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Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris holds a substantial lead over other potential candidates to succeed California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2026.
Despite not indicating if she intends to run in the gubernatorial race, Harris dominates the field of possible Democratic candidates in a recent Emerson College poll commissioned by KTLA parent company Nexstar Media for The Hill and Inside California Politics.
The poll surveyed registered Democrats in California earlier this month, asking who they would theoretically support in 2026.
The answer overwhelmingly was Harris.
The former U.S. Senator-turned-Veep received 57% of responses, easily surpassing the second-highest vote-getter in former Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter (9%). Of those polled, 17% said they haven’t decided yet who they would choose.
| Candidate | Support (%) |
|---|---|
| Kamala Harris | 57% |
| Katie Porter | 9% |
| Antonio Villaraigosa | 4% |
| Eleni Kounalakis | 4% |
| Toni Atkins | 3% |
| Betty Yee | 2% |
| Stephen Cloobeck | 1% |
| Tony Thurmond | 1% |
| Michael Younger | 1% |
| Someone else | 3% |
| Undecided | 17% |
“Support for Harris is strongest among women (60%), Hispanics (61%), and Black Democratic voters (64%),” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. “If Vice President Harris enters the Democratic Primary, she would start as the clear favorite. Without Harris in the race, the primary is wide open.”
Harris is no stranger to California politics, representing the state in the U.S. Senate, serving as Attorney General under Gov. Jerry Brown and holding office as the District Attorney for San Francisco.
As Joe Biden’s Vice President, Harris made history by becoming the highest-ranking female official in American history. She’s also the first African American and the first Asian American to hold the position.
Katie Porter, who represented the 45th and later the 47th Congressional Districts in Orange County, is a progressive darling known for sparring with her opponents on Capitol Hill with the help of a whiteboard as a visual aid.
Porter did not seek re-election to Congress, instead gunning for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of longtime California legislator Dianne Feinstein. Porter lost the Democratic primary to Adam Schiff, who went on to defeat Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey in the November General.
In a tie for third place among those polled with 4% voicing their support is current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis who has already announced her campaign for governor and who may have been the presumptive nominee if Harris were occupying the White House instead of Donald Trump.
Although many leaders in the Democratic party have urged Harris to announce a bid for the California Governor’s Office, she herself has not indicated any plans to do so.
The Nexstar Media poll by Emerson College was conducted earlier this week through text message and landlines. Other topics that respondents were asked to comment on were the state’s firefighting resources, the California High-Speed Rail and Newsom’s approval rating.
