The poll conducted by POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center shows a mixed reaction to a hypothetical Harris bid for California governor.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has not yet made a decision about whether she will run for California governor in 2026–a decision she is expected to make by late summer–however, a newly released survey now provides an early temperature check about how California voters feel about her potential candidacy.
The poll conducted by POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center shows a mixed reaction to a hypothetical Harris bid for California governor. Individuals who were polled were asked to qualify their feelings about a Harris run by selecting from a range of descriptive words, including “joyful,” “mostly excited,” “indifferent,” “irritated,” “outraged,” “hopeless,” or other. Respondents were allowed to select multiple options.
The survey polled two pools of voters: those registered to vote in California and those considered “policy influencers.” The results revealed two different takeaways about how California voters feel about a potential Governor Harris.
Among registered Democratic voters, Kamala Harris received overwhelmingly enthusiastic responses. Thirty-three percent said they felt joyful about Harris’ possible run for California’s highest office, and another 41% said they were “mostly excited.” Those who felt negatively about Harris jumping into the race were in the single digits, and another quarter of Democrats said they were indifferent about the prospect.
Maybe not surprisingly, a majority of registered Republican voters in California recorded their responses as either “irritated” or “outraged.” But given Democrats’ significant advantage among California voters, Democratic voters’ enthusiasm suggests the governorship could be hers for the taking.
Despite some concerns about Harris dominating the field should she decide to run, several have already thrown their names in the hat, including California Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Congresswoman Katie Porter, former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and others. Current Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited and is unable to run for a third term. He is among a list of Democrats expected to make a bid for president in 2028.
However, among voters considered “policy influencers,” Harris received lukewarm support. Thirty-six percent of those voters concluded that they feel “indifferent” about Harris’ potential bid to serve as the Golden State’s chief executive. As Politico reports, it harkens back to Kamala Harris’ difficulty in rallying full-throttle support in California during her first presidential campaign in 2019. A Republican strategist told the outlet, “The buzz on her was better outside of California than it was in California.”
Of course, Harris’ national popularity has skyrocketed since becoming the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee last year. While she was not successful in her bid to deny President Donald Trump a second term in the White House, she managed to acquire the third highest amount of votes by any presidential candidate in only 107 days (Harris notably jumped in the race last minute after President Joe Biden dropped out three months before Election Day).
Supporters of Harris have applauded the former vice president’s 2024 run given the circumstances (including her untethered association with President Biden among voters). That is likely why Harris has not yet taken off the table the possibility of running for president again in 2028. Harris, who is relatively young by political standards at 60, could also choose to run for president beyond 2028.
After several months of remaining quiet about President Trump’s first months back in office, Harris broke her silence while giving remarks at the annual Leading Women Defined Summit.
Harris told the room of Black women, “We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats.” She continued, “And these are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear. Because, you know, there were many things that we knew would happen.”
Harris then elicited roars from the audience when she said, “I’m not here to say I told you so.”
!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(“has-featured-video”,”true”)})}();
