SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Californians have never been forced to choose between Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris, two homegrown political darlings, during any election. <\/p>\n
But if the state\u2019s registered Democrats picked now, Newsom would trounce Harris as their party\u2019s next nominee for president and have the edge over other Democratic contenders, according to a poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.<\/a> <\/p>\n Twenty-eight percent of the California Democrats who were surveyed selected the governor as their top choice in the 2028 presidential election. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) followed with 14% and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg received 11%. Harris came in fourth, with only 9% of voters in her own state naming her as their preferred Democratic nominee. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s quite a positive result for Newsom,\u201d said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. \u201cHe\u2019s separated himself from the rest of the pack, and especially when you compare him to the other major Californian in the considerations, he\u2019s three times as much as Kamala. That\u2019s quite impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n The political careers of the governor and former vice president have orbited each other but never crossed since Newsom was sworn in as San Francisco\u2019s mayor and Harris as the city\u2019s district attorney on the same day in 2004. Now the two Bay Area natives are both flirting with the 2028 presidential contest<\/a> as they travel the country promoting their life stories on respective book tours.<\/p>\n It\u2019s early days and neither politician has said they will or won\u2019t launch official campaigns for the Oval Office. The possibility remains that Californians might finally see a matchup that the two Democrats have long avoided.<\/a> <\/p>\n Newsom set his sights on the governor\u2019s office in 2010 before dropping out <\/a>and running for lieutenant governor, a largely powerless post in which he served in the shadow of Gov. Jerry Brown for eight years. Harris won election<\/a> that year as California attorney general.<\/p>\n Harris\u2019 and Newsom\u2019s paths diverged again when she chose to run for U.S. Senate in a 2016<\/a> contest to replace former Sen. Barbara Boxer and he announced his candidacy for governor in the 2018 election. <\/a> <\/p>\n When Harris jumped into the 2020 and 2024 races for the White House, Newsom said he wouldn\u2019t run against her. He\u2019s discredited the idea that the two politicians have some kind of a sibling rivalry and noted that their trajectories ran adjacent and never collided.<\/p>\n Newsom was asked again last month whether he would vie against Harris in a presidential contest. The governor said he hasn\u2019t \u201cgotten in the way of her ambition ever,\u201d and he doesn\u2019t imagine that he would in the future. His answer changed when he was pressed to respond specifically to the potential for 2028. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s fate. I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Newsom said to CNN\u2019s Dana Bash<\/a>, throwing up his hands. \u201cYou know, you can only control what you can control.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom and Harris had greater support from Black and Latino voters than white and Asian American Democrats in the new poll. She performed well among Democrats younger than 30 compared with other age groups, while Newsom fared better with older Democrats. More women selected Newsom as their first or second choice than they did Harris. <\/p>\n Neither California heavyweight performed particularly great among Democratic voters in the Bay Area, which DiCamillo called a curious finding for two politicians from the region. Support was higher for Harris and Newsom in almost every other region of the state. <\/p>\n DiCamillo believes the presence of Ocasio-Cortez on the list probably pulled some support from Harris. California voters in other recent polls were also sour on a third presidential run by Harris.<\/p>\n An Institute of Governmental Studies poll in August<\/a> gauged interest in the potential candidacy of Newsom and Harris. About 45% of the state\u2019s registered voters said they were enthusiastic about Newsom running, compared with 36% for Harris. Almost two-third of voters in that survey, and half of Democrats, said Harris should not run for president again. <\/p>\n Although Newsom clearly beat the field of candidates in the most recent poll, DiCamillo said receiving support from a little more than a quarter of those surveyed in his own backyard isn\u2019t exactly wonderful. The governor\u2019s approval rating is also down. <\/p>\n The poll found that 48% of California registered voters say they approve of the job Newsom is doing, with the same share disapproving of his performance. That marks a drop from 51% approval the last time DiCamillo asked in August. Disapproval also climbed, by 5 percentage points. <\/p>\n