Kamala Harris 2026 Campaign For Governor Just Evaporated
Written by Chriss W. Street
Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris may have lost her campaign for the Presidency, but by demonstrating she could fund-raise over $1 billion in just 107 days made her the favorite to run for California Governor in 2026. That all ended last week as Harris environmental and anti-infrastructure policies as California Attorney General and U.S. Senator are getting blamed for the scale of Southern California wildfire deaths and destruction.
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s political action committee raised $23,240,059 from 2,312 ($200+) for his 2024 re-election campaign. Coupled with the state’s lopsided 46.82% Democrat and just 22.23% Republican party registrationpercentages, Newsom’s war chest scared off any meaningful Republican challenger.
With Newsom termed out, Kamala Harris top aides have been talking about a 2026 California governor race as a “lay-up.” The UC Berkeley Institute for Government Studies most recent statewide polling found “72% of Democrats said they would be very likely or somewhat likely to consider Harris for governor, compared with 8% of Republicans and 38% of voters with no party preference.
“Nearly all voters in this state have an opinion of her, and that’s really the big advantage that she brings to an early poll,” said Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. “None of the other candidates are as well known to the voting public.”
Harris resonated with large and small Democrat donors that demanded climate change be a core priority in the 2024 presidential election, which had tended to stay on the sidelines when President Joe Biden was the party's nominee.
According to top Democrat operative Patti Solis Doyle, enthusiasm spiked as hard left Democrats flooded the Harris campaign coffers at the rate of about $100 million in cash per week.
Despite criticism of paying celebrities like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé to hold grandiose events, and spending $600 million on paid media campaigns, no one doubted Harris ability to raise and spend record amounts to win the 2026 California governor’s race.
Harris as California's junior Senator from 2017 to 2021, co-sponsored a federal bill knick-named the ‘Green New Deal.’ The text of the legislation demanded “eliminating pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as much as technologically feasible.”It did not ban fossil fuel consumption, but set a goal of “meeting 100% of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources.”
Harris in her short-lived 2019 campaign for president, backed expanding the Green New Deal to a national ban on hydraulic fracking and termination of all drilling ion federal land. Harris as Vice President, cast the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that raised taxes by $1 trillion and included $500 billion on electric car subsidies.
But enthusiasm for a Harris 2026 governor race evaporated last week as her strident opposition to building dams, reservoirs and a reliable electric grid are being blamed by many of her limousine liberal donor base that are experiencing the shock and awe of water hydrants running dry as their Palisades mansions burn in a fire storm.
