Vice President Kamala Harris has joked about returning to California to run for governor in 2026 when incumbent Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ends his second and final term.
Politico reported on Thursday, in an overview of potential gubernatorial candidates, that the former California Attorney General and U.S. Senator could make a run:
Vice President Kamala Harris has joked to friends that she may return to California to run for governor if Democrats lose the White House this fall, taking a page from Richard Nixon, two people familiar with her remarks said.
“That did not happen,” Harris spokesperson Kirsten Allen told POLITICO in response. “This November, the vice president will be preparing to be inaugurated for the second term of the Biden-Harris administration.”
The issue came up in Thursday’s White House press briefing, when a reporter asked about it. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who cannot answer questions about partisan politics from the podium, appeared to dodge the issue:
Q — that Vice President Harris is telling friends that she may go back to California and run for governor if the election does not go her way?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: (Laughs.) That is news to me. I — I would say this. The Vice President has been a great partner to this President. He is appreciative of the work that she has done. It is impressive what she has been able to do on these tours that she has done on reproductive rights, her leadership on gun violence — to fight gun violence across the country — prevention, obviously, in leading the — in the first historic office coming out of the White House.
She has been an amazing partner, and the President appreciates her, appreciates her leadership. And that’s all I’ll say to that.
Harris polls consistently poorly, which is why she is rarely mentioned as a potential substitute for President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential race, were he to step aside. Her 2020 presidential campaign ended in December 2019.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
