California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a surprise announcement that he won’t launch a 2028 White House bid if former Vice President Kamala Harris decides to run again.
“I wouldn’t run if she ran,” Newsom told CNN in an interview that aired Monday evening.
Newsom said running against Harris, a fellow California Democrat who was the state’s attorney general before she became a senator, would be an electoral “gift” for everybody else.
“They’d enjoy the hell out of it. Mutual assured destruction. It services no greater good. Why would I do this if I wasn’t trying to serve some greater good? There would be no upside whatsoever,” said Newsom, who has been considering a White House run.
Newsom, who has not run for president before, acknowledged that an “approach to the campaign” would be to say Harris, who ran in 2020 and 2024, had had a shot and has previously run for president.
“That would be the case you’d make. Pretty good one, actually. You know, that’s objectively true,” Newsom said, adding that the Venn diagram between them had too much crossover.
“I know her base of supporters; I know her friends,” Newsom said. “I wouldn’t do that to people.”
Harris’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Newsom’s remarks.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment on his CNN remarks.
Harris has not said whether she will launch a bid for 2028. She said in July that she has “not made a decision” and that she is focused on the midterm elections.
Harris said this year that she was weighing making a third presidential run, telling the Rev. Al Sharpton at an April event that she was “thinking about it.”
Newsom, whose term as governor is up in a few months, had previously said he would decide whether to run after the midterms, telling CBS News last year that he would seriously consider the notion after the 2026 elections. He recently traveled to South Carolina — the first state to hold a Democratic primary in 2028 — and confirmed he was considering a presidential run.
