The California governor’s race was frozen while the former vice president deliberated on her next move.
Six months ago, Kamala Harris took a break from packing up the vice president’s residence to attend a quiet meeting on Capitol Hill with a group of Black congresswomen. She had advice for them on how to steel themselves for a second Trump administration.
“She said, ‘Make sure you are being authentic to yourself, and don’t do anything because someone is asking you to do that,’” recalled Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a Democrat from Harris’ home state of California. “‘You do it because that’s what you want to do and that’s the right thing to do.’”
On Wednesday, Harris took her own advice.
“At the end of the day, when she did her own gut check — to put it in the prosecutorial parlance — she had reasonable doubt,” said Sean Clegg, one of her longest-serving political advisers.
Those words in January ultimately proved prescient, when she announced she would not seek the top post in her home state. But since that meeting on the Hill, a Harris gubernatorial bid had become almost a foregone conclusion in California political circles. Her deliberations froze the 2026 contest to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom in a state of paralysis. Public polling consistently showed Harris would start the race as the prohibitive favorite.