Still a ways away, the 2026 California governor’s race is already taking shape.
The field is crowded with state and national level names who have one thing in common: a desire to revive the “California dream.”
Of course, none of the candidates have a better chance at replacing term-limited California Gov. Gavin Newsom than former Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to Politico, she said she would make a decision by the end of summer. Harris would formally have until March 2026 to file paperwork and run in the primary. It’s possible Harris, who previously represented California in the U.S. Senate, has her eyes set on the office of president in 2028.
Either way, Harris made a promise at a California leadership summit: “I’m not going anywhere.”
Some candidates, like the state’s lieutenant governor, have a Plan B in place in case Harris enters the race.
Others are leaning on savvy solutions to the state’s dystopian problems like the severe housing crisis, escalating homelessness, frequent wildfires and economic inequality.
Here’s a list of candidates already in the running.
Xavier Becerra
Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra hopes to come back to Sacramento after serving in the Biden administration for the last four years. He attempted to position himself as a levelheaded leader who is willing to “scrub” the dirt.
“It reminds me of what my mom used to say to me, ‘Te lavaste bien los dientes?’ Did you brush your teeth? Did you scrub right? We’re going to have to scrub what we do. Are those laws working? Is our regulatory framework working? We’ve got to scrub so we can figure out what’s really the essence of what we have to keep,” he told KCRA 3.
Becerra helped draft and pass the Obama-era Affordable Care Act while serving in the U.S. House. As the California attorney general, he sued President Donald Trump more than 100 times, and also took on the pharmaceutical industry to lower prescription drug prices.
Katie Porter
Rep. Katie Porter launched her bid for governor in mid-March, nearly a year following her unsuccessful bid for Senate. She flipped a Republican House seat in 2018, serving for three terms. There, she earned the reputation for being a progressive lawmaker with tough questions.
“In Congress, I held the Trump administration’s feet to the fire when they hurt Americans,” she said in her gubernatorial campaign launch video.
“As governor, I won’t ever back down when Trump hurts Californians — whether he’s holding up disaster relief, attacking our rights or our communities, or screwing over working families to benefit himself and his cronies,” according to The Associated Press. Porter promised to deliver “a little bit of hope and a whole lot of grit.”
Eleni Kounalakis
In April 2023, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis became the first person to launch a bid for governor.
“I will fight fiercely to build a future where everyone — regardless of race, class, or immigration status — has the same opportunity that my family and I had,” she wrote in a Facebook post at the time, about two months into Newsom’s second term as governor.
Should Harris decide to run, Kounalakis has a backup plan to run for state treasurer in 2026, as Politico reported. Her office dismissed this as rumors.
Betty Yee
Former State Controller Betty Yee launched her bid months after Kounalakis. If either of them are elected, they would become the first female governor of California.
She also wants to focus on reforming the Golden State. “Things in California just don’t add up anymore. Families are working harder than ever, but the cost of housing, food, college, childcare, elder care, and more is moving out of our reach,” Yee said in a statement to the CAP Radio. “Together we have the grit and the power to make California add up for all of us again.”
Yee, a San Francisco native born to Chinese immigrant parents, serves as the vice chair of the California Democratic Party after nearly a decade as the state controller.
Other candidates
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will make his second attempt at securing the California governor’s office. Former state Senate leader Toni Atkins joined the race last year. She often references growing up in rural Virginia without running water.
“I certainly don’t fit the mold of past governors or even some of the candidates that will be in this race,” Atkins said last January, according to CBS News. “I’m going to lean on my story, because I think Californians are going to want someone more like them.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also announced his bid earlier this year. If elected, he would be the first Black person to take the office of California governor.
Republican candidate
Among the handful of GOP candidates is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco who joined the crowded field in February this year. He blamed Democratic officials for California’s decline, and as a law-and-order conservative, promised to fix the state’s broken policies.
Addressing the affordability crisis last week, Bianco promised to slash the state income tax if elected as governor.
“There’s nine states that don’t have a state income tax. So why does the greatest state in the country have an income tax?” he said.