Former Vice President Kamala Harris has the support of most California Democratic primary voters should she run for governor in 2026.
A poll from Emerson College Polling, Inside California Politics, and the Hill reported that 57% of primary voters in Harris’s party would vote for her in a hypothetical election. Harris is trailed by former Rep. Katie Porter at 9%, who is also fresh from a failed campaign. Nearly a fifth, 17%, remain undecided.
After Harris lost her presidential bid in November, her husband Doug Emhoff became a partner at the law firm Willkie Farr and Gallagher, which has offices in New York City. The couple has an apartment on the Upper West Side and in Los Angeles, California, and they own their home in Brentwood, California.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he wouldn’t run for governor last week but that he would endorse Harris, even though she hasn’t announced a run or filed to be a candidate. The poll found former Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa and sitting Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis at 4% each.
Harris dismissed questions about her next political campaign when she visited the site of the wildfires in the Los Angeles area last month. She said she wanted “to be in touch with my community, to be in touch with the leaders” and “support them.”
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The Democratic Party controls the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature in California. However, within 15 years, the number of Californians 65 and older will increase by 59%, while the number of children is expected to decline by 24%, with the working-age population remaining largely stagnant, according to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California. This shift, coupled with the rate at which residents are moving away from California, could lead to a different political culture by 2040.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has reached his two-term limit after surviving a recall election in 2021. Following the fires in Southern California, Newsom was served recall papers again.
