Newsom Says He Won't Run Against Harris in Democratic Primary

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.”

“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.