Gavin Newsom is serving his last two years as the Democratic Governor of California…
Who gets to succeed him?
It is HIGHLY likely to be a Democrat…..
There IS a list of candidates….
Could the nation’s current Vice President join the list if she becomes unemployed next year?…
The contest to succeed Gavin Newsom in the nation’s biggest, bluest state is already turning bitter. And it’s still more than two years away.
California’s gubernatorial sweepstakes are well underway in a stampede for early blessings from powerful insiders, scheming among the growing field of contenders and hushed conversations with major donors.
The tortuous path to 2026 — when Newsom’s term ends — started last year and is among the longest-running electoral battles in America given the immense challenge of nurturing a statewide profile. It’s also a revealing snapshot of California in the 21st century: Candidates are engaged in a race to the left where all of the competition is in the Democratic Party, no political giants are lying in wait and none of the candidates have more than a regional base of support.
“Never has it been more true,” said Bill Wong, a veteran California Democratic operative. “California is its own little nation state.”….
….
The scramble has produced no clear favorite in the mold of Newsom in 2018 or Jerry Brown in 2010 (after Newsom stood down for him that cycle). There are no governors-in-waiting such as Ronald Reagan, who defeated the incumbent Gov. Pat Brown in 1966, or then-Sen. Pete Wilson, who beat Dianne Feinstein in 1990. There also aren’t intimidating shoo-ins like Kamala Harris or Adam Schiff, from California’s 2016 and 2024 Senate races, respectively.
“There is no big behemoth,” said Andrew Acosta, another Democratic consultant based in Sacramento, who is not involved with any of the candidates challenging for governor….
…
Vice President Kamala Harris has joked to friends that she may return to California to run for governor if Democrats lose the White House this fall, taking a page from Richard Nixon, two people familiar with her remarks said.
“That did not happen,” Harris spokesperson Kirsten Allen told POLITICO in response. “This November, the vice president will be preparing to be inaugurated for the second term of the Biden-Harris administration.”…
image…NBC News