My column for the San Francisco Chronicle on the California governor's race

I encourage Vice President Harris to make a call...

It’s time for Kamala Harris to consider California’s options instead of her own

While Harris is obviously qualified to be governor, she is also muting a campaign conversation while the rest of the field waits for her

By Jack Ohman

April 18, 2025

The 2026 California governor’s race started in earnest a few weeks ago with the entrance of former Rep. Katie Porter and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Where’s former Vice President Kamala Harris?

She’s standing on everyone’s air hose while she considers her options, which, she says, could extend to the end of the summer.

Maybe it would be more useful for her to consider California’s options instead of her own.

No doubt, Harris made a valiant effort to win the presidency with a hundred days’ notice in 2024. There are a lot of reasons why she lost, many of them not of her own doing. What’s done is done.

Now she’s mulling.

Harris has always been deliberative. That’s why she got to be San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, U.S. senator, vice president of the United States and the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

My guess is that if she decides to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 (assuming His 47th Royal Highness deigns to let the peasants vote), it would be a tougher pull.

I doubt that anyone will stand aside for her next time, like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and a coterie of other major and minor Democrats who might see a way forward.

I’m not saying Harris can’t win the nomination in 2028. She can.

But she could lose the 2026 California governor’s race very easily.

Recent polling in California shows she has a huge lead over her next-in-line rival, Porter. That can change fast. My guess is Harris is cruising on high-octane name ID, not clamoring for her as governor.

Probe a lot of California voters and you might hear that they like her, would strongly consider voting for her for governor, but I’ll bet you’d hear a lot of interest in Porter — if she can raise the money.

Porter and the rest of the field can’t raise any significant amount of money because Harris is mulling, and that parks a lot of mega-donors on the sidelines.

In 2025, the only real thing we’ve heard about Harris is that she signed with CAA, the Hollywood talent agency. Oh, in a speech the other day, she didn’t want to say I told you so, but she told us so.

Ralph Nader wrote an interesting column the other day, where he chided all the former presidents for functionally sitting on the sidelines instead of manning the barricades.

Whither Biden and Harris?

Recently, Biden has made little forays outside of Wilmington, Del., to give a speech or two, where he didn’t even use Donald Trump’s name.

Oh, Biden has signed with CAA, too.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, have been barnstorming the nation for weeks, letting it rip to huge crowds — and running like a shadow ticket for 2028. AOC is even leading Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by 15 points in a potential 2026 primary challenge in New York.

If I were Harris, I might note that. Maybe throw it into her polling and ask, “Do I represent the old political model now?”

Booker set a record on the floor of the U.S. Senate, giving a 25-hour oration that relit his pilot light for 2028.

Booker showed guts and courage, something currently in somewhat short supply around the Senate Democratic caucus.

Meanwhile, Harris mulls.

Does being California’s next governor move the ball for her? Why would she run for governor and then turn around and run for president?

It doesn’t, and she wouldn’t.

She just gets to be governor, which is fine, and she’d be a solid governor. She’s now very experienced and knows her way around K Street in Sacramento.

But is that what she really wants to do? Does California need Harris as a consolation prize governor?

Maybe it needs a stronger shot in the arm, coming off the volubly activist-if-nothing-else tenure of Newsom?

If the governor’s race were decided by people who work in and around the Legislature, you’d probably have a Gov. Toni Atkins, the former state Senate and Assembly leader who is highly regarded in Sacramento.

Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis is a nepo baby with a lot of money. Sorry. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced, but I suspect his moment has now passed.

Becerra rose to No. 4 in House Democratic leadership — a likely speaker of the House, then was named California attorney general, and, oddly, became HHS secretary. He’s unlikely to capture anyone’s imagination now.

While Harris is obviously qualified to be governor, she is also muting a campaign conversation while the rest of the field waits for her.

That’s a disservice to the people of California.

Once deferential, you now hear Porter hedge her language about whether she’d drop out in favor of Harris, and Becerra says, “What I can tell you with full confidence is, it doesn’t matter who gets in — I’m in.” Villaraigosa says he’s in it to win it, Harris or not.

No deference there.

The longer Harris waits, the more the other Democrats, minus Kounalakis, will turn up the heat on her.

If Harris does anything, she should run for president, and, while she’s doing that, she needs to show more passion than “I told you so.”

Or people will tell her so later.

Jack Ohman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist who also writes at https://substack.com/@jackohman

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Hey, You Betchas!: Hope you had a pleasant day. I went to my friend Gregory Favre’s 90th birthday today. Gregory was editor of The Bee and many other daily newspapers. I was touched by his speech. Saw many other old friends and YB supporters as well. I do like Harris, but think she should get in or get out. Nothing personal. Anyway, I’m watching Minnesota-Los Angeles and chilling. The Week in Cartoons, Annotated will post tomorrow. Hope you have a great day! —J