In a sign of California\u2019s rising status as a major hub of Democratic politics, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday he\u2019s considering a run for president in 2028 \u2014 just a day after former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made the same pronouncement.<\/p>\n
Newsom, a Democrat who has won national prominence this year pitching himself a leader of the resistance to President Trump, admitted for the first time publicly that he is seriously weighing a 2028 presidential run.<\/p>\n
In an interview with \u201cCBS News Sunday Morning<\/a>,\u201d Newsom was asked whether he would give \u201cserious thought\u201d after the 2026 midterms to a White House bid.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019d be lying otherwise,\u201d Newsom replied. \u201cI\u2019d just be lying. And I\u2019m not \u2014 I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris said this weekend in an interview with the BBC<\/a> that she expects a woman will be president in the coming year. \u201cPossibly,\u201d she said, it could be her.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not done,\u201d she said. \u201cI have lived my entire career as a life of service and it\u2019s in my bones.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s still more than three years until the November 2028 election, and entirely possible only one or neither of the two California politicians could throw their hat in the race. <\/p>\n But the early willingness of Newsom and Harris to publicly consider a White House bid shows that the Golden State is still a major hub of Democratic politics. It also sets up a potential 2028 political showdown between two of California\u2019s weightiest political figureheads.<\/p>\n For years, Newsom has denied presidential ambitions. But since Trump defeated Harris in the November 2024 election, the California governor has emerged as a vocal critic of the Trump administration\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n Under Newsom\u2019s leadership, California has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump \u2014 most noticeably against the Trump administration\u2019 deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. The governor has also become more aggressive on social media<\/a>, taking to X to taunt and troll Trump.<\/p>\n Still, Newsom, whose term ends in January 2027 and who cannot run again for governor because of term limits, cautioned that he is not rushing into a 2028 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no idea,\u201d Newsom said Sunday of whether he will actually decide to run.<\/p>\n After Trump defeated Harris in November, Harris was viewed as a possible candidate for California governor. But in July she announced that, after \u201cserious thought\u201d she would not run for the top California office.<\/p>\n \u201cFor now, my leadership \u2014 and public service \u2014 will not be in elected office,\u201d Harris said in a statement. \u201cI look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s interest in the White House raises the stakes for passing Proposition 50, a California ballot measure he has pushed \u2014 in response to a similar initiative in Texas \u2014 that would allow state Democrats to temporarily change the boundaries of U.S. House maps so that they are more favorable to Democrats. California voters will vote on Prop 50 in a special election next week.<\/p>\n Newsom has cast his effort as a response to Trump\u2019s push to redraw maps in Republican-controlled states to make them more favorable to the GOP.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s about our democracy,\u201d Newsom said in the CBS interview. \u201cIt\u2019s about the future of this republic. I think it\u2019s about, you know, what the founding fathers lived and died for, this notion of the rule of law, and not the rule of Don.\u201d <\/p>\n If Newsom is successful and Proposition 50 passes, the move could potentially help future Democratic candidates for the White House. <\/p>\n But either way, both Newsom and Harris would face high hurdles in battleground states if they ran for president. <\/p>\n Just being a Californian is a liability, some argue, at a time when Republicans depict the state as a bastion of woke ideas, high taxes and crime.<\/p>\n While California boasts the world\u2019s fifth-largest economy and is home to the massive tech powerhouse of Silicon Valley and the cultural epicenter of Hollywood, it has struggled in recent years with high housing costs and massive income inequality. In September, a study found California tied with Louisiana for the nation\u2019s highest poverty rate.<\/a><\/p>\n Newsom, 58, a former San Francisco mayor who was born to a wealthy and well-connected San Francisco family, suggested in the CBS interview that he had already surmounted significant obstacles. Early on, Newsom struggled in school and suffered from dyslexia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cWho the hell knows? I\u2019m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that\u2019s the question for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris, 61, who served as a U.S. senator and California attorney general before she became vice president in 2020 and then the Democratic Party\u2019s nominee in the 2024 presidential election<\/a>, received criticism last year after losing to Trump by more than 2.3 million votes, about 1.5% of the popular vote. Some Democrats accused her of being an elite, out of touch candidate who failed to connect with voters in battleground states who have struggled economically in recent years.<\/p>\n But speaking in Los Angeles last month as she promoted her new memoir, \u201c107 Days,\u201d Harris appeared to take little responsibility for her 2024 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote the book for many reasons, but primarily to remind us how unprecedented that election was,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n \u201cThink about it. A sitting president of the United States is running for reelection and three and a half months before the election decides not to run, and then a sitting vice president takes up the mantle to run against a former president of the United States who has been running for 10 years, with 107 days to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsom has already raised eyebrows this year by traveling to critical battleground election states.<\/p>\n In July, Newsom traveled more than 2,000 miles to South Carolina<\/a>, a state that traditionally hosts the South\u2019s first presidential primary. He said he was working to help the party win back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026. But at the time there were a dozen competitive House districts in California<\/a>. South Carolina, a staunchly conservative state, did not have a single competitive race.<\/p>\n After Newsom spoke in South Carolina, Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and renowned Democratic kingmaker who rescued former President Biden\u2019s 2020 campaign, told The Times that Newsom would be \u201ca hell of a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s demonstrated that over and over again,\u201d Clyburn said, stopping short of endorsing him. \u201cI feel good about his chances.\u201d<\/p>\n But other leading South Carolina Democrats voiced doubts that Newsom could win over working class and swing voters in battleground states.<\/p>\n Richard Harpootlian, a South Carolina attorney, former state senator and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, called Newsom \u201ca handsome man with great hair.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the party is searching for a left-of-moderate candidate who can articulate blue-collar hopes and desires,\u201d Harpootlian told The Times.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he had a track record of solving huge problems like homelessness, or the social safety net, he\u2019d be a more palatable candidate,\u201d he added. \u201cI just think he\u2019s going to have a tough time explaining why there\u2019s so many failures in California.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sign of California\u2019s rising status as a major hub of Democratic politics, Gov. 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