Democrats wish Kamala Harris ran for California governor, not look to 2028: report

Many Democrats wish former Vice President Kamala Harris would have run for governor of California rather than potentially making another bid for the presidency in 2028, according to a new report.

Amid a hotly contested gubernatorial race in the Golden State in which numerous candidates are splitting the Democratic vote, The New York Times highlighted how Harris could have decisively changed this in a piece headlined, "A California Dream? Some Democrats Fear Harris Picked the Wrong Race."

"Maybe, they say, she should have run for governor instead of publicly pondering a third run for president," the Times noted.

California has an open primary system where all candidates of both parties run against each other, so hypothetically, two candidates of the same party could face each other in the general election. With Republican votes divided among only two candidates and Democratic votes divided among eight, some Democrats have worried about the potential of a Republican being elected governor.

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One example the Times recalled was "The View" co-host Sunny Hostin, who last month urged Harris to abandon her presidential ambitions in favor of state politics. 

"California, it’s like running a country," Hostin said. "I know that she’s talked about being president — I don’t know if that’s the right position for her — but my goodness, she certainly knows California."

"Instead, she has been roaming the country on a book tour, saying recently that she "might" run for president again in 2028," the Times wrote. "It’s enough to give some party loyalists heartburn. The governor’s race, they say, would have been a better bet."

While Harris was initially hailed by Democrats when she became the party's 2024 nominee after then-President Joe Biden decided to end his reelection bid, some voters have soured on her.

Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the Democratic think tank Third Way, said that Harris would have been great for the governorship. But in a presidential race, she would enter "with a real burden" of defending the past.

"It’s conceivable that she could craft a message," he told the Times. "But she’s got a lot of explaining to do."

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"It’s pretty obvious she would have dominated the race," Lara Bergthold, a California political consultant, told the Times. "It felt like it was an easy win and an easy walk into the governor’s mansion here."

Nonetheless, Bergthold said, "I get the feeling that she wants to play on the national stage."

Meanwhile, the current crop of Democratic gubernatorial candidates in California still has no frontrunner following former Rep. Eric Swalwell ending his campaign and resigning from Congress amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The Times noted that Rusty Hicks, the chairman of California’s state Democratic Party, "has urged candidates to ‘honestly assess’ whether they should remain in the race."

Democratic strategist and former Obama advisor David Axelrod said the situation is like a "high-stakes NASCAR race where the cars aren’t going very fast, but running each other off the road before one rushes to the front at the end."

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Fox News Digital reached out to Harris but did not receive an immediate reply.