A poll co-sponsored by the left-leaning Los Angeles Times props up failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris as a front-runner for the 2026 California gubernatorial race.
The poll from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies shows Vice President Kamala Harris may benefit from some name recognition in a potentially crowded field, and has the support of many Democrat voters in the state. Current Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cannot seek reelection because of term limits.
“Nearly all voters in this state have an opinion of her, and that’s really the big advantage that she brings to an early poll,” said Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. “None of the other candidates are as well known to the voting public.”
Harris has not released any plans to run for governor, although she has previously joked about doing so. The poll did not match up Harris against other potential candidates, but instead pitched her on her own. The poll was conducted before the presidential election, in which the Times did not endorse a candidate.
Out of overall California voters, 33 percent say they are very likely to support her, and 13 percent say they are somewhat likely. Thirty-six percent say they are “not at all likely to support her,” while six percent say they are “not too likely,” and 12 percent are undecided.
“Still, the poll suggests that Californians could be less supportive of Harris running for governor compared with her run for president this year,” the Times reported of the poll, pointing out that Harris won the state by 59 percent in the 2024 presidential race.
RELATED: Kamala Harris Swiftly Grabs Spotlight After Biden’s Exit
Democrats are unsurprisingly more supportive than Republicans of Harris running for governor. Over half (54 percent) of Democrats say they are very likely to support her, and 18 percent say they are somewhat likely, while a whopping 84 percent of Republicans overwhelmingly reject her potential candidacy. There are nearly twice as many registered Democrats in the state as there are Republicans, state data shows.
Voters with no party preference are more split about Harris, with slightly more rejecting than excepting her. The survey found that 35 percent say they are “not at all likely to support her,” and 9 percent say they are “not too likely,” while 24 percent back her completely, and 14 percent say they are “somewhat likely.” Nearly 2 in 10 (18 percent) of voters in this category are undecided.
The poll is “the first to gauge how California feels about Harris running for governor,” according to the Times. Harris has been involved in California politics for nearly two decades, where she went from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator.
“Several years ago, she opened a campaign account to raise money to run for governor, but public filings show she shut it in 2018,” according to the report.
Separate from the survey’s question about Harris, voters were asked to choose their first and second favorites from a long list of potential candidates. DiCamillo noted that voter opinions about Harris and other candidate cannot be compared because poll respondents were not asked to pick between them.
The survey found that more than half of registered voters do not have a preference yet. Those who do say their choice has not entered the race yet.
So far, U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), who has not announced whether she is running, leads as the first or second choice of 13 percent of voters. She is followed by two Republicans said to be considering campaigns, including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (12 percent) and Sen, Brian Dahle (11 percent), who ran against Newsom in 2022.
The poll was conducted between Oct. 22 and 29 with 4,838 registered California voters. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
