Politics
Kamala Harris gets serious about whether to run for California governor
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is seriously considering a run for governor of California — and has given herself a deadline to decide.
At a pre-Oscars party last weekend, Harris was asked by another partygoer when she would make a decision about jumping into the California governor’s race. She gave a definitive answer, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation: the end of the summer.
And in calls to supporters, allies and trusted aides in recent weeks, Harris has made clear that she plans to make a decision in a few months.
Harris’ timeline, reported here first, is the clearest indication to date that she may enter the race to succeed the termed-out Gavin Newsom in the Golden State. And, allies said, a win would almost certainly take a 2028 presidential run — which Harris is still mulling — off the table.
Harris maintains significant leads in early national polls of the field of possible candidates, yet she’s had some frank conversations with advisers and confidants in Washington about how difficult they expect the presidential primary to be.
Harris aides note she has long been intrigued by the idea of being the chief executive of the fifth-largest economy in the world and the first Black woman to be governor in America.
Harris’ public appearances since leaving office point to a politician who sees a future as a Democratic Party leader — from one coast or another.
Over the last few weeks, she made an appearance at the NAACP Image Awards to accept the Chairman’s prize. She is headed to Las Vegas, which is in an early primary state, this weekend for a moderated conversation about artificial intelligence and talking with advisers about other ways to keep her name in the national conversation.
Harris has also kept on some of her most senior and trusted aides under her newly formed organization Pioneer49, including chief of staff Sheila Nix and senior advisers Kirsten Allen and Ike Irby. Longtime advisers Brian Nelson and Minyon Moore as well as her White House chief of staff Lorraine Voles all remain key parts of her informal kitchen cabinet. Other top aides in California are waiting for the signal from Harris to engage. Since losing the election, Harris has told all her aides and allies to keep every possible path open.
“I am staying in this fight,” she repeated to allies in phone calls and at private gatherings.
Harris has yet to convene formal conversations about a run for governor.
For now, the mere prospect of her running for the top job in the state has already sent several California Democratic candidates in the 2026 field for governor looking for other options. State Attorney General Rob Bonta will seek reelection, telling Blue Light News he won’t run for governor in part because Harris was likely to clear the field if she runs.
“I hope she does. I have already raised my hand to endorse her, if she does,” Bonta said, “but I think only Kamala Harris knows the answer.”
Former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who is eyeing the race closely, has suggested she would not challenge Harris in the state’s primary where the leading two candidates, regardless of their party, advance to a November matchup.
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a close Harris ally in California who shares some of the same top consultants, would also stand aside and likely slot into another statewide race if Harris runs. Others like former state Senate leader Toni Atkins, former state Controller Betty Yee and state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond have long supported Harris. Only former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has suggested he will stay in the race, though even people close to him have shared doubts about those plans.
“Her name recognition, her favorables, her ability to run a successful campaign would have the impact of clearing the field on the Democratic side,” Bonta said. “If anyone wants to stay in, will I tell them, ‘You should leave because she’s clearing the field?’ Absolutely not. They can run. I think they’ll lose, and I will support her.”
Progressives didn’t get the earthquake they expected. Moderates are relishing in their stronger than expected showing.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, with Michigan’s marquee Democratic Senate primary still in limbo, one of Democrats’ key questions of the midterms remains unresolved: Can the party’s most progressive faction successfully compete — and go on to win — in a battleground state?
The razor-thin margin between progressive Abdul El-Sayed and moderate Rep. Haley Stevens will leave Democrats arguing about the answer regardless of who ultimately prevails.
The finger-pointing within the party has already begun.
“These guys are unbelievably cocky,” said a Democratic operative granted anonymity to speak candidly. The person was frustrated over El-Sayed’s decision to attend a pool party with progressive streamer Hasan Piker on Monday, hours before polls opened.
El-Sayed led by three points by the time both candidates addressed their supporters around 1 a.m. Wednesday, with thousands of votes yet to be counted. He performed best in the state’s wealthiest and most highly-educated places, while Stevens outperformed him in areas with lower average incomes and where fewer voters have college degrees.
But that marginal lead was a far cry from what El-Sayed and his allies had expected.
Public polling in the campaign’s closing stretch showed El-Sayed ahead of Stevens by double digits. And his campaign projected confidence they would deliver a decisive win that would cement the strength of the progressive movement in Michigan, a state crucial to the Democratic Party’s prospects of retaking the Senate in November and, eventually, the White House in 2028.
The progressive wave never materialized on Tuesday night, igniting fresh questions about the potency of the movement. Progressive candidates have notched a series of wins throughout the spring primary season in safe and competitive districts, from California to Maine. Michigan, however, was widely viewed as their biggest test yet.
“The Democratic Party is a coalition that spans everything from center to socialist,” Democratic strategist Tré Easton wrote on social media Wednesday morning in response to Tuesday’s results. “Each part needs the other.”
El-Sayed has maintained a steady lead after the polls closed, and could very well still pull off a win for his progressive coalition and advance to the general election — but instead of kicking off the next phase of his campaign with a victory lap, he’ll emerge limping out of a closer-than-foretold primary.
Even beyond the Senate race, the results were mixed: Progressive Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence won his primary for Michigan’s 7th District, but largely because two more moderate candidates had split the vote. Democratic socialist Donavan McKinney is still locked in a tight race with incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar for Michigan’s 13th District. And over in Missouri, progressive Cori Bush’s comeback bid fell apart.
“Bottom line is if [El-Sayed] wins, the DSA brand beyond major urban areas is not popular,” a national Democratic operative granted anonymity to speak candidly said early Wednesday morning. “Certainly puts a dent in the movement especially with Cori Bush’s loss.”
Stevens sent her own supporters home on an optimistic note Wednesday morning: “I’m feeling good about this race.”
El-Sayed, for his part, quickly recast his narrow lead as a victory against the barrage of spending against him from pro-Stevens groups — despite projecting enough confidence to declare he would beat Rogers “by seven” percentage points in the general election earlier on Tuesday.
“I wish I could tell you that I was declaring victory right about now. Turns out it takes a long time to count some votes in Michigan,” El-Sayed told supporters at his election night party in Detroit.
For some El-Sayed allies a win is a win, even if the final margins are close. “Any win is good, as long as it’s called tonight,” Bhaskar Sunkara, a 2020 Bernie Sanders surrogate and former DSA vice chair, told POLITICO.
Regardless of the final outcome, the race’s narrow margin ensures that the winner will have significant work to do to unify the party after an acrimonious primary riddled with personal attacks from both sides — a reality both candidates appeared to acknowledge in remarks to supporters.
“To all of our supporters here tonight, watching on TV, tomorrow we begin to mend fences,” El-Sayed said. “If your instinct is to be like, ‘I told you.’ Nope. Let’s come together to build a movement that’s even bigger, that’s even stronger, that’s even more powerful, that reaches into the very depths of this state, that reminds us the best of who we are and who we can be.”
Democrats across the state had already set their focus on uniting their deeply fractured party ahead of another likely bruising contest in the general election.
“It’s no secret that this has at once been a contentious and bruising primary, but Democrats through it all have shown resilience towards coming together following primaries,” said Chris Herweyer, an organizing director for the Kent County Democratic Party.
Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who ran for Senate before suspending her campaign a month before the primary, endorsed El-Sayed early Wednesday as he maintained a narrow advantage over Rep. Haley Stevens — another sign of swift efforts to reconcile, even as the race remained in limbo.
Republicans, meanwhile, are still hoping for an El-Sayed win. Rogers’ primary proved a bright spot for Republicans on the Senate map, where the party successfully avoided a costly and heated primary of their own and could focus early on the general election.
“El-Sayed is the preferred candidate” for Republicans, Jason Roe, a longtime Republican operative in Michigan, said in a text message. “El-Sayed is not doing very well outstate and I think that’s what a lot of Republicans are banking on. It will be very difficult for him to beat Rogers with those rural counties.”
Andrew Howard and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
Two years after former Rep. Cori Bush told the American Israel Political Affairs Committee she’d be back to “tear your kingdom down,” voters in Missouri’s 1st District again rejected her staunch criticisms of Israel and AIPAC.
Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), who unseated Bush in a 2024 primary after she became one of the first members of Congress to call the Israel-Hamas war a “genocide,” trounced the former member of “the Squad” on Tuesday night by a yawning margin.
It’s a snag for Democratic progressives who have otherwise seen a slew of primary wins campaigning on ending military aid for Israel, and who have sought to make support from AIPAC into political poison.
The race had some key differences from when they squared off two years ago. An AIPAC-backed super PAC still spent $2 million boosting Bell, but that was a far cry from the $9.3 million the group spent two years ago, according to data from ad tracker AdImpact.
And Bush got no backup this year on the airwaves from the constellation of progressive groups that rallied to her cause in 2024.
The size of Bell’s victory suggests that Democratic primary voters’ anger toward politicians who remain supportive of Israel isn’t limitless, despite public sentiment nationwide broadly moving against Israel.
Bell, who has affirmed support for Israel’s relationship with the United States, beat Bush by about six points in 2024 and appears on track to win by even more.
Bell also enjoyed the backing of establishment Democrats this year, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. Bush on the other hand, solidified her progressive bonafides with endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the Democratic Socialists of America.
South Dakota Democratic Senate nominee Julian Beaudion dropped out of the race Tuesday, a move that comes following heightened pressure from within the party to clear the way for a stronger independent candidate, according to paperwork filed with the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office.
Beaudion’s decision comes on the same day as the deadline to withdraw, and just days after he told POLITICO he was not going to leave the race. Now, independent Brian Bengs will face a one-on-one battle with Republican Sen. Mike Rounds in November.
In a statement, Beaudion likened his decision to the failed Apollo 13 mission to the moon.
“It is with a tremendous amount of gratitude to everyone who has supported our campaign mission and a great amount of sorrow, that I say, ‘Houston, we have a problem,’” he wrote.
Beaudion is the third Democrat in a deep-red Senate race who has left in order to give independents — who have polled better and raised more money — a better shot at defeating Republicans. Already, Democrats in Idaho and Nebraska have dropped out and endorsed independents.
But Montana Democrat Alani Bankhead has steadfastly insisted she will not suspend her campaign for the better-funded independent Seth Bodnar in what otherwise could be the best shot for an independent candidate to knock off a red-state Republican this fall.
Bengs, a former Democrat who was crushed by Majority Leader John Thune when he ran for Senate in 2022, has touted internal polling showing a competitive race with Rounds — but only if Beaudion exited.
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