After being soundly defeated by President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election, Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly turning her eyes to a new political position — Governor of California.
And it could work.
Nearly half of California voters would back Harris for governor in 2026, according to a new UC Berkeley poll that suggests the defeated Democratic presidential candidate could find a path back to power in her home state.
Forty-six percent of registered voters said they would be “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to support Harris for governor, with particularly strong backing from fellow Democrats.
The poll, conducted before Harris’s presidential defeat, shows her with a significant advantage over an already crowded field of candidates seeking to succeed term-limited Governor Gavin Newsom.
“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, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. “None of the other candidates are as well known to the voting public.”
The poll reveals stark partisan divisions, with 72 percent of Democrats supporting a potential Harris candidacy compared to just 8 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of independent voters.
However, her gubernatorial support lags far behind her presidential performance in California, where she captured 58.7 percent of the vote against Trump.
Among declared and potential candidates, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter leads with 13 percent support, followed by Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco at 12 percent and state Sen. Brian Dahle at 11 percent.
Current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa each garnered 7 percent support.
The poll highlights shifting political dynamics in California, particularly among Latino voters, who Harris lost huge ground with in the 2024 election.
“The Latino vote now seems more in play than in past elections,” DiCamillo noted, pointing to stronger Republican performance among this demographic than historically seen.
Harris, who maintains a home in Los Angeles’s Brentwood neighborhood, has deep roots in California politics, serving as San Francisco district attorney, state attorney general, and U.S. senator. She previously opened a gubernatorial campaign account in 2018 before closing it, and has not commented on her post-vice presidential plans.
If successful, Harris would make history as California’s first female governor. The race draws parallels to Richard Nixon, who ran for California governor after losing the 1960 presidential election, though his bid proved unsuccessful.
The Berkeley IGS Poll surveyed 4,838 registered voters between October 22-29, with a margin of error of approximately 2 percentage points. Notably, 52 percent of voters expressed no opinion about the current candidate field, underscoring Harris’s significant name recognition advantage.