Caitlyn Jenner Voted In 2020 Despite Telling CNN That She Didn't

Asked for clarification on her previous claim that she did not vote, a campaign aide told CNN Wednesday that Jenner did vote by mail but only weighed in on the ballot propositions, not on the presidential or other down-ticket races.

During the interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Jenner said she did not vote for former President Donald Trump in 2020. When asked who she voted for, she replied, “I didn’t even vote,” adding that was in part because she did not see any propositions that “had one side or the other.”

“Out here in California, it’s like, why vote for a Republican president? It’s just not going to work. I mean it’s overwhelming,” Jenner told Bash, who followed up by asking the California Republican whether she voted in down-ticket races.

“No. It was voting day and I thought the only thing out here in California that I worry about, which affects people, is the propositions that were out there,” Jenner replied. “And I didn’t see any propositions that I really had one side or the other. And so it was Election Day and I just couldn’t get excited about it. And I just wound up going to play golf and I said, ‘I’m not doing that.'”

The conflicting explanations of Jenner’s voting history arose as she is attempting to challenge Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in the all-but-certain recall election in California. Jenner, a longtime Republican, is one of several prominent candidates attempting to oust Newsom from his post in an election that has yet to be formally announced or scheduled by state officials.

The California secretary of state confirmed last month that proponents of the Republican-led recall effort have gathered the more than 1.4 million valid signatures they needed to initiate the recall. But under the complex state rules, voters now have 30 business days to withdraw their signatures from the petitions and state officials are drawing up formal estimates of what the special election would cost.

Facing the challenge of getting elected as a Republican in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by 2-to-1, Jenner has hedged when asked about her views on Trump, who she supported in 2016 before rescinding her support in 2018 because she believed the former President’s policies were harmful to transgender people.

In a Fox interview earlier this month, Jenner said she liked Trump because he was “a disrupter” but took issue with his LGBTQ agenda.

“I think he did some things that I agreed with, some things I didn’t agree with,” Jenner told Fox News’ Sean Hannity about Trump. “On trans issues, LGBT issues, I was more hopeful at the beginning. But there were some good things he did. On the other hand — (President Joe) Biden — I don’t think I’ve agreed with anything.”

In her subsequent interview with CNN’s Bash, Jenner appeared to be appealing to more moderate voters in California and nationally, stating that she is “kind of on the Republican side” but doesn’t like “labels.”

She also tried to create some distance from Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent, but seemed to be trying to avoid alienating the voters who supported him.

Jenner told Bash she did not believe the 2020 election was “stolen,” but also talked about the need for “integrity” in the US election system — a frequent buzzword used by Republican lawmakers when they attempt to justify their efforts to roll back voting rights at the state level. When asked if President Joe Biden was “duly elected,” Jenner said, “He is our President. I respect that.”