the top down,” Dahle said. “I was a county supervisor for 16 years. Counties and cities are the ones that are going to give these services. I would give the resources to the counties and cities.” 

Dahle’s many years in public office

After holding office at the county level, Dahle served in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2019 when we won a special election to represent Senate District 1 after the seat was vacated by Ted Gaines. Brian Dahle’s wife Megan Dahle then won a special election to take over Brian’s seat in the State Assembly.

Brian Dahle placed second in the June primary with 17% of the vote, splitting the state’s already diminished Republican voter base with 12 other republicans on the ballot. Newsom finished first with 56% of the vote and benefited as the incumbent with none of the other three democrats running in the primary earning more than 1% of the vote.

Brian Dahle placed second in the June primary with 17% of the vote, splitting the state’s already diminished Republican voter base with 12 other republicans on the ballot. Newsom finished first with 56% of the vote and benefited as the incumbent with none of the other three democrats running in the primary earning more than 1% of the vote.

During his time in the legislature, Dahle wrote a number of bills concerning the timber industry, an industry that has been one of the biggest contributors to his campaign as governor. But overall Dahle has raised only a fraction of what his opponent has pulled in and to make up for it Dahle has been traveling across the state putting on events just to get his name out there.  

“At the end of the day, we have a limited amount of resources to be able to get our message out,” Dahle said. “It takes a lot of money to get out your message and we have a finite amount of that. We’re not raising tens of millions of dollars like most other governor races are.”

Dahle’s campaign has so far reported $2,164,590.94 from 3282 contributions. Newsom has raised more than seven times that amount: $15,229,416.35 from 20,915 contributions.

Dahle knows that the odds are stacked against him, and not just because the state leans democratic. 

“95% of incumbents win, that’s the facts. But sometimes they lose too. Theres a 5% chance that they lose. I believe I can win.”