Kamala Harris could be the next governor of California.
Weeks after being defeated by President-elect Donald Trump, the former Democratic presidential nominee has told her inner circle she will keep all options open, according to Politico. That could include California’s 2026 gubernatorial race.
A University of California, Berkeley poll taken shortly before the election showed one in three Golden State voters said they’d be “very likely” to vote for Harris and and another 13% consider themselves “somewhat likely” to support her.
Outgoing Rep. Katie Porter, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa are also considered potentially strong candidates for the job. Gov. Gavin Newsom has been elected twice and isn’t eligible to run again.
Harris reportedly told associates she’s “staying in the fight” after leaving her job as Vice President in January.
She got more than 74 million votes in her loss to Trump, despite having only 107 days to campaign after President Joe Biden, 82, ended his bid for reelection. Harris went to Hawaii to relax with family and senior aides after her defeat and is in reportedly no rush to decide on her next move.
Former Harris aide Brian Brokaw said told Politico his ex-boss is known to sometimes take “a painfully long time to make decisions.”
Prior to serving in the White House, the 60-year-old Oakland native spent four years representing California in the U.S. Senate. Harris was the 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017. She made that leap after spending seven years as San Francisco’s Attorney General.
Biden tapped Harris as his Vice President after she competed against him for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020.
“I picked her because she is smart and tough,” Biden told Pennsylvania sheet metal workers in October. “But most of all, I picked her because she has character and she has integrity.”
