Gavin Newsom campaigning for Democrats in Aiken, South Carolina, on 4 September 2026. Photograph: Sam Wolfe/ReutersView image in fullscreenGavin Newsom campaigning for Democrats in Aiken, South Carolina, on 4 September 2026. Photograph: Sam Wolfe/ReutersGavin Newsom says he will not run for president in 2028 if Kamala Harris doesIn interview, term-limited California governor said running against former VP would ‘waste everybody’s time’
Gavin Newsom, the California governor, will not run for president if former vice-president Kamala Harris does, he said in a forthcoming interview with CNN.
Newsom and Harris, both from California, are widely viewed as two of the top establishment frontrunners in the coming Democratic presidential primary. Newsom, who terms out this year as governor, has increasingly portrayed himself as a foil to Trump and is widely viewed as positioning himself for a 2028 presidential bid.
But Newsom said running against Harris would waste voters’ time and act as a “gift from God” to their political opponents, he said.
“I wouldn’t do that to her,” Newsom told Jake Tapper, a CNN anchor. “I wouldn’t waste everybody’s time.”
Read more“The zen [sic] diagram on that, it’s pure cross over,” Newsom said. “I wouldn’t do that to people.”
Newsom said he considered running in 2024, but that he “wasn’t ready” and that he was still assessing whether he will be ready for the coming presidential primary.
“You have to meet the moment,” Newsom said. “You have to be honest with yourself. Do you represent the zeitgeist of the moment? Are you wasting everybody’s time?”
Newsom made the comments to Tapper while the two of them fly fished in the Bitterroot River of Montana, where Newsom’s in-laws own a ranch.
His apparent reluctance to challenge Harris belies his long push to gain a more prominent national profile.
Newsom has adopted a more strident tone on social media, where he routinely takes jabs at Trump. He has cultivated political “influencers” to spread awareness of his message. And he used a redistricting ballot initiative in California to help lead a national response to Trump’s attempts to manipulate the upcoming midterm elections by gerrymandering districts in conservative states to favor Republicans even more heavily.
Harris has stayed relatively quiet in comparison since losing her ill-fated presidential race against Trump in 2024, though she said publicly in July that she has yet to decide about whether to run. She lost spectacularly to Trump in 2024, in an election tainted by Joe Biden’s late exit over concerns about his apparent cognitive decline. But Harris remains a household name and a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination.
