Elaine Culotti, Real Estate Mogul Hit by Palisades Fire, Considers Run for Governor

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A real estate mogul whose property portfolio was hit hard by the Palisades Fire is considering a run for Governor of California in 2026 to change the way the state is run.

No, it’s not developer Rick Caruso — though he is considering a run for governor, or for mayor of Los Angeles. Rather, it’s Undercover Billionaire star Elaine Culotti, a Trump supporter whose properties suffered $100 million in losses due to the fires.

Culotti has already been outspoken against Measure ULA, the so-called “mansion tax,” which is holding back sales of real estate in the Palisades and across Los Angeles, and hampering the rebuilding effort. She is now mulling whether to join a growing field of candidates — including conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Republican sheriff Chad LoBianco — as a frontrunner has yet to emerge in the race to replace Gavin Newsom.

Newsom is currently in South Carolina, testing the waters for a potential presidential run in 2028 — even though wildfires are raging in his state, anti-ICE riots are raging in downtown L.A., and fire victims are struggling to rebuild. It is a familiar pattern of neglect: Newsom left the country on vacation when more than a dozen people died in blizzards in the San Bernardino mountains in 2023. Local media barely criticized him.

Culotti told Newsmax this week that the electorate wants to see someone shake up California politics:

Culotti, a self-described “total, all-the-way Trumper,” predicts a Republican surge in California, citing a March 2025 Madison McQueen polling memo that found 48% of Californians would consider voting Republican due to high energy prices, rising crime, rampant homelessness, and Democrat stances on transgender athletes and free healthcare for undocumented immigrants.

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Culotti’s critiques echo widespread discontent. She points to California’s $322 billion budget with a $12 billion deficit and a homelessness crisis that consumed $24 billion with little progress — issues she claims reflect systemic corruption.

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She says the infamously stalled high-speed rail in California that has so far cost $100 billion is a boondoggle that highlights the little regard politicians have for other people’s money, given that taxpayers foot the bill both for the project and for some NGOs that fought against it.

Culotti would not be the state’s first celebrity candidate — Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger come to mind — but she would be the first to combine Hollywood experience with a successful business career. She would also bring a pragmatic focus to a field of candidates that has often — with the exceptions noted above — been reluctant to tackle the issues facing California, preferring identity politics and broad sentiments instead.

(A year ago, when Breitbart News asked former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a major Democratic candidate, what his top priority would be as governor, he answered “to bring people together,” without elaborating.)

If nothing else, Culotti’s entrance onto the political scene could demonstrate that there are consequences for the kind of policy failures that led to the devastation of the Palisades Fire — and that have yet to be addressed.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.