Former District Attorney, California Attorney General, US Senator, and Vice President Kamala Harris (NOT PRESIDENT!) will make her big announcement this summer. Not about seeking a second, er, third bid for the White House in 2028. It’s all about 2026. Will she or won’t she run for California Governor?
California Democratic Party brass are weighing whether to give her another chance. Newsom’s polling keeps going down, while Kamala has seen a bump. Unlike the rest of the country, Californians are willing to work with the woke, broke, of joke of a Democratic Party. Trump Derangement Syndrome also lingers on in the Left Coast, and we won’t know whether Los Angeles (or even San Francisco) has learned their lessons. Voting for a Kamala is one way to stick it to Trump and his agenda.
One would think that California is moving in the right direction, though. I have mocked Newsom’s not-so-subtle intentions for President, and even in California, there has been increased movement to the right in terms of common sense on crime. Better people are getting elected locally, but California’s District attorneys, sheriffs, and mayors are non-partisan offices. Statewide constitutional offices, however, still carry the party label, so voters draw partisan conclusions. Californians have not welcomed the Republican brand yet, although there is improvement. For 2026, one poll suggested that 48% of Californians were willing to elect a Republican for governor.
Only 48%, though? It’s a terrible thought to consider, but have Californians not suffered enough? What is the matter with this state? Maryland, Massachusetts, and even Vermont have elected Republican governors in the last ten years. Are they still feeling burned because of Schwarzenegger? He didn’t live up to all the conservative hype, but he did some good.
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Maye voters are still suffering the hangover from Governor Pete Wilson and Prop 187 in 1994 ruined everything for Republicans. However, President Trump has adopted a Pete-Wilson style stance on stopping illegal immigration, and he is following through on those commitments and getting higher approval ratings. Trump lost California to Harris, but she didn’t crack 60% this time. Californians are tired of illegal immigration, crime, corruption, $8 a gallon gas, boys in girls’ sports, and the public-school perversion, too.
There is a chance for a Republican to break through.
Will Kamala Harris do the full Richard Nixon? He ran for President in 1960, lost, then he ran for governor in 1962, and lost again. Harris lost her primary bid in 2020, lost the general election bid in 2024, and possibly lose 2026. Republicans have a shot at the Sacramento top spot.
The self-assured gaslighting from Democrats is heartening for our cause. Congressman Ro Khanna (D-East Bay somewhere crazy) suggested that Harris can fix the problems piling up in California.
Sure, Ro.
Harris’ speeches are nothing but a pile-up of platitudes and pablum. She burned through $2 billion of campaign funds, lost all swing states and even the popular vote (not that it matters, since we are a republic, not a democracy). During the 2024 campaign, I was struck by the number of California Democratic incumbents who were debating their Republican challengers, even in my little assembly district in the South Bay. Adam Schiff debated Steve Garvey for the US Senate, too, though the polling indicated that Schiff was going to shiv the voters with his win in the US Senate. Why did they all debate?
Kamala was dragging down the ticket, based on the Democrats’ own internal 2024 polling. Some reports exposed that she was never ahead of Trump, despite the initial reported polling bump when she bumped Joe Biden off the ballot. Could she strike (out) again and drag the Democratic ticket across the Golden State? The left-wing Resistance has reared its confused hed, and they want to stick it to Trump and the Republicans. However, if Trump’s positive numbers hold, and he fulfills key promises on border security, crime, and the economy, the lingering failures of the Biden regime could sting and stink up Kamala’s campaign.
One thing’s for sure: if she jumps in, she all but clears the field on the Democratic side. Harris’s biggest Democratic challenger is former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who has burned bridges with the California Democratic establishment because she challenged Feinstein while she was still alive (?). Porter has pissed off the progressives as a performative politician rather than a purposeful policy maker, since she claimed “rigged elections” against Adam Schiff during the 2024 US Senate primary, echoing the “MAGA talking points” about Election 2020. The intersectionality factors are clearly in Harris’s favor: she’s female, black, Asian-Indian (depending on which cameras are rolling), and has no redeeming leadership qualities whatsoever, i.e., the perfect diversity hire.
Republicans must coalesce around one candidate, as well. So far, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has announced, having won two county-wide races, taking a stand on statewide issues, standing up for parental rights, and enacted shall-issue for concealed carry weapons permits in his county. Steve Hilton, a Fox News pundit with broad appeal and media savvy, has also jumped into the race. For Republicans to capitalize on this opportunity, they need to focus on key issues that have propelled recent conservative victories across the state. In 2020, voters rejected efforts to repeal Prop 209, which had ended affirmative action in hiring and college admissions. Voters have rejected school bonds and minimum wage hikes, yet supported a restored crackdown on crime. Republicans should not run from Trump, but they can’t coast on him either. They should tie every negative from the Biden regime to Kamala’s incompetence. Word has it that since some high-up Democrats like Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi loathe the woman, key Democratic Party leaders won’t roll out the red (or rather blue) carpet for her campaign, either. James Carville said it best: “These fundraisers are burnt,” and they won’t want to burn more of their hard-earned campaign cash on crappy Kamala.
All of this can help the GOP retake the California Governor’s mansion. But will it be enough?