Could Kamala Harris become the next governor of California?
What with Swalwell’s exit from the race and now Betty Yee’s departure, suddenly there is renewed speculation and interest in the former vice-president and defeated 2024 presidential candidate being a candidate for governor of the arguably bluest state in the union. As many have observed, there aren’t any stand-out top-tiered faces in the crowded race, and now Kamala’s is being visualized.
Certainly she has great name recognition — for good and bad reasons — and as she makes signs of joining the 2028 presidential race, there are sounds of groans within Democratic — and generally progressive — ranks of voters. And the ranks of voters not enthusiastic for Harris to run for the White House again are thick — and this gambit — having her run for governor, might just solve a couple of problems.
There’s some interesting polls out there that will challenge California voters, history and Kamala Harris.
Here’s a piece by Corey Washington at Patch published a week ago, on Apr 14th so doesn’t acknowledge Yee’s end of her campaign.
Could Kamala Harris Become CA’s Next Governor? New Poll Shows Shift After Swalwell’s Exit
Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ prospects of becoming California’s next governor are being put to the test, according to a new poll.
The poll’s distribution comes on the heels of a sexual assault scandal that prompted now-former Rep. Eric Swalwell to drop out of the California governor’s race on Saturday and resign from Congress amid bipartisan calls for his resignation. His announcement came after the start of a criminal investigation into the allegations.
The new text poll asked Californian voters if they would write in Harris on the ballot in November’s race, along with several other questions about Harris.
It also asked voters if they would support her if Harris were to run a write-in campaign.
In California, a statement of write-in candidacy must be filed between April 6 and May 19 to be eligible for November’s gubernatorial election.
Polls had Swalwell leading among his Democratic opponents in the race before the allegations of sexual assault surfaced last week. Former Congresswoman Katie Porter and billionaire Tom Steyer have been the other leading Democrats. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, have been almost tied for the lead among Republicans in most polls.
A new poll from SurveyUSA released on Tuesday shows Steyer leading among Democrats with 21 percent of likely voters and Hilton for Republicans with 18 percent.
Harris has not announced she is considering a run governor. On Friday, April 17, the former Democratic nominee for president said she is thinking about running for president again after losing the 2024 presidential election.
What do you think, dear reader? Does Harris have more than a chance to be governor?
California prohibits write-in candidates in general elections.
You are in conflict with the article. Which is right? You cite no evidence.
An error in a citizen-journalist Patch article? Inconceivable! https://archive.findlaw.com/blog/court-upholds-prop-14-bans-on-write-in-votes-unqualified-parties/
Thanks Ned for correcting the Patch post. Key phrase in the article:
“Prop 14 opponents further argued that the proposition’s prohibition against counting write-in votes on the run-off ballot contradicts the California Election Code, which explicitly provides for write-in votes.
“The court disagreed. Relying on Edelstein v. Fado, which reasoned that voters’ right to write in candidates is protected if they are permitted to write in candidates in at least one of two rounds of voting in a single election, the court found that the allowance of write-in votes in a primary election satisfies the California write-in requirement.”
No thanks. A continuation of the status quo.
Kamala Harris should do herself and everyone else a favor and retire from electoral politics.
The inherent problem with Kamala Harris is that she’s gotten paid for holding several different offices while fulfilling her own personal political ambitions, and all-the-while without seemingly ever accomplishing anything, of any significance anyway.
Every two years Kamala has ran for another office, and that should draw scrutiny. She seems to be a professional campaigner that has been collecting paychecks from the taxpayers and at great cost to the positions/offices that she, at least in part abandons in order to campaign.
Kamala was a prosecuting attorney for only a couple of years, then she ran for DA in Alameda County. 2 years into her term as Alameda County DA, Kamala ran for CA Attorney General. Two years into her term as Attorney General she ran for U.S. Senator. Two years into her first term as Senator she ran for President. Granted she was Vice President, for three years and then ran for President.
And oh yeah, she endorsed Todd Gloria…
Kamala? No.
Sure was a mixed bag of nothing at the debate yesterday. The format didn’t help either besides the questions being poor. From the article,
Those issues include housing shortages, rampant homelessness, the nation’s highest levels of unemployment and poverty, uncertain water supplies, soaring utility costs, shamefully low academic achievement in public schools and a state budget in chronic deficit.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2026/04/tv-debate-california-governor-race/