Former Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a slate of endorsements Monday ahead of California’s June primary, but she’s steering clear of the governor’s race where anxious Democrats have been trying to winnow a crowded field to avoid being locked out of the top two.
On Monday, Harris endorsed Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis for treasurer, as well as incumbents Attorney General Rob Bonta, Controller Malia Cohen and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Kounalakis is running against two other prominent Democrats, while Bass is at serious risk of losing the mayoralty over her handling of last year’s devastating fire in the Pacific Palisades.
Harris, who considered her own bid for governor before deciding against it last summer, did not weigh in on who should succeed termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The governor’s race — the most open shot at California’s top office in decades — has attracted an unusually large number of Democratic hopefuls. Even after several high-profile exits, six prominent current or former elected officials are still running, raising fears they could split the vote and allow two top-polling Republicans to advance to the runoff in November. Nevertheless, many of the state’s leading Democrats, including Newsom, have declined to endorse.
Harris has close connections with several of the candidates, particularly former Rep. Katie Porter and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, with whom she served in the Biden administration.
In 2012, when she was California’s attorney general, Harris appointed Porter, then a professor at UC Irvine’s law school, to be the independent monitor of an $18 billion mortgage settlement with five major banks. She later endorsed and campaigned for Porter when Porter ran for Congress in 2018.
Porter and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer have also been among the top tier of Democratic candidates, though they have struggled to break through for months, often leaving former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, both Republicans, at the top of the pack.