The former Democratic  member Katie Porter announced on Tuesday that she is entering ’s 2026 gubernatorial contest, joining a crowded field of candidates that could be upended if former vice-president  joins the race.

Porter, who became a social media celebrity by brandishing a whiteboard at congressional hearings while grilling CEOs, promised in a campaign launch video to be an aggressive counterweight to ’s administration at a time when the heavily Democratic state has clashed with the White House over issues from water management to immigrant rights.

In a campaign launch video, Porter said:
> “In Congress, I held the ’s feet to the fire when they hurt Americans. 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,” Porter said.

Kamala Harris reportedly considering run for California governor


The contest to replace the term-limited incumbent Democratic governor, , has already lured a large scrum of announced and likely candidates.

Harris, a former state attorney general and US senator, has not ruled out seeking the governorship since she left Washington in January after a failed presidential bid. Porter is friendly with Harris and has indicated she would step aside if the former vice-president joins the race. In 2012, Harris, then California’s attorney general, appointed Porter to be the state’s independent bank monitor in a multibillion-dollar nationwide mortgage settlement.

If Harris enters the race, “there are very few politicians who would want to take her on”, said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College political scientist. “She’d be likely to win the Democratic nomination, and Democrats are likely to win the governorship.”

Porter, who made an unsuccessful run for US Senate last year, ultimately losing to Adam Schiff, and also is known for her small-dollar fundraising prowess, becomes one of the best-known candidates, joining the former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the current lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, among others, on the Democratic side.

Democrats are expected to easily hold the governor’s mansion in a state where they outnumber registered Republicans by nearly two to one. Republicans have not won a statewide election in California in nearly two decades.

On the GOP side, the Riverside county sheriff, Chad Bianco, last month became the first major Republican to announce a bid to replace Newsom, whose term runs through early January 2027. He blamed Democrats for the ongoing homeless crisis and runaway housing prices.

Even if Harris gets in the race, the state’s open primary system can be unpredictable – all candidates appear on a single ballot, regardless of party, and only the top two vote-getters advance to the November general election. Trump-aligned candidates could enter on the GOP side, generating conservative interest, or a wealthy candidate could emerge with the funds to rattle the expected order.

“These open primaries are hard to handicap,” said the Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta. “It just makes it harder to predict.”

Porter, a progressive favorite, created an online backlash after losing the 2024 Senate race, when she faulted “billionaires spending millions to rig this election”. She finished third in the primary – behind Democrat and eventual winner Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey – and did not advance to the November election.



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