加州萨克拉门托——托尼·阿特金斯第一次担任加州州长时，她用自己的权力来纪念圣地亚哥Padres棒球运动员托尼·格温的去世，同时开玩笑地拒绝了吉米·坎摩尔让她“入侵俄勒冈”的建议。
那是2014年，阿特金斯——第一位担任州议会议长的女同性恋者——正在填补前州长杰里·布朗(Jerry Brown)的职位，这是加州宪法的一个奇怪规定，要求州长在离开该州时任命其他人负责。
阿特金斯现在是州参议院的临时议长，自那以后又担任了几次州长，最近一次是在7月，她签署了三项法案使之成为法律，并打趣说她很高兴再次担任州长，“尽管我有更好的鞋子。”
现在，这位61岁的立法者再次将她的注意力转向州长办公室——只是这一次，她打算在那里呆更长的时间。
阿特金斯在接受美联社采访时表示，“我对竞选州长的可能性非常感兴趣”。自她宣布将于明年卸任参议院最高领导人以来，这是她首次公开说出许多人的猜测。“我很认真地看待这件事。”
取代州长加文·纽森(Gavin Newsom)的竞选很可能是民主党的一场混战，肯定会吸引该党的顶尖人才，让他们有机会领导美国人口最多的州和世界第五大经济体。加州选民从来没有选过女性担任州长，也没有选过公开承认自己是LGBTQ的人。许多其他民主党候选人也在竞相创造历史。
副州长埃莱尼·库纳拉基斯(Eleni Kounalakis)是第一个正式宣布参选的人，她刚刚进入纽森的第二个任期几个月。黑人州公共教育总监托尼·瑟蒙德(Tony Thurmond)和前财务总监贝蒂·易(Betty Yee)也将参选。菲律宾司法部长罗伯·邦塔(Rob Bonta)表示，他正在认真考虑参选。
但阿特金斯希望她的经验能给她带来优势。其中包括短暂担任美国最大城市之一圣地亚哥的市长。她的成就还包括成为历史上第三位也是第一位同时担任州议会最高职位的女性:众议院议长和参议院临时议长，在此期间，她就八个州的运营预算进行了谈判，并参与了无数重大政策决定。
“我觉得自己有点沉迷于责任，”她说。“我认为经验很重要，我相信我有经验，可以继续以某种方式做出贡献。”
加州的最高立法领导人是该州最有权力的人之一，但人们往往感觉不到这一点。当他们就重大政策进行谈判时，当交易完成时，受到关注的是州长。
对于阿特金斯来说尤其如此，他比大多数人都更安静。在她担任参议院领袖期间，民主党已将其核心小组席位增加到40个席位中的32个，这是自1883年以来的最大多数。这一多数意味着与共和党合作的动力不足。但阿特金斯确保共和党人的法案在公开听证会上得到听取，甚至推动前共和党领袖香农·格罗夫(Shannon Grove)参加纽森政府的简报。
“她总是把我们包括在内，从来没有任何惊喜。格罗夫说。她指出，她和阿特金斯因为贫穷的成长环境和对乡村音乐偶像多莉·帕顿的共同热爱而走到了一起。“她明白我们也代表了一部分加州人，我们是正式当选的，因此我们的声音应该被听到。”
Atkins grew up in rural southwest Virginia, where her dad was a miner and her mother was a seamstress. Her childhood home did not have running water, and some of her earliest memories are of walking down a hill with her twin sister to fetch water from a spring to use for cooking and doing laundry.
As a young lesbian in Appalachia, Atkins dreamed of moving to California. She got her chance when her twin sister joined the Navy and was stationed in San Diego. Atkins moved there to help care for her sister’s young son, and never left.
In San Diego, Atkins was director of a women’s health clinic that performed abortions. She was also politically active, working to help elect Christine Kehoe to the San Diego City Council. Kehoe hired Atkins to work for her, and then urged her to run for her seat when Kehoe was elected to the state Assembly.
“Toni is not the kind of person that wants to be the smartest person in the room. She wants to be the most helpful and effective person in the room. And oftentimes she is,” Kehoe said.
Atkins followed her mentor to the state Legislature in 2010, where she soon found herself in a contentious race for speaker against Anthony Rendon of Los Angeles. Atkins won, but left after two years to run for the Senate.
It wasn’t long before Atkins was selected by her colleagues to lead the state Senate, forcing her to work with Rendon, who had replaced her as speaker in the Assembly. Their relationship was rough at times, but fruitful for Democrats. Their partnership expanded Medicaid to include all eligible adults regardless of immigration status and free meals for public school students.
“We had problems, but I think it was, you know, related more to ambition than anything and, you know, probably to an extent immaturity on my part, too,” said Rendon, who plans to run for state treasurer in 2026. “Toni Atkins is a very forgiving person. I have not always been the easiest person to deal with. But she, you know, kept coming back and trying to forge a relationship.”
Atkins said she is most proud of the policies that were inspired by her impoverished upbringing, including helping implement the federal Affordable Care Act and creating a tax credit for poor families worth several hundred dollars.
Those wins are part of what’s driving her potential run for governor, too.
“I see what you can do when you’re in that role,” she said. “There is something about being at the table.”
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