Carl David DeMaio (born September 14, 1974) is an American politician from San Diego, California who is serving in the California State Assembly. A member of the Republican Party, DeMaio represents the 75th State Assembly district, encompassing North and East San Diego County. DeMaio is also chairman of Reform California, a conservative political organization, and hosts the podcast "Reform California with Carl DeMaio".
DeMaio served a single term as a member of the San Diego City Council, representing District 5 from 2008 to 2012. He is the first openly gay Republican elected to the California State Legislature.
Early life and education DeMaio was born in 1974 in Dubuque, Iowa to a pair of teachers, Carl Joseph DeMaio and Diane M. DeMaio (née Elgin). He and his family moved to Orange County, California in the late 1970s. He attended St. Catherine's Military Academy, a Catholic school in Anaheim, through eighth grade. In 1989, he got a scholarship to Georgetown Preparatory School, a Jesuit boarding school in Maryland. His mother died of breast cancer in 1990 when he was 15 years old; his abusive father abandoned the family two weeks prior to her death.
DeMaio became separated from his brother and sister and began attending Georgetown Prep. He graduated in 1993, then attended Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he received a degree in international politics and business in 1996.
Early career After college, he established The Performance Institute, a for-profit think tank that provided training for government officials on performance measurement, strategic planning, zero-based budgeting, project management and other management improvement topics. In 2003 DeMaio founded a second company, the American Strategic Management Institute, which provided financial and management training to corporations.Thompson Publishing acquires performance management company, goliath.ecnext.com; accessed August 5, 2017. He sold both companies to the Thompson Publishing Group in late 2007.
Government reform advocacy Between 1994 and 1999, DeMaio worked for the Congressional Institute, serving as the Institute's Director of Planning. In this position DeMaio developed training programs and retreats for Members of Congress and their staff on the budget process and ways to conduct oversight investigations of federal programs using the Government Performance and Results Act.
In 2000, DeMaio joined the Reason Foundation to lead a project to develop a bipartisan management improvement plan for the incoming Presidential Administration. C-Span broadcast a series of Townhall hosted by DeMaio that eventually led to a management reform plan that was accepted by incoming President George W. Bush.
DeMaio moved to San Diego in 2002. That year he appeared on behalf of the Reason Foundation in front of the San Diego City Council to present an award to the city for having the most efficient government in California. He later alleged this award was based on "false and misleading" financial data provided to him by the city.
In 2004, DeMaio launched the San Diego Citizens Budget Project that issued a report claiming that San Diego's predicted budget deficit of $27 million was in fact closer to $80–$100 million. The report also advocated for change in San Diego's budget process. Between 2004 and 2012, DeMaio was Chairman of San Diego Citizens for Accountable Government – a 527 political action committee that raised funds to oppose tax increases and sponsor policy research and initiatives to reform government in San Diego county. In 2015, DeMaio launched Reform California – a 527 political action committee that raises funds to oppose tax increases and sponsor policy research and initiatives to reform government throughout California. DeMaio serves as Chairman and principal officer for Reform California. In 2015 DeMaio, warning that unfunded government pension liabilities were growing too large, announced Reform California would partner with former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to propose and pass a statewide Pension Reform Initiative.
Josh Newman recall effort
In 2017 DeMaio announced a recall against Democratic state senator Josh Newman citing Newman's vote for the car and gas tax increases. DeMaio led a coalition to collect more than 65,000 signatures to force a recall onto the June 2018 ballot. The recall won with 59% of the vote and Newman was replaced by Ling-Ling Chang. It was the first successful recall of a California state senator in over 104 years.
Gas Tax Repeal Initiative
In 2018 DeMaio led the effort to qualify the Gas Tax Repeal Initiative and his group successfully collected almost 1 million signatures and got the initiative qualified for the November 2018 ballot. The measure, titled Prop 6 on the ballot, lost by a 55-45% vote. While polls showed strong support for the gas tax repeal, DeMaio blamed the loss on what he claimed was a misleading ballot title placed on the initiative by the attorney general that excluded the words gas, tax, and repeal. A 2018 study done by Inewsource showed DeMaio's Reform California has more than 25,000 donors, raised over $2 million that year, and had more than one-third of its donors give $100 or less.
He later proposed a followup ballot measure to the Gas Tax Repeal campaign. His proposal would create a “lockbox” so that gasoline and diesel taxes are spent only on road projects, steer sales taxes from automobile purchases to regional transportation agencies, and enact cost-saving changes to infrastructure planning and construction.
Radio hosting and podcasts
KOGO radio host In April 2015, DeMaio joined KOGO Radio (AM-600), first as a co-host with Bob Sullivan of a midday radio show (1-4 pm) with Bob Sullivan, and then starting in November 2015 as a solo host of his own show, "The DeMaio Report," during the afternoon drive (3-6pm).
In addition to offering commentary on news and politics as a traditional radio host, DeMaio has used his radio show platform to promote and advance a number of political causes and campaigns. In January 2018 DeMaio signed a new five-year contract with KOGO. In August 2019, he took a leave of absence to launch his 2020 Congressional race and began airing his own Podcast as a way to stay connected with his followers.
Podcasts and leave from radio "The Carl DeMaio Show" ran from 2019 to 2020 as an audio-only show for one to two episodes a week and was available on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts. DeMaio returned to KOGO after the March 2020 Primary Election.
In January 2023, DeMaio rebooted his podcast as "Reform California with Carl DeMaio" — this time as a videocast with a primary focus on YouTube streaming.
In December 2023, DeMaio again took a leave from his KOGO radio show to launch his 2024 Assembly race, but continued his Podcast as a way to stay connected with his followers.
DeMaio has hosted a number of guests on his podcast over the years, including: California Republican candidates like Steve Hilton, Chad Bianco, Michael Gates, and Gloria Romero; members of organizations like Michael Schwartz from San Diego County Gun Owners, former Chairman of the California College Republicans Dylan Martin, and Erin Friday from Protect Kids CA.
"Reform California with Carl DeMaio" has over 225,000 subscribers on YouTube as of February 2026, earning the show a Youtube Play Button.
Political career San Diego City Council DeMaio ran for the termed-out Brian Maienschein's District 5 San Diego City Council seat in the nonpartisan 2008 election. At the time, District 5 included the neighborhoods of Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch, Sabre Springs, Mira Mesa, Sorrento Mesa, Scripps Ranch, and San Pasqual Valley.
He won the seat in the June primary election, defeating his opponent, former Solana Beach Fire Chief George K. George, with 66% of the vote. DeMaio was the first openly gay man to be elected to the council, and the first Italian American elected to office in the city of San Diego since the 1930s.
As a council member, DeMaio was vice chair of three committees: the Natural Resources and Culture Committee, the Budget and Finance Committee, and the Audit Committee.
While a member of the City Council, DeMaio released a number of studies and proposals on city employee compensation packages and pension benefits, arguing that salaries and benefits of city employees should be reduced to levels consistent with the local labor market. He opposed a proposal to build a new San Diego central library, saying the city could not afford it.
DeMaio also proposed a Sunshine Act, which passed the City Council with unanimous support. The ordinance imposed new disclosure and transparency reforms on city government.
DeMaio was the primary author of San Diego's June 2012 Proposition B, titled "Amendments to the San Diego City Charter Affecting Retirement Benefits," and he led the drive to put it on the ballot. Proposition B proposed (1) limiting of compensation used to calculate city employee pension benefits; (2) eliminating defined-benefit pensions for many new city employees, substituting a defined-contribution (401(k)-style) plan; (3) requiring substantially equal pension contributions from the City and employees; and (4) eliminating the right of employees/retirees to vote to change their benefits. Proposition B was approved by San Diego voters by a 2-to-1 margin on June 5, 2012.
In 2010, DeMaio supported the addition of a citizen initiative called "Competition and Transparency in City Contracts", which would require the city to seek competitive bids for some services and allow the city to outsource without the involvement of unions. However, the measure was rejected by the county registrar of voters after a random sample concluded that DeMaio had not gathered enough valid signatures. After the ballot measure was rejected, San Diego CityBeat reported that a committee called "Reforming City Hall with Carl DeMaio" had paid $16,000 to Hale Media Inc., a company owned by DeMaio's boyfriend, for signature gathering. When CityBeat contacted Jonathan Hale, he said he hadn't done any paid work for the campaign, but had only volunteered and taken photos. A campaign spokesperson said the money was reimbursement to Hale Media for paying the interns who were collecting signatures.
DeMaio also campaigned against a proposal to boost the city's sales tax by a half-a-billion dollars over five years. He argued instead to reduce the budget deficit through spending cuts and pension reform.
2012 mayoral election
In 2011, DeMaio filed papers declaring his intention to run for mayor of San Diego in 2012, when mayor Jerry Sanders would be retiring due to term limits.
In June 2011, he formally declared his candidacy. He was endorsed by the San Diego County Republican Party in March 2012. In the June 5 primary he placed first with 31.42% of the vote and advanced to a runoff election against U.S. Representative Bob Filner in November.
The U-T San Diego published a front-page endorsement of DeMaio before the June 2012 primary. The Voice of San Diego described the endorsement as unprecedented: "Actually, they weren't even on the front page — the editorials were wrapped around the page as though they were even more important."
On September 25, 2012, Sanders endorsed DeMaio to be his successor. At the time of the endorsement, a 10News and SurveyUSA poll of voters gave Filner a twelve-point lead over DeMaio.
On Election Day, DeMaio lost to Filner, 52.5% to 47.5%.
2014 congressional election
On May 30, 2013, DeMaio announced his intention to run for Congress in 2014 against incumbent Scott Peters. DeMaio was one of three openly gay Republican candidates for Congress in the 2014 elections. In February 2014, he became the first congressional candidate to feature his same-sex partner in a campaign ad.