Latest news with #KatiePorter
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
With Harris on the sideline, top Democratic candidates for California governor woo party loyalists
California's most loyal Democrats got a good look this weekend at the wide field of gubernatorial candidates jockeying to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom at the state Democratic Party's annual convention in Anaheim, with a few chiding former vice president and potential rival Kamala Harris. The Democrats running for governor in 2026 hurried among caucus meetings, floor speeches and after-parties, telling their personal stories and talking up their bona fides for tackling some of California's most entrenched problems, including housing affordability and the rising cost of living. All the hand-shaking and selfies were done in the absence of Harris, who would be the most prominent candidate in the race, and who has not said whether she'll run for governor in 2026 or seek the White House again in 2028. The most visible candidates at the convention were former state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former state Controller Betty Yee, with former Rep. Katie Porter, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa taking less prominent roles. With the primary still a year away, the gubernatorial race is still in limbo. Two prominent Republicans are also in the race: Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton. Read more: Villaraigosa blasts Harris and Becerra for not speaking out about Biden's decline Many Democratic activists, donors and elected officials said they were waiting to make up their minds until Harris makes up hers, because her entry into the governor's race could push some candidates off the ballot or into other statewide races. "People are kind of waiting to see what she's going to do," said Matt Savage, a delegate from San Jose, as attendees ate chia seed pudding and breakfast burritos at a breakfast hosted by Yee. "She needs to decide soon." Yee told the crowd: "Regardless of who gets in the race, we're staying in." Surrounded by canvassers who chanted his name as he talked, Cloobeck, a political newcomer, scolded Harris for not coming to the gathering of Democrats after her loss to President Trump in the November presidential election. "If she decides to get in this race, shame on her for not showing up for the most important people in the party, which is the people who are here today," Cloobeck said. "And if she doesn't have the IQ to show up, she's tone deaf once again." In a three-minute recorded video, Harris told Democrats that with Republicans working to cut taxes for the rich and dismantle efforts to fight climate change, "things are probably going to get worse before they get better." "But that is not reason to throw up our hands," Harris said. "It's a reason to roll up our sleeves." Polling shows that if Harris were to run for governor, she would have a major advantage: A November survey from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-sponsored by The Times, found that about 72% of Democrats would be very likely or somewhat likely to consider voting for her. Read more: Who is running for California governor in 2026? Meet the candidates Cloobeck said his campaign had spent "probably a couple hundred thousand dollars" on the canvassers, who wore royal blue shirts emblazoned with his name and distributed glossy invitations to a comedy night with "Roastmaster General" comedian Jeff Ross. One canvasser said he was paid $25 an hour and found the job on Craigslist. At the party's LGBTQ caucus meeting, Atkins, the only well-known gay candidate in the race, told the cheering crowd that she dreamed of making California work for others the way it had worked for her. Atkins, 62, was raised in southwest Virginia by a coal miner and a garment worker and moved to San Diego in her 20s. "California has given me every opportunity," Atkins said. "I want that promise to be true for everyone." At the Latino caucus, Villaraigosa said that the Democratic Party needs to focus on the affordability crisis facing working-class Californians, many of whom are Latinos, by tackling high gas prices, home prices, utility costs and other day-to-day cost of living challenges. Villaraigosa, 72, has been out of elected office for more than a decade. He last ran for for governor in 2018, placing a distant third in the primary behind Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. He noted that he also lost the 2001 mayor's race before winning in 2005. "Sometimes it takes two times," Villaraigosa said to the caucus. "We're ready, we're not invisible. We're going to stand up for working people and our communities." Thurmond told the crowd during the party's general session on Friday afternoon that education is "the centerpiece of our democracy." It brought his grandparents to the U.S. and saved his life after his mother died when he was 6, he said. "We must continue to be the resistance against Donald Trump's misguided policies," he said. "We will ensure that every student in this state has access to good quality education. And while we're at it, we will not allow for ICE to be on any of our school campuses.' Read more: Trump threatens to strip federal funds to California over transgender youth athletes Four candidates made brief appearances before the party's powerful organized labor caucus, trying to make the case that they would be the best choice for the state's more than 2.4 million union members. In a 45-second speech, Cloobeck told the union members that he used union labor in his hotel development projects and promised that if he were elected, he would support workers getting "full pay, full wages" if they went on strike. Yee said she'd "protect and advance your precious pension funds." She took a passing shot at Newsom's now-infamous dinner at the French Laundry in Napa Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic. Newsom attended a lobbyist's birthday party at the upscale restaurant after he had pleaded with Californians to stay home and avoid multifamily gatherings. "I'm not about gimmicks," Yee said. "I'm the least flashy person. Hell, I've not even stepped foot in the French Laundry — but I can tell you, I grew up in a Chinese laundry." Kounalakis told the party's labor meeting that her father immigrated to the U.S. at age 14 and worked his way through college as a waiter at the governor's mansion before building a successful development company in Sacramento. Her vision of California's future, she said, is massive investment in water infrastructure, clean energy infrastructure, roadway infrastructure and housing: 'We're going to build the future of this state, and we're going to do it with union labor." At the party's senior caucus meeting, Becerra told Democrats that he was raised by working-class, immigrant parents who bought their own home in Sacramento, then questioned whether a couple without college degrees could do the same today. He touted his experience fighting GOP efforts to cut Social Security Disability Insurance as a member of Congress and work lowering drug costs as President Biden's health chief. "We're going to fight for you," Becerra said. At the women's caucus, Porter, who left Congress in January after losing a run for Senate, said she was concerned that Trump's budget cuts and policies will have a disproportionate impact on mothers, children and the LGBTQ+ community. "That s— is not happening on my watch," Porter said. Ann McKeown, 66, president of the Acton-Agua Dulce Democratic Club in Los Angeles County's High Desert, said she had wanted Harris to be the president "so badly," but Porter is her top choice for governor. "Kamala is nicer than Katie Porter," McKeown said, "and we don't need nice right now." Delegate Jane Baulch-Enloe of Contra Costa County and her daughter spread the contents of their bag of Democratic Party swag across a table, taking stock of the flyers and campaign memorabilia, including a Becerra for Governor button, a clear plastic coin purse from Yee and a blue Thurmond bookmark that read, "Ban fascism, not books." Baulch-Enloe, who teaches middle school English and history, said she originally thought she'd support Thurmond because he understands education. "But now that there's so many people in the race, I'm not sure," Baulch-Enloe said. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Guardian
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Could a British Fox News personality fix Republicans' losing streak in California?
California is usually regarded as a political graveyard for ambitious Republicans, but Steve Hilton, the smiling, bald-headed former British political consultant turned Fox News personality, has a few theories of how to turn that around. Theory number one is that the Democrats, who have not lost a statewide election in almost 20 years and enjoy a supermajority in the California legislature, make the argument for change more or less by themselves, because the state has become too expensive for many of its residents and is mired in a steep budgetary crisis. Even the current governor, Gavin Newsom, argues that his party's brand has become toxic, that Democrats across the country have lost their way, and 'people don't think we make any damn sense'. The leading Democratic candidates to succeed him have been similarly blunt. 'Everything costs too much!' the former congresswoman Katie Porter says on her campaign website. 'Homes and rent are too expensive,' the former state attorney general Xavier Becerra concurs on his. 'Folks can barely cover their grocery bills. Healthcare costs are incredibly high.' To which Hilton responds gleefully: 'We know! You did it to us!' Given the depth of the malaise – 'Califailure', the title of his campaign book calls it – Hilton believes that next year's governor's race offers Republicans a unique opportunity. If even Democrats think it's time for change, he argues, wouldn't it make sense for voters to look elsewhere for a solution? And that leads him to theory number two: that an engaging, energetic, unorthodox-sounding candidate like himself might just be the man for a job. In the four weeks since he announced his run for governor, Hilton and a skeleton staff have crisscrossed the state in a distinctive white pickup truck emblazoned with the Trump-like slogan 'Make California Golden Again'. He has spoken at universities and presidential libraries, made common cause with hardcore Trump Republicans, and struck up conversations with voters in some of the most liberal corners of the state. His style has been casual – he dresses most commonly in a T-shirt and sneakers as he sits down in coffee shops or addresses so-called 'policy forums' for supporters – and he keeps a video crew close to post updates on social media and underline how little he looks or talks like a regular Republican candidate. Back in Britain, where he was an adviser to the Conservative prime minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2012 and, later, a champion of Brexit, Hilton worked largely behind the scenes. He has been much more visible since as a Fox News host and contributor, and has honed a public persona that remains unabashedly rightwing but is also adept at presenting complex political viewpoints in easily relatable terms. So far, at least, Hilton's British origins have proven more of an asset than a liability. ('He just sounds smarter because of his accent,' the moderator at a Republican gathering in Santa Barbara said. 'It's almost not fair.') Even his bare scalp has contrasted favorably in some quarters with Newsom's famously coiffed full head of hair. Hilton's core message is simple: that Californians want good jobs, good homes and good schools for their kids. And the reason too many feel these goals are eluding them, he says, is because of 'one-party rule and really bad ideas' from the Democrats. That diagnosis certainly has the potential to resonate widely, particularly among working-class voters who, according to Hilton, are 'being completely screwed' by high living costs, high taxes and a public school system whose test scores in English and math consistently lag behind the national average. 'It doesn't have to be like this,' Hilton told the Santa Barbara crowd. 'We don't have to put up with this.' The question, though, is whether Hilton is the alternative voters are craving– and that's where observers believe he may be on shakier ground, particularly since his strongest political connections are with the Trump end of the Republican party. Even Hilton's more moderate ideas reflect a standard Republican playbook of cuts to taxes, public spending and business regulations – a platform Californians have rejected time and again. Dan Schnur, a former Republican campaign consultant who teaches political communications at Berkeley and the University of Southern California, thinks that behind the moderate facade Hilton is in fact 'running pretty hard as a Maga candidate' on a range of issues from immigration to homelessness. Hilton has a slightly different theory of the case. He sees parallels between California in 2025 and Britain in the late 1970s, when it was known as the 'sick man of Europe', and envisions himself as a version of Margaret Thatcher providing a much-needed rightward course correction. He drew laughter and applause in Santa Barbara when he complained about California's 'nanny state bossy bureaucracy' – a Thatcher-inspired turn of phrase – and when he borrowed from a celebrated 1979 Conservative campaign slogan to say 'California isn't working'. Whether that message can work with independents and Democrats – constituencies he has to sway in large numbers to win – is far from clear. However much Hilton talks about 'commonsense' solutions, his early champions include Charlie Kirk, who runs the Trump-supporting youth group Turning Point, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the tech entrepreneur turned politician who is old friends with Vice-President JD Vance and is now running for governor of Ohio – both of whom would suggest he has hitched his wagon to a more radical agenda. Even when forging connections in working-class, heavily Latino East Los Angeles, Hilton has relied on a local Trump activist, now in charge of the White House faith office, who in turn introduced him to Maga-friendly grassroots groups with names like the Conservative Comadres and Lexit (for Latinos Exiting the Democratic Party). The problem is not that Hilton's new friends in East LA – many of them small business owners – do not reflect broader frustrations when they talk about working hard and having far too little to show for it. They almost certainly do. The problem is that Trump's brand of working-class populism is toxic in California – vastly more so than the Democrats – and growing only more so as Trump's chaotic second term in the White House unfolds. An LA Times opinion poll earlier this month showed 68% of Californians disapproved of the president's job performance and thought the country was on the wrong track – numbers that many political analysts expect to worsen as the effects of Trump's trade war kick in. Hilton himself makes light of this problem, arguing that if he runs an energetic, attractive enough campaign it will cut across the political spectrum and create its own momentum. 'We've just learned that California is the fourth biggest economy in the world, and that's great,' he said in an interview, 'but it isn't an economy that works for the people who live here … We are building a movement and a coalition for change.' Soon, though, he is likely to be pulled in different directions, because the logic of California's primary system requires him to beat every other Republican before he can even think about the Democrats. And, in the age of Trump, there's no competition between Republicans that does not require showing obeisance to the president. 'The association's going to be there, whether it results in a formal endorsement or not,' Schnur said. 'Trump's coat-tails are much longer in a primary than in a general election, which is good news for Hilton in the spring but a bigger obstacle in the fall.' Hilton's stiffest Republican competitor so far, the Riverside county sheriff, Todd Bianco, has already run into trouble with the Trump faithful because he took a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protesters in the wake of the George Floyd killing in 2020. (Bianco, who generally talks and acts like a Trump-aligned Republican, insists he was tricked into kneeling when he thought he was being asked to pray – a version at variance with video footage from the time.) At the Santa Barbara event, Hilton looked almost bashful when asked what Trump thought of his decision to run and gave only the vaguest of answers. It is unlikely to be the last time he will field such a question, though, or risk alienating some part of his target electorate with his response. Hilton describes the task ahead as 'possible, but difficult'. His chances most likely rest on another theory of his – that the rightward swing the country experienced last November was not a one-off, but a trend still gathering momentum. Hilton points to all the ways California was part of that national trend in 2024 – the 10 counties that flipped from blue to red, the rejection of liberal district attorneys and mayors up and down the state, the call for a stiffer approach to law and order in a key statewide ballot initiative – and concludes that 'Californians voted Republican without realising it.' The last time Trump was president, though, the midterm elections produced a major swing in the other direction, in California and across the country, and most political analysts expect the same thing next year. If office-holders can justifiably point the finger at Washington – for shortages on the shelves, or higher prices incurred by tariffs, or immigrant laborers vanishing from key industries – voters are likely to be more forgiving of their leaders' own shortcomings. 'It would be much easier to make the case against the Democratic establishment if there weren't a Republican president,' Schnur said. 'An entire generation of Californians has come of voting age automatically dismissing the possibility of supporting a Republican candidate … That doesn't mean a Republican can't get elected governor, but it's a very steep uphill fight.'
Politico
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Don't mess with high-speed rail
Presented by With help from Camille von Kaenel THIRD RAIL: Katie Porter is quickly learning a lesson Gov. Gavin Newsom knows all too well — cross high-speed rail at your peril. The former congresswoman and gubernatorial hopeful bashed the project in a TV appearance last week. 'I don't think we should BS California voters,' she told KTLA on May 7. 'They have noticed that we don't have a high-speed rail. And they have noticed we've spent money on it.' On Monday, after being greeted with chants of 'high-speed rail' at a labor event — and after she and the other six gubernatorial hopefuls voiced their support for the project — she told our Jeremy B. White that she wants to 'put people to work, and I want to get it done for Californians.' It makes sense that Porter, known for her fiscal prudence, would criticize a project with a price tag that's ballooned from $33 billion to as much as $128 billion. But her recalibration highlights an important reality of California politics: Labor unions can still make or break a statewide campaign. 'The fact that Katie Porter stepped in it and then had to walk it back in front of labor just shows Democrats have to figure out how to message this issue,' said Andrew Acosta, a veteran Democratic consultant. 'They're all trying to make these calculated decisions about how to put a campaign together.' The project has employed nearly 15,000 union workers since construction started in 2015, more than any other infrastructure undertaking in the country. 'It creates thousands upon thousands of great union jobs, jobs that you can buy a home and build your family on,' said Chris Hannan, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, after Newsom came through for the project in yesterday's budget proposal. The episode mirrors Newsom's own trajectory. The governor set off alarms among high-speed rail supporters during his 2019 State of the State speech, saying 'there simply isn't a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to L.A.' Newsom put the project front and center Wednesday in his long-awaited plan to extend the state's landmark emissions trading program, highlighting a proposal to guarantee the project at least $1 billion in funding annually alongside money for fighting wildfires and lowering utility bills. 'We're moving forward with high-speed rail,' he said. 'We're finally actually building this system out.' Threats from Trump aside, the move to convert the money from a 25 percent revenue carve-out to a minimum dollar amount gives the project stable funding that it's planning to offer bonds on. 'We worked very hard to get to a place where we have stable funding to securitize and monetize and invite some of you private sector people here to come and invest in California high-speed rail,' High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri told attendees at a rail conference Wednesday. 'So that's great news for us.' The good news for high-speed rail will also ratchet up tensions for everyone else fighting in a shrinking pool of cap-and-trade revenues as negotiations kick off. Lawmakers are looking to Newsom's move as a gauntlet. 'You'd really have to pry his fingers open,' said Senate Transportation Chair Dave Cortese. 'That would take the kind of a throwdown versus the governor that we haven't seen during his administration.' — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! MCNERNEY'S TIME: Sen. Jerry McNerney told us last month he was gearing up for a big fight against the proposed 45-mile-long tunnel rerouting water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that makes up the heart of his district. Now, with Newsom asking lawmakers Wednesday to fast-track the tunnel, it's his time to shine. He and 14 other lawmakers representing the Delta region have already written to Assembly and Senate leadership today urging them to reject the trailer bill. AND ANOTHER THING: The tunnel isn't the only thing Newsom wants to fast-track. Another trailer bill would exempt pending water quality rules for the Delta region from CEQA, preemptively eliminating litigation under the law. For more context: Newsom is pushing for the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt a series of agreements he brokered with water agencies in 2022 to limit water use and pay for habitat conservation as an alternative to the more traditional flow limits that make up the water quality rules. The board is going through the plan now and could make a final decision this year. — CvK EVERYTHING'S BIGGER THERE: Texas is now beating California on almost every metric in renewable energy development. In 2024, Texas surpassed California in total utility-scale solar for the first time, according to the annual market report from American Clean Power, a trade group. That's a result of its eighth year leading the nation in renewable energy development; in 2024 alone, Texas added 14 gigawatts in solar, wind and storage, more than second-place California at 6 GW and third-place Florida at 3 GW. California does have Texas, and the rest of the country, beat in one area: renewable energy jobs. It had 340,900 of them last year, primarily in solar but also in wind and storage, far more than second-place Texas at 126,000 jobs. — CvK STUCK ON THE DOCKS: California commercial salmon fishing season is officially history. NOAA Fisheries announced this week that it will close salmon fishing off the California and southern Oregon coasts for the 2025-26 season, Daniel Cusick reports for POLITICO's E&E News. The decision comes after the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted last month to recommend a complete commercial salmon fishing closure and 7,000 Chinook salmon quota for recreational fishing. The decision is a blow for one of California's most lucrative commercial fisheries, which has been sidelined for two years already amid declining salmon populations linked to low water levels in rivers and streams where they spawn. NOAA's closure starts Friday and will be in place until mid-May of next year. — AN ON CAP-AND-TRADE: The California Chamber of Commerce is staking out a 'don't rock the boat' position as state officials kick off negotiations on the future of the state's cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases in earnest. In a letter to legislative leaders Thursday, the business group urged lawmakers to quickly pass an extension to the program to avoid market uncertainty that could cost the state 'billions' of dollars — and to avoid changes to the program some environmental groups are pushing in the name of further emissions reductions, like a decrease in the number of free allowances to businesses. 'Stable rules keep allowance prices predictable, predictable prices keep capital cheap, and cheap capital drives the scale and speed of emissions-cutting innovation California needs to cost-effectively hit its climate goals while protecting businesses and consumers and maintaining global competitiveness,' wrote CalChamber policy advocate Jonathan Kendrick. The letter follows Newsom's proposal Wednesday to reauthorize the landmark climate program, in which he avoided reforms and rebranded the program 'cap and invest' in line with his focus on its revenues. — CvK — The Trump administration slashed grants to study the Moss Landing battery facility, which caught fire in January. — California should nix its carbon offset trading system and instead require polluters to buy credits directly from the state, University of California, Berkeley, carbon trading researchers write in an op-ed. — Tesla told customers they had to return leased Model 3 sedans that would be turned into robotaxis — and instead sold them to new buyers.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kamala Harris holds lead in hypothetical California governor race, poll shows
(KTLA) – Former Vice President Kamala Harris would enjoy a wide lead over the rest of the field if she were to enter the 2026 race for California governor, according to an Inside California Politics/Emerson College poll released Thursday. The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted April 12-14 and included 18 hypothetical candidates for the June 2026 primary. The poll found that 31% of those who plan to vote would support Harris if she were to enter the race. Fellow Democrat Katie Porter follows with 8%, while 4% support Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican. Biden alleges Trump has 'taken a hatchet' to Social Security in post-presidency speech 'How competitive the 2026 gubernatorial primary in California is depends on whether Harris runs. Other candidacies, like Katie Porter's, are contingent on whether the former vice president enters the race,' said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. 'Harris garners 49% of Democrats, while Porter gets 13%. Without Harris in the race, Porter's support among Democrats rises to 21%, which would make her an early frontrunner in a crowded field.' The polling subjects, however, were split on whether Harris should run. Fifty percent said the former California attorney general and U.S. senator should enter the race, and 50% said she should not. The poll also asked voters to weigh in on several other topics, including Gov. Gavin Newsom's political future, President Donald Trump's tariff wars, and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said Newsom should not run for president in 2028, while 41% thought he should. When broken down by party affiliation, 61% of registered Democrats thought Newsom should run, while 78% of Republicans and 75% of independents said he should not. California voters generally saw the president's tariffs as more of a tax on the consumer than a tax on trade partners, 60% to 22%, according to the poll. Eighteen percent viewed it as neither. Once again, party affiliation shifted the numbers. Dodger Stadium, Universal Studios among venues for 2028 LA Olympics 'A majority of Democrats, 77%, and half of independent voters see tariffs as more of a tax on the consumer, while 48% of Republican voters see them as more of a tax on the foreign country,' Kimball added. Regarding the 2028 L.A. Summer Games, 32% are very interested in the games, 44% are somewhat interested, and 24% are not interested at all, the poll found. A majority of California voters, or 58%, would want to see the Olympic Games in person if they could afford it, while 42% would not, the poll indicated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Harris would lead California governor primary, but half say she shouldn't run: Poll
Former Vice President Kamala Harris leads in a hypothetical gubernatorial primary in her home state of California, according to a new poll, but half of voters say they do not think she should enter the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). The survey from Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill found 31 percent of those who plan to vote in the nonpartisan primary would pick Harris if she runs. Former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who has already launched a bid, comes in second with 8 percent support. Nearly 4 in 10 voters, 39 percent, are undecided in the race more than a year out from the primary. Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco pulled in 4 percent support, while more than a dozen other names tested got 2 percent or less each. Harris is viewed as the clear frontrunner for governor should she enter the race, but the poll found some reticience among voters. Fifty-percent in the poll said the former California state attorney general and U.S. senator should run for governor, while 50 percent said she shouldn't. That divide comes as the former vice president is also showing up in early polling as a top potential presidential candidate for Democrats in 2028 should she launch a third White House bid. Harris has yet to signal her plans but said earlier this month that she's 'not going anywhere.' She's reportedly aiming to decide on a gubernatorial campaign by the end of summer. Until then, some observers have seen the field as effectively frozen as donors and candidates ready for her potential entry. 'How competitive the 2026 gubernatorial primary in California depends on whether or not Harris runs — other candidacies, like Katie Porter's, are contingent on whether or not the former Vice President enters the race,' said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, in a release. Without Harris in the running, Porter's support among Democrats climbs from 13 percent to 21 percent — underscoring the impact Harris's decision could have on the contest. Democrats are expected to hold onto the seat in the blue stronghold state next year. Former Biden Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra earlier this month joined Poter, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D), former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Senate Leader Toni Atkins (D), and former state Controller Betty Yee (D) among the Democratic contenders. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) in February decided against a run for governor and told Politico he'd support Harris if she ran, saying her candidacy 'would be field-clearing.' On the Republican side, President Trump's special envoy Richard Grenell has said he 'may not be able to resist' running if Harris gets in. The Emerson College Polling California survey was conducted April 12-14 among 1,000 registered California voters with a credibility interval, similar to a poll's margin of error, of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The 2026 hypothetical primary question, including only those who said they would vote in the primary, had a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
