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California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris both remarked in the past few days that they’re keeping their options open for potential 2028 presidential runs.
“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom told “CBS News Sunday Morning” when asked if he would give “serious thought” to a 2028 presidential run after the 2026 midterms. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that.”
“I have no idea,” Newsom said of whether he would decide to run, adding that he has not let academic struggles from across his life prevent him from working to ascend the political ladder. “The idea that a guy who got 960 on his SAT, that still struggles to read scripts, that was always in the back of the classroom, the idea that you would even throw that out is, in and of itself, extraordinary. Who the hell knows? I’m looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that’s the question for the American people.”
Newsom long has been floated as a likely Democrat nominee for the presidency, most notably after the unprecedented 2024 race when President Joe Biden dropped out of the running amid heightened concerns over his mental acuity, and then-Vice President Harris took up the mantle in his absence. President Donald Trump ultimately swept the seven battleground states and won the popular vote and the Electoral College.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom looks on during a bill signing event related to redrawing the state’s congressional maps on August 21, 2025 in Sacramento, California. Newsom’s office said Trump is ‘attacking kids’ safety and health’ when asked about inclusion of high school trans athlete AB Hernandez. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Harris also left the door open to a potential 2028 presidential run while speaking with the BBC in an interview that aired Saturday. Harris is a longtime California Democrat who has served as San Francisco district attorney, the California attorney general, and a U.S. senator representing California before ascending the political landscape as the nation’s vice president in 2021.
“I am not done,” Harris told the UK outlet. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service, and it’s in my bones.”
Harris said during the interview that her grand-nieces would see the first female president “in their lifetime, for sure,” and that she could “possibly” be that woman, according to the BBC.
Harris brushed off polling that shows her as a 2028 Democrat outsider, saying during the interview that she historically has not listened to polling data.
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“If I listened to polls I would have not run for my first office, or my second office — and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a service at the Church of Christian Compassion, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The 2024 presidential election threw the Democrat Party into a tailspin as it continues searching for its next de facto leader. Harris published a memoir in September detailing her 107 days on the campaign trail after Biden dropped out of the race, which included a handful of shots at the former president that has caused rifts within the party to grow deeper as it looks for fresh leadership.
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Both Newsom and Harris are longtime political foes of Trump, who has railed against both of them for promoting left-wing West Coast policies, including on the national stage.
Trump, who is term limited and in the midst of his second presidency, welcomed a potential Newsom presidential run back in May, but said the California high-speed rail project intended to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles would prevent him from proceeding in a presidential race.
Former President Donald Trump is pictured at an election night watch party, on Wednesday, Nov. 6, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP/Alex Brandon)
“I would love him to run for president,” he said. “I’d love to see that, but I don’t think he’s going to be running because that one project alone — well, that, and the fires and a lot of other things — pretty much put him out of the race.”
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The “one project alone” refers to the high-speed rail project that has been plagued by delays and increased costs, with the Trump administration pulling the funding plug on the project in July.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s and Harris’ respective offices Monday morning for additional comment on their 2028 remarks and has yet to receive replies.