The vice president’s team has denied a report that she may run for governor of California if President Joe Biden loses his bid for re-election.
POLITICO reported that Kamala Harris has “joked to friends” that she’ll seek the governor’s office in her home state in 2026. Gavin Newsom, the current California governor, is term-limited and cannot seek reelection.
Harris' team said the report was untrue.
“That did not happen,” Kirsten Allen, a spokeswoman for the vice president, told the outlet. “This November, the vice president will be preparing to be inaugurated for the second term of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Harris ran for president during the last election cycle but suspended her campaign in December 2019.
"I’ve taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life. My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue," the California lawmaker wrote in a letter, per ABC News. “In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do.”
In August of 2020, Biden announced he had selected Harris as his running mate.
“I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021," Biden said in an email distributed by this campaign. “I need someone who understands that we are in a battle for the soul of this nation. And that if we’re going to get through these crises — we need to come together and unite for a better America. Kamala gets that.”
Harris was elected to the United States Senate in 2016. She previously served as attorney general of California. Her time as attorney general is marked by a number of criminal justice controversies.
According to Vox:A close examination of Harris’s record shows it’s filled with contradictions. She pushed for programs that helped people find jobs instead of putting them in prison, but also fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent. She refused to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, but also defended California’s death penalty system in court. She implemented training programs to address police officers’ racial biases, but also resisted calls to get her office to investigate certain police shootings.
Her political future after the Biden administration ends is not entirely clear.
“Harris could also decide to run for president in 2028 instead of the earlier gubernatorial race, a common move for vice presidents,” reports the Washington Examiner. “Nineteen of 49 vice presidents have run for president, with six — including Biden — winning.”
Governor Newsom has been actively campaigning on behalf of President Biden. He spoke in favor of his fellow Democrat’s reelection in South Carolina ahead of the party’s primary. He also defended Biden and his “extraordinary record” during an interview in February.
"He's doing everything he needs to do to reconcile and wrestle some common sense as it relates to a bipartisan approach to address the issue of the border where the Republicans couldn't take 'yes' for an answer because they don't want to make that a political issue," said Newsom, per Axios.
