Democratic former congresswoman Katie Porter enters race for California governorship

Former Democratic Home member Katie Porter introduced on Tuesday that she is coming into California’s 2026 gubernatorial contest, becoming a member of a crowded subject of candidates that might be upended if former vice-president Kamala Harris joins the race.

Porter, who grew to become a social media superstar by brandishing a white board at congressional hearings whereas grilling CEOs, promised in a marketing campaign launch video to be an aggressive counterweight to Donald Trump’s administration at a time when the closely Democratic state has clashed with the White Home over points from water administration to immigrant rights.

“In Congress, I held the Trump administration’s ft to the fireplace after they harm Individuals. As governor, I received’t ever again down when Trump hurts Californians – whether or not he’s holding up catastrophe aid, attacking our rights or our communities, or screwing over working households to profit himself and his cronies,” Porter mentioned.

The competition to interchange the term-limited incumbent Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, already has lured a big scrum of introduced and certain candidates.

Harris, a former state legal professional common and US senator, has not dominated out in search of the governorship since she left Washington in January after a failed presidential bid. Porter is pleasant with the Harris and has indicated she would step apart if the previous vice-president joins the race. In 2012, Harris, then California’s legal professional common, appointed Porter to be the state’s unbiased financial institution monitor in a multibillion-dollar nationwide mortgage settlement.

If Harris enters the race, “there are only a few politicians who would wish to take her on”, mentioned Claremont McKenna School political scientist Jack Pitney. “She’d be more likely to win the Democratic nomination and Democrats are more likely to win the governorship.”

Porter, who made an unsuccessful run for US Senate final yr and likewise is thought for her small-dollar fundraising prowess, turns into one of many best-known candidates, becoming a member of former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the present lieutenant governor, Eleni Kounalakis, amongst others, on the Democratic facet.

Democrats are anticipated to simply maintain the seat in a state the place they outnumber registered Republicans by practically two to at least one. Republicans haven’t received a statewide election in California in practically twenty years.

On the GOP facet, the Riverside county sheriff, Chad Bianco, final month grew to become the primary main Republican to announce a bid to interchange Newsom, whose time period runs by means of early January 2027. He blamed Democrats for the continued homeless disaster and runaway housing costs.

Even when Harris will get within the race, the state’s open main system could be unpredictable – all candidates seem on a single poll, no matter celebration, and solely the highest two vote-getters advance to the November common election. Trump-aligned candidates may enter on the GOP facet, producing conservative curiosity, or a rich candidate may emerge with the funds to rattle the anticipated order.

“These open primaries are laborious to handicap,” mentioned Democratic advisor Andrew Acosta. “It simply makes it more durable to foretell.”

Porter, a progressive favourite, created an internet backlash after dropping the 2024 Senate race, when she faulted “billionaires spending hundreds of thousands to rig this election”. She completed third within the main – behind Democrat and eventual winner Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey – and didn’t advance to the November election.

Some likened her phrases to Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020. Porter later clarified her preliminary assertion to say she didn’t imagine the California vote depend or election course of had been compromised however she didn’t recant her earlier remarks. Rigged, she mentioned in a follow-up, “means manipulated by dishonest means”.

She has been an energetic fundraiser since leaving her southern California Home district in January and returned to instructing on the College of California, Irvine, Faculty of Regulation.

A client safety legal professional earlier than her election to the Home, Porter grew to become identified in Congress for her unsparing interrogations of enterprise leaders and different committee witnesses, typically utilizing her whiteboard to interrupt down complicated figures whereas utilizing plainspoken language to assail company greed.

First elected to Congress in 2018, Porter mentioned in her video that “I first ran for workplace to carry Trump accountable. I really feel that very same name to serve now to cease him from hurting Californians.”