Newsom, Harris are both looking to run for president in 2028

In a sign of California’s growing status as a major center of Democratic politics, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he is considering a run for president in 2028 — just one day after the news that former Vice President Kamala Harris announced it.

Newsom, a Democrat who rose to national prominence this year by positioning himself as the leader of the resistance against President Trump, has acknowledged publicly for the first time that he is carefully weighing a 2028 presidential bid.

In an interview withCBS News Sunday MorningNewsom was asked if he would give “serious thought” to a White House bid after the 2026 midterms.

“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom replied. “I’ll just lie. And I’m not—I can’t do it.”

Harris said in a speech Interview with the BBC Posting this weekend that he hopes to see a woman president in the coming years. “Maybe,” she said, “it might be her.”

“I didn’t,” she said. “I’ve lived my entire career as a life of service, and it’s in my bones.”

With more than three years until the November 2028 election, it’s entirely possible that only one or neither of California’s two politicians will finally throw their hat into the race.

But the initial reluctance of Newsom and Harris to publicly consider a White House bid shows that the Golden State remains a central power base in Democratic politics. It also sets up a potential 2028 political contest between two of California’s most popular and nationally polarizing political figures.

For years, Newsom has denied presidential aspirations, even as pundits considered him a potential candidate. But after Trump defeated Harris in the November 2024 election, the California governor emerged as a more vocal, combative critic of the Trump administration’s agenda.

“This is Gavin Newsom finally saying out loud what everyone has been crying out for years,” said Thad Koser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “He has clear presidential aspirations and is now ready to own them.”

Under Newsom’s leadership, California has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump — particularly against the Republican administration’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles. He also became the governor Too aggressive on social mediataking to X to mock and troll Trump.

Still, Newsom, whose term as governor ends in January 2027 and who cannot run again because of term limits, cautioned that he is not rushing into a 2028 presidential campaign.

“I don’t know,” Newsom said Sunday about whether he would actually decide to run.

Kosar said Newsom may have been motivated to express presidential aspirations now that Harris has shown interest in her running for office.

“There’s a concern that Gavin Newsom will be unseated by another very popular California Democrat if he doesn’t join the field and at the same time embrace his presidential aspirations,” Kosar said.

But Kosar stressed that Newsome has always been interested in running from time to time.

“Now, the political success that he’s had in his strong opposition to President Trump on immigration crackdowns, the deployment of the National Guard and potentially now on redistricting has elevated him in the field,” he said. “That means his time might be now.”

After Trump defeated Harris in November, she was seen as a possible candidate for governor of California. But in July she announced that after “serious consideration,” she would run for California’s top office.

“For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office,” Harris said in a statement. “I look forward to returning and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the country to fight fear, and sharing more details about my own plans in the coming months.”

Newsom’s interest in the White House is tied to the passage of Proposition 50, a California ballot measure that he has pushed – in response to a similar initiative in Texas – that would allow state Democrats to temporarily change the boundaries of US House maps so that they are more favorable to Democrats. California voters will vote on Proposition 50 in a special election next week.

Newsom promoted his effort to redraw maps in Republican-held states in response to Trump’s push to make them favor the GOP. Some blue states have rules that prevent political gerrymandering, but Virginia is now following California’s lead, and a few others, such as Illinois and Maryland, are weighing similar actions.

“I think it’s about our democracy,” Newsom said in a CBS interview. “It’s about the future of this republic. I think it’s about, you know, what the founding fathers lived and died for, this idea of ​​the rule of law, not the rule of law.”

If Newsom wins and Proposition 50 passes, it could help future Democratic candidates’ White House bids.

But either way, both Newsom and Harris will face high odds on the battlefield if they run for president.

Just being a Californian is a liability, some argue, at a time when Republicans portray the state as a hotbed of “wake” ideas, high taxes and crime.

While California boasts the world’s fifth-largest economy and is home to major tech powerhouse Silicon Valley and cultural center Hollywood, it has struggled in recent years with high housing costs and huge income inequality. In September, a study found California is tied with Louisiana for the nation’s highest poverty rate.

Although Harris and Newsom are both from the Bay Area and have worked toward the Democratic political system in San Francisco, they have yet to run for the same office.

“We were kind of on the road, but it was always close,” Newsom told The Times last year after Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee. “Violence was a kind of expression of panditism.”

Newsom and Harris have parallel, but not overlapping, political careers, Kosar said.

“It will move them from cooperation to competition,” he said. “But that’s part of politics.”

Newsom, 58, a former San Francisco mayor who was born into a well-connected San Francisco family, suggested in a CBS interview that he overcame significant obstacles to get to this point. Initially, Newsom struggled in school and suffered from dyslexia.

“The idea that a guy who got a 960 on his SAT, who still struggled to read scripts, that he was always in the back of the class, the idea that you’d even pull him out, that in itself is extraordinary,” Newsom said. Newsom said. “Who knows? I’m looking at who presents themselves in 2028 and who fulfills that moment. And that’s a question for the American people.”

Harris, 61, who was born in Oakland to immigrant parents and raised in Berkeley, was a San Francisco district attorney before she served as California attorney general, became a U.S. senator and vice president in 2021 and then became the Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election.

She drew criticism last year when she lost to Trump not only in the Electoral College but also in the popular vote — by nearly 2.3 million votes. Some Democrats accused her of being a bigoted and out-of-touch candidate who failed to connect with battleground voters who have struggled economically in recent years.

But speaking out in Los Angeles last month as she promoted her new memoir, “107 Days.” Harris no appears Reflect on any mistakes she may have made 2024.

“I wrote the book for many reasons, but primarily to remind us how extraordinary this election was,” she said.

“Think about it, a sitting President of the United States runs for re-election and decides not to run 3 1/2 months before the election, and then the Vice President takes office to run for re-election for 10 years within 107 days of the former President of the United States.”

Harris’ book received some criticism for keeping score and dishing out dirt on Democrats who did not immediately support her bid for the Democratic nomination. When she called Newsom, she wrote, he texted her that he was hiking and would call her back. According to Harris, he never did.

Earlier this year, Newsom raised eyebrows by traveling to key battleground states.

In July, Newsom traveled more than 2,000 miles to South Carolinaa state that traditionally hosts the South’s first presidential primary. He said he is helping the party win back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026. A dozen competitive housing districts in California. South Carolina, a staunchly conservative state, does not have a single race.

After Newsom spoke at a rally in Camden, SC, James Claiborne, the highest-ranking black member of Congress and a prominent Democratic kingmaker who played a key role in saving Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, told the Times that Newsom would be “a hell of a candidate.”

But other leading South Carolina Democrats expressed doubt that Newsom could win over the working class and convert voters in battleground states.

Richard Harpotlan, a South Carolina lawyer and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, called Newsom “a handsome man with big hair.”

But he said the party was looking for someone else: “a moderate-left candidate who can articulate the aspirations and demands of blue-collar workers.”

“If he had a record of solving big problems like homelessness, or the social safety net, he would be a more palatable candidate,” Harpotlan said. “I just think he’s going to have a hard time explaining why there are so many failures in California.”

Kosar said Newsom had long grappled with the question of whether he could reach a wider, more mainstream audience.

“She certainly took on the challenge of being more Californian and more Democratic to win last November,” he said, noting that Newsom has run a national ad campaign defending California values ​​in red states, debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and appeared on a series of conservative podcasts.

“He’s been trying to fight that narrative — and build a centrist reputation that will win him over — for a while,” Kosar said.