Ché Ahn says God told him to run for governor. California says he can't be on the ballot.
The New Apostolic Reformation leader's campaign faces collapse after failing to file required tax returns. He's now suing for ballot access.
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Ché Ahn, a self-described Christian “apostle” who is currently campaigning for governor of California by taking donations and speaking at right-wing churches and events to earn support, may not even appear on the non-partisan primary ballot in June.
But you’d never know it from his public appearances.
For those who aren’t familiar with him, Ahn is one of the leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement with numerous apostles who aim to take over the country through the Seven Mountains Mandate, an idea that Christians must take “dominion” over all spheres of influence in society. His Harvest International Ministries, with “more than 25,000 affiliated ministries and organizations in over 65 nations,” was created to fulfill that mission. When a Christian podcaster recently called out the lies spread by pro-NAR Bethel Church, Ahn was cited as someone who’s part of the “cover-up culture” there. His own church has announced a third-party investigation into the matter.
In recent years, Ahn has said that anyone challenging the Trump administration “is really fighting God.” The day before January 6, 2021, Ahn appeared at a rally and insisted Trump would remain in power and that supporters would “rule and reign through President Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” He added that the election was “stolen” from Trump as part of the “most egregious fraud” in American history.
Last July, Ahn announced he would be running to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom as governor of California. God spoke to him, Ahn explained, and called on him to mount a campaign.
“My first reaction, I said, ‘Lord, please not this,’” Ahn claimed. “I’ll do anything you ask me to do [but] not run for governor. And yet, I knew that I couldn’t shake it. I was up for two hours, until like 4:30 in the morning just praying through this. Then I said, ‘Lord, you know my weakness. I need a confirmation. I just can’t go on this impression.’ ... If I get an invitation from President Trump to come to the White House, then I know this is of you. Two hours later, I get a text saying that I’m going to get an e-mail invitation from President Trump to the White House for the National Day of Prayer at the Rose Garden.”
“Now you can’t make this up,” Ahn declared. “And I said, ‘OK, Lord, OK, that’s a sign.’”
Since that time, he’s said “the spirit of God” is leading his campaign. He’s bragged about getting Mike Huckabee’s endorsement. His campaign website asks voters, “Will we be a state where biblical values and lawful order are respected—or a state where the rule of law collapses under political expediency?”
And you better believe he’s making all kinds of appearances in anticipation of the jungle primary, scheduled for June 2, in which only the top two candidates (from any party) will move on to the November ballot.
He’s already met with several local Republican groups, and just last week, he announced the opening of a campaign office in Koreatown.
Over the weekend, he attended preacher Hank Kunneman’s church in Nebraska, where he claimed to heal people by literally blowing in their faces. Kunneman then encouraged his followers to support Ahn’s campaign.
On Monday night, he appeared on the right-wing Christian show FlashPoint, where he told the audience, “Vote for me, I’m running for governor of California.”
Today, he’s speaking at CPAC, the conservative conference. His Facebook announcement about that event included a link to his campaign page.
It should be noted that this is obviously an uphill climb no matter what.
California is a blue state, and Republicans there are going to have a hard time pulling off a statewide victory. That said, Democratic infighting is giving Republicans hope of a major shake-up because the Democrats are currently splitting their support among a number of people, allowing two Republicans to occupy the top two spots according to recent polling. In any case, Ché Ahn is not one of the Republicans sitting at the top of polls, or even sitting in the middle of polls. He has a lot of work to do before the June primary. But stranger things have happened in primaries when certain candidates were seen as shoo-ins months before the election.
But there’s another problem facing Ché Ahn’s candidacy. A fairly big one.
He may not appear on the primary ballot at all.
March 6 was the deadline for all candidates to submit their paperwork to be on the primary ballot. The secretary of state’s office then had about two weeks to verify the paperwork before publishing an official list of candidates. That deadline was Saturday, and the long list of candidates—over 60 of them in total!—didn’t include Ahn at all. (All the other major candidates are on that list, as are independent candidates.)
So what the hell is he raising money for? (His campaign said they’ve raised $893,700.51 in contributions so far.)
Why is Ahn going around to churches, and doing interviews with Christian podcasters, and appearing at right-wing events when he’s not even officially running for office?
Why did he just open a campaign office in Koreatown?
Why did he say, well after the official deadline for declaring his candidacy, that he’s running for governor?
Well, we now have an answer to that question: He never filed the proper paperwork.
Ahn was supposed to submit his five most recent income tax returns with the Secretary of State’s office, but he never did it. It wasn’t until after the deadline for filing had passed that Ahn learned about the omission.
Days later, his lawyer filed an emergency court motion declaring that this wasn’t Ahn’s fault. His campaign manager, Michelle Martinez, didn’t know Ahn had to submit those documents, and state officials allegedly promised her they’d let her know if he was missing anything.
In fact, the complaint says, the Secretary of State’s office did tell Ahn he was missing those tax returns days before the deadline, but the office didn’t see the email until after the deadline had passed.
On March 7, 2026, the day after the 88-day deadline, at 4:33 p.m., the Secretary of State called the campaign and informed the campaign that because Dr. Ahn did not produce his tax returns, his name would not be on the ballot.
The complaint went on to say the campaign checked the California Constitution to see if Ahn met the qualifications for office of governor, and he met the criteria, so it’s unfair to have even more requirements: “The Legislature exceeded its authority by adding the requirement that candidates for California Governor file tax returns with the Secretary of State.”
Ahn added that his campaign manager “personally delivered” those tax returns to the Secretary of State’s office on March 9, days after the deadline had passed. Regardless, Ahn’s lawyer said this requirement to include tax returns as a prerequisite to being on the ballot was unconstitutional.
Those arguments didn’t go anywhere.
On Monday, California Superior Court Judge Jennifer Rockwell ruled that Ahn still couldn’t appear on the ballot. His campaign’s ignorance of the law wasn’t an excuse not to follow it, she said, adding that filing income tax returns wasn’t a “qualification,” per se, but more of a ballot access issue. This was all first reported by the website Ballot Access News, where reporter Richard Winger said Ahn’s lawyer told him they would challenge this decision with the State Court of Appeals.
So here’s where we’re at: As things stand, Ahn isn’t going to be on the ballot. He’s known for at least two weeks that he won’t be on the ballot. Yet he’s been going around collecting donations and doing interviews without letting on that he may not be on the ballot. There’s no indication of this legal problem on any of his social media pages.
When I spoke to Ahn’s campaign manager, Michelle Martinez, yesterday, she told me she was “confident” the challenge would be successful and Ahn would eventually appear on the ballot. (She added that if they were not successful, campaign laws would be followed in terms of how any donation money would be spent or returned.)
I also spoke to Ahn’s lawyer, Mark Meuser, who told me he believed there was merit to an appeal. “This is a challenge to whether the state legislature has authority to add additional qualifications to someone running for office that are not contained in the state Constitution,” he said.
That appeal was officially filed last night and calls for a decision to be made by Thursday, the day the Secretary of State is scheduled to release a certified list of gubernatorial candidates.
Meuser writes that the California Election Code provision requiring five years of tax returns is unconstitutional because it goes beyond what the state’s Constitution requires.
By categorically barring otherwise qualified candidates from appearing on the ballot unless they satisfy a tax-return disclosure mandate found nowhere in the Constitution, the statute operates as a functional disqualification from the office itself.
…
… If additional qualifications are to be imposed for Governor, that must occur by constitutional amendment, not statute. Otherwise, there would be no limiting principle. The Legislature could impose any number of additional prerequisites for Governor so long as they did not literally contradict the constitutional text. That is incompatible with a written constitution that expressly defines the qualifications for office.
Meuser also says this isn’t about “ballot access” at all because it has nothing to do with collecting signatures or paying a filing fee. It pertains to whether someone can even be a candidate if they don’t follow a rule that the Constitution never mentions.
It’s a fascinating argument and the Court of Appeals could very well rule in Ahn’s favor. It’s entirely possible that the most significant thing Ahn does during this campaign isn’t being a candidate at all—because he’s almost certain to lose—but changing state law so that things like submitting income tax returns cannot be required of future candidates unless there’s a literal amendment to the California Constitution.
If he loses this battle, though, you have to wonder how this obvious oversight on his part fits into God’s Plan for him. For now, he’s still telling people he’s running for governor even though he’s currently prohibited from appearing on the ballot. I’m also curious how he plans to explain any of this to his followers. Will he be honest and say it was a paperwork issue? Will he say God wanted him to take on the state law? Will he blame his political enemies or Satan for preventing him from bringing Christ to California?
Nothing on his social media accounts even hints that any of this might be happening.
His campaign manager told me they sent out a press release to news outlets when this situation first arose. As far as I can tell, though, no outlet reported on any of this before Ballot Access News covered it on Monday. The press release is also nowhere to be found on his campaign website. When I asked for a copy of it, Martinez said she would send it to me. I never received it.
(Update: I originally referred to Ahn as a self-described “prophet,” but “apostle” is the more accurate term. I have fixed the article to reflect that.)
I don’t see this guy going anywhere, especially in California. The underlying delusion of the ‘seven pillars’ crowd is the assumption the American people will just passively submit to them once they gain control of these things. No one outside the religious right is calling for theocracy, because on the whole, people aren’t that stupid. If you want to see what genuine persecution looks like . . . hand power to the preachers.
He's hearing voices and having conversations with a fictional being, so he's already off to a bad start.