In a bold and unprecedented move, failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris is reportedly eyeing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s job. The move would significantly shift her political trajectory after she was largely defeated by President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election. However, conservatives argue that her time as California attorney general would mirror her agenda as a governor.
According to a CNN report, several top aides are urging Harris to run for governor in 2026 despite polling as one of the most unliked vice presidents in U.S. history. The report noted that the decision will depend on whether Democrats believe the outgoing vice president has a strong chance of winning the party’s presidential nomination in what is expected to be a highly competitive primary in 2028. Half the party appears to be split on whether Harris should try her chance at the White House again or take a different path.
The governor’s race, meanwhile, looks like a lay-up: Harris was elected statewide three times and served 10 years combined as state attorney general and US senator, and when asked by CNN, several major candidates made clear either directly or through aides that they would likely step aside if she got in. In CNN’s conversation with over a dozen current and former Harris advisers and other top California Democratic players, the only consensus around the vice president is that she likely can’t do both, since that would essentially require launching a presidential campaign soon after being sworn in as governor. Harris will need to decide very soon after Trump’s inauguration if she will quickly give up on her dream of being president – which she feels got short shrift from the circumstances of this year – and instead go for a job that, while one of the most powerful in American politics, would clearly be a fallback.
The report highlighted the tight timeline Harris would need to follow if she ultimately decides to run for Newsom’s seat. It pointed out that, at the latest, she must have a clear agenda for a potential governorship by the summer of 2025.
“What she’s been saying to people over the last couple of weeks, donors, other supporters that she’s been talking with, is you haven’t seen the last of me, I’m not going quietly into the night,” CNN’s Issac Devore said. “Advisors, people close to her, are debating about what that means. They do not want her final official act ever to be essentially certifying Donald Trump’s win over her, especially four years after January 6. And so they look at this governor’s race in California in 2026, and it seems to them like a layup, essentially, that she would probably clear the field or mostly clear the field, and she would get to be governor of California.”
A former advisor to Harris said that a run for governor would be more like a “capstone” rather than a “stepping stone,” adding that “if you’re thinking of running for president in 2028, the worst thing you can do is run for governor in 2026.”
Meanwhile, another believed that Harris could win the presidential race once Trump was out of office and that the gubernatorial race would be distracting.
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