Presidential endorsements and fundraising in 2007 Whitman was a supporter of the
Mitt Romney 2008 presidential campaign and was a member of his national finance team. She was also listed as finance co-chair of Romney's exploratory committee. After Romney stepped out of the race and endorsed
John McCain, Whitman joined McCain's presidential campaign as a national co-chair. McCain mentioned Whitman as a possible
secretary of the treasury during the
second presidential debate in 2008, but lost the election to
Barack Obama. During the 2012 Republican primaries, Whitman endorsed Mitt Romney, who praised her. Whitman's name was mentioned as a possible cabinet member in a Romney administration before he lost to Obama. During the
2016 Republican primaries, Whitman was finance co-chair of the
Chris Christie 2016 presidential campaign. After Christie withdrew from the race and subsequently endorsed
Donald Trump, Whitman criticized it as "an astonishing display of political opportunism" and called on other Christie donors to reject Trump, whom she compared to
Adolf Hitler and
Benito Mussolini. In August, Whitman endorsed the
Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, stating that to vote for Trump "out of party loyalty alone would be to endorse a candidacy that I believe has exploited anger, grievance, xenophobia and racial division". Acknowledging policy differences with Clinton, Whitman nonetheless praised her "temperament, global experience and commitment to America's bedrock national values". She called on all Republicans "to put country first before party"
2010 gubernatorial campaign On February 10, 2009, Whitman announced she would run for governor of California in the 2010 election. On June 8, 2010, Whitman won the Republican primary, becoming the first female to run on the Republican ticket and the third female overall to run for Governor of California after
Dianne Feinstein in
1990 and
Kathleen Brown in
1994. Her campaign was largely self-funded. She ultimately lost to
Jerry Brown. According to final reports, Whitman spent $144 million from her own personal funds. As of 2010, this was more than any other self-funded political candidate in U.S. history. which seemingly contained one image of the
FAIL Blog website, making it appear in the ad as if Jerry Brown had been the subject of one of the website's namesake "fails". Ben Huh, founder of the
Cheezburger Network, of which failblog.org is a part, demanded an apology and the removal of the video, stating that the image was faked, and that the website is non-partisan and has never endorsed a particular political candidate or party. On November 2, 2010, at 11:35 pm, Whitman conceded the election to Brown, stating, "We've come up a little short."
Voting record In 2010,
The Sacramento Bee reported that Whitman did not vote for 28 years, after reviewing her voting records in California. Whitman has described her voting record as "inexcusable", apologized for it, Whitman answered questions about her record in September, replying, "And I think the reason for many years, I wasn't as engaged in the political process and should have been."
Housekeeper controversy In September 2010, Nicky Diaz Santillan revealed that she was employed in the Whitman household as a housekeeper and nanny from 2000 to 2009 despite her status as an illegal worker. Whitman's campaign released documents which she said Santillan provided prior to her employment including a driver's license, Social Security ID, and application. Santillan said Whitman knew she was undocumented, producing a 2003 letter from the Social Security Administration stating that her Social Security number did not match her name. Whitman initially stated that they "never received those letters", however, after a hand-written note on the document was shown, believed to be from Whitman's husband, they acknowledged they may have received it, but forgot. Santillan's attorney,
Gloria Allred, states that Santillan was fired for the sake of the campaign. Whitman's campaign maintained that this was a political attack, stating that Allred is a
Jerry Brown supporter. Brown, Allred and Santillan all denied this. Crystal Williams, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, stated, "Not only is accepting the documents all the law required [Whitman] to do, but there's a counterbalancing anti-discrimination law that keeps her from probing further or demanding different documents." Others disagreed; immigration lawyer Greg Siskind stated Whitman was the employer, and the documents by law needed to be signed by her but were not, nor did they have a Social Security number on them. The
Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that Whitman "hired her, paid her and had direct contact with her for nine years", so should have known her legal status. The
Los Angeles Times noted that Latino voters were more likely interested that Whitman treated Santillan "like a piece of garbage" when the maid asked for help finding an immigration attorney, and Whitman allegedly stated "you don't know me and I don't know you".
Ties to Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs, whose executives donated $100,000 to the Whitman campaign, manages a part of Whitman's fortune. As CEO of eBay, Whitman earned approximately $1.78 million resulting from a practice known as
spinning whereby executives who did business with Goldman Sachs could reap profits by getting early deals before the public on hot
IPOs offered by the bank. Whitman later resigned from the Goldman Sachs board after some expressed concern over her receiving shares from Goldman Sachs. In commenting on Whitman's resignation from the Goldman Sachs board, eBay spokesman Henry Gomez told
The Wall Street Journal at the time that, "If we wanted to use Goldman's services, she doesn't want there to be even the slightest perception of any conflict. She's doing this because she thinks quite highly of the firm." While Whitman was on Goldman Sachs' board, she served on the compensation committee, which approved multimillion-dollar bonus packages for then-CEO
Henry Paulson and his top aides. Public domain documents reveal that Whitman has a multimillion-dollar stake in 21 investment funds managed by Goldman Sachs. despite numerous reports of electoral malpractices in Kenya.
Raila Odinga described Whitman as a rogue ambassador calling for her to shut up on political partisan comments while claiming that Kenya is not a US
colony to warrant her perceived political partisan activities. Raila told the media he would demand her recall for her participation in partisan local politics. With perceived political partisan positions, Whitman was repeatedly thought to support reported human rights abuses by the Ruto administration including a specific case where other
western diplomats in Kenya signed a statement admonishing abductions and killings during the
25th June 2024 Gen Z protests in Kenya which Whitman did not sign. ==Political positions==