President Donald Trump gave some advice to his former political opponent, Kamala Harris, if she decides to enter the California gubernatorial race in 2026.
Trump, while aboard Air Force One, said there is definitely one thing Harris needs to do more of: speaking to the press.
“One thing she’s gotta do, she’s gotta start doing interviews. You can’t get away with both of them. During COVID, he [Biden] did no interviews, and he got away with it because of COVID,” Trump said, referencing former President Joe Biden‘s “basement” campaign strategy in 2020 when he was absent from a traditional campaign trail amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
While Harris was stuck with a shortened campaign in 2024 following Biden’s last-minute withdrawal from the race, she and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), were noticeably absent from the media in the roughly three months they had to pitch themselves to voters. Appearances she made were mostly with Democratic-friendly hosts such as Oprah Winfrey, the co-hosts of The View, and Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper.
Walz, who is not ruling out a run of his own for president in 2028, criticized the campaign’s media-shy approach earlier this month, lamenting how “safe” they played it and saying they “should have just rolled the dice and done the town halls.” Former campaign staffers, however, contended that Walz did not perform well in the appearances he made, most notably in the vice presidential debate.
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Harris has set a deadline to decide her next move in politics at the end of the summer. Recent polling suggests she would be a front-runner were she to enter the race for California governor, with 57% of Democratic primary voters in the state indicating they would prefer Harris.
The speculation of a Harris run for governor comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is term-limited and is widely seen as a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028.
