Ché Ahn is running to become the next governor of California. What are his thoughts about Charlie Kirk? How does his platform fundamentally differ from Gavin Newsome? Why is California AB 495 so dangerous? CBN’s Raj Nair asks Ché Ahn these questions and more.

This video was transcribed by AI.

Raj Nair:
Ché Ahn, you are running to be the next governor of our state, California. We have a lot to get into, but before we get started, I know you knew Charlie Kirk. So, how have you been processing this past week?

Ché Ahn:
Well, I met him in 2020, right before COVID hit. And he was invited to speak at a David Lanes America Renewal Project Conference. And I was another speaker there. And I was just blown away. He was 26 years old at that time, but had wisdom. He spoke so prophetically, so profoundly brilliant. And so I was drawn to him immediately. And then we had a private meeting when I sued Governor Newsom.

Later on that year in April, we opened up right after we mitigate for one month and I got in trouble. Eventually got a letter from the district attorney in Pasadena saying that I was going to be arrested one year jail term. They were going to fine us $4.5 million. Again, this is the cancer culture of Marxism that’s in the state of California. And they have the last paragraph of the letter said they reserve the right to arrest our church members, law-abiding citizens who love Jesus, who pay their taxes, meanwhile, Newsom is allowing inmates out of prison because of COVID crowdedness. And he defunded the police, he shut down four prisons as a result of that after that. And so we have come to a time, Raj, where it’s Isaiah 5:20, woe to those who call good evil, evil good.

Anyway, I met him right after I sued, and I won by God’s grace. 6-3 went all the way to Supreme Court and he wanted to meet with me. So I met with him and Pastor Jack Hibbs at Chino Hills, Calvary Chapel Church, the three of us. He was ready to get up to speak but they invited me to come and be part of the meeting and to have a private meeting with them. And since then I’ve been invited to speak at a number of his conferences in California.

In San Diego, a number of Turning Point conferences for pastors—it’s the faith department of Turning Point. But I think one of the most significant things is that he invited me to Atlanta. Turning Point was hosting 300 pastors to meet with President Trump. It ended up being 80 pastors because of the size of the room that they could acquire. And I made the cut to the 80.

But I had no idea I’d be one of four people to lay hands on President Trump and pray for him with Ben Carson, former cabinet member, Jensen Franklin, of course, the spiritual father of Atlanta, and I was their token Asian. And so I laid hands and prayed for him. But I knew it was God, and Charlie opened the door for that to happen. So I’m very, very grateful for that. He was a tremendous man of God.

And I believe this is something that I’m not starting now, but I will be following his legacy because we have an incredible ministry at USC. We’re planning another campus at USC. We already have one at UC Irvine. We have one at UCLA and we’re doing a stadium event and I need to come back and talk about this, but on the 120th anniversary of Azusa Street, we have rented out the LA Coliseum. We’re ready with the security deposit. It’s gonna cost us $2.5 million for this event, $100,000 down. And we want to fill it with Gen Z. We’re going after all the college students at UCLA, USC. We’re busing them in from UC Irvine. And then we’re gonna have Nathan Morris preach. And we’re gonna see these kids saved and discipled so that they will vote with a biblical worldview. And I’m doing this in conjunction with my campaign running for governor. So that’s the impact that Charlie’s had on me.

Raj Nair:
Wow, that’s incredible. But you know, our state is currently run by Gavin Newsom. And I saw this comedian say, you know, it’s interesting that he might be running for president. And it’s like, what’s he running on? Higher taxes or, you know, more homelessness or more genital mutilation for children? It’s kind of a head scratcher. But obviously, you and Gavin Newsom could not be more opposite. So how would you contrast your beliefs, your campaign to what we currently have in our state?

Ché Ahn:
Well, ideologically speaking, he’s extremely left. He’s woke. He’s a humanist. He’s very narcissistic. It’s all about him. As you said, he’s running for governor. For me, Jesus is my Lord, and he was a servant leader. I want to lay down my life and serve all of California. It’s not about me.

And it’s all about Jesus and his kingdom. And so I’m coming in with 52 years of walking with the Lord, 46 years of, by God’s grace, integrist ministry as a pastor. I lead a network of churches that’s in 73 nations. And I feel I have the ability to lead a very large nonprofit organization, which is more difficult than even the secular public sector, because you’re paying those people.

What I want to do is I want to find the best qualified people. The first thing as governor is you have to appoint 3,000 people. And I want to appoint righteous people because righteousness exalts a nation, righteousness exalts a state, a city, and of course, even a church and a family. It seeks first his kingdom and then his righteousness and all these things will be added unto us.

And so, it’s just totally opposite. And even the way I’m campaigning, I’m just doing it, not by even the Republican playbook. I feel my playbook is the Bible. This sounds crazy, but I’m coming of the opposite spirit. I just am coming like Jesus. I want to be like and emulate him and how I approach this.

It’s been amazing even with the fundraising. I’m putting my faith and having to trust him, and he’s met all of our needs so far and we even have a surplus of a few hundred thousand. That to me, I can’t believe because I just jumped in, Raj, just a little over a month ago and yet he’s been providing. Doors are opening up like with you. I can’t thank you enough. I love CBN. My wife and I watch that.

We watch CBN, of course, the 700 Club with Gordon. And by the way, do me a favor, if you could ask Gordon to have me on. I need to meet with him because I was on the 700 Club with Pat a number of times. He helped us with a call. In fact, Pat gave me a word of knowledge when I was seeking God for confirmation about moving to California. He was praying for all these healing miracles with Ben Kinchlow back in the day. So that dates me. But Ben Kinchlow and him were giving out words of knowledge and then he paused and said there’s a pastor that’s asking for confirmation about planting a church. The Lord says he is with you and he’s going to give you great success if you move in unity and harmony.

Well, I wrote that in my book and that book got to him and he said I got to have Ché on my show and interview him about that prophetic word I gave. And so that was a fun segment that I did with Pat Robertson. And I’ve been back a number of times.

Raj Nair:
Well, as this race heats up, obviously, we’re going to have to have you back on to continue to update us. But maybe for this specific interview, let me perhaps end with a question about this. And you mentioned Jack Hibbs. What’s your stance—I think I probably know the answer to this—on California Assembly Bill 495?

Ché Ahn:
Well, it’s an evil bill. It’s typical of all the bills. It’s an attack against parental rights and its attack on children. All the bills, when you think about it, going back to 2023 with Proposition 1, right after Roe v. was overturned on June 24th, 2022, Newsom said, well, we’re going to be a pro-choice abortion state. And so he declared the state to be a sanctuary state for abortion.

He put up seven billboards in red states saying abortion is still free and legal in California. How is it free? Our tax dollars pay for it. And then it was so evil underneath, he quoted scripture, love your neighbor as yourself. This is what love looks like. Of course, 1 Corinthians 13 says, love does not rejoice with evil, but rejoices with the truth. And he’s just putting out evil advertising.

And then he passed Proposition 1 and unfortunately the people of California voted for it because he used millions of dollars of our tax dollars to advertise, say yes on Proposition 1, just like he’s trying to do with Proposition 50 to move the line, to gerrymander the line in his favor and the Democratic favor—it is just so corrupt. And Proposition 1 codified abortion to the state constitution.

I looked at the stats of 2024, even after Roe v. Wade was overturned, we’ve had almost as many abortions as we did prior to Roe because of Proposition 1. We’ve had 1.4 million abortions. And we are the number one abortion state. What people don’t understand is that this election is a spiritual battle. It’s not the typical traditional, you know, get the votes out, raise money, be on television, all that.

It is really a spiritual battle because we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. And I believe that I’ve been involved in the spiritual warfare movement because of people like Lou Engel in my life, Cindy Jacobs in my life. I’ve been the president of The Call. We mobilized hundreds of thousands in seven stadiums just in Washington DC. We had over 400,000 25 years ago, September 2nd. I was involved in that as president and co-founder of The Call.

And I know what we need to do is to really ask God for mercy in California. And I believe he’s answering our prayers because he called a pastor to run. This is not—you know, it’s like this is crazy talk. When God called me to run, I said, please Lord, not this. I’ll do anything for you, but this. I love being a pastor. I love leading our network of churches. I have the best job. And yet, when God called me, I’ve been preaching about how we need to be activists and we need to get engaged.

We need to bring transformation and reformation. I didn’t know God was going to ask me if I would set the example and lay down my life to do this. And I said, yes, after wrestling with him. But I said, Lord, I’m weak. I need a confirmation. I need a supernatural confirmation. And I’m going to throw out a specific fleece. President Trump invited me to the White House because I met him twice in 2024. One through Charlie Kirk. He allowed me to pray for President Trump.

I said, if I get invited to the White House, I know this is a sign. So I went to our early morning prayer meeting. We have a prayer meeting five days a week at 5:30 in our church. By the way, we’ve been doing that for 30 years. So it’s not something we’re just doing because I’m running for office. It’s just part of our DNA as a church. Lou Engel imparted that to our church as a co-founder. So I went to the early morning prayer meeting and I came back and I could not believe when I opened my email, there was an email from President Trump inviting me to the White House for the National Day of Prayer at the Rose Garden. Now, Raj, I can’t make that up. Three days later, I’m at the White House because I threw that fleece. God gave me that confirmation, and it’s been crazy like that.

It’s just been amazing. Even Charlie Kirk’s assassination—I know the devil killed him. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Genesis 50:20 says what the enemy meant for evil, God’s gonna turn around and use for good. And the scripture that God gave me was John 12:24, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. God is gonna use Charlie Kirk to bring about the greatest revival. It’s already begun, but it’s gonna be more catalytic and expediting this revival and reformation in America.

And what people don’t know is that this is our strategy. This was before Charlie was assassinated—we were already planning a stadium event to reach Gen Z on April 11, 2026, on the 120th anniversary of Azusa Street. We’ve been planning this since June of 2024.

We’re reaching college students to get them to the stadium. We started another campus church at USC in August. Again, before the assassination, we were moving towards UCLA. We already have a campus at UC Irvine. So we’re doing all this. And I feel I’m carrying on the legacy, not knowing, because we were doing this before.

We’re going to continue to carry on the legacy of Charlie Kirk to reach these young people. Here’s the reason why: Even if I don’t win—and I’m going into it with a view towards winning, but I don’t have a word on that—if I can reach these college students, get them saved and discipled and for them to vote biblically, biblically in perpetuity, and we hit every single campus, we have a whole new generation of leaders that could turn this state into a conservative state that would reflect kingdom biblical values. And that’s what I’m after. That’s my end game. It’s all about Jesus and his kingdom.

Raj Nair:
Amen. Amen. Well, Ché, my friend, I appreciate your time and we’ll have you back on as the race heats up, my friend.

Ché Ahn:
Thank you so much, what an honor to be with you.