Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly weighing a 2026 bid for California governor, but one of her most prominent political mentors — and former romantic partner — says the state’s top job may not be the right fit.
In a candid interview on the State of Gold podcast, former San Francisco Mayor and longtime California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown expressed skepticism over Harris’s potential gubernatorial ambitions, warning that she may struggle both stylistically and electorally.
“I do think people running for public office really ought to fit eventually where they are trying to land at,” Brown said. “And I really do hope, frankly, that [Harris] comes to that reality.”
“Not Where She Should Be Going”
Brown, 91, was blunt in his assessment. He suggested that Harris’s strengths lie more in the legal realm — such as serving as attorney general or even as a Supreme Court justice — rather than leading a vast executive bureaucracy like California’s.
“She may not want to run for governor of the state of California,” he continued. “That may not be where she should be going. I think it’s going to be difficult for her to win that job.”
Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump in a landslide, has been the subject of intense speculation regarding her next move. While several early polls show her as a front-runner in a potential gubernatorial race to replace outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, Brown suggested the field would be crowded with capable contenders.
“There’s just so many really talented people thinking about that job,” he noted, singling out billionaire businessman and former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso as someone with “great executive potential.”
A Complicated History
Brown’s commentary is especially notable given his long personal and political history with Harris. The two were romantically involved in the mid-1990s when Harris was a rising prosecutor in Alameda County and Brown, then in his 60s, was speaker of the California State Assembly.
Their relationship reportedly began in 1994 and ended in 1995, shortly before Brown was elected San Francisco mayor while he was still married. Despite their past, Brown revealed that he and Harris haven’t spoken in recent years — notably since he advised her not to become Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.
“I’ve gotten in real trouble giving Kamala Harris advice,” he said with a laugh, though he remained complimentary. “She is bold enough, tough enough, and well-informed enough that if she would utilize that talent, she would not need a person like me giving her advice.”
A Business Approach to Governance?
Brown also offered a vision of what kind of leadership California needs — and what Harris would need to embrace if she hopes to succeed in the governor’s mansion.
“She needs to understand that the job is really running a business — a huge business,” Brown said, referencing the massive complexity of California’s $300 billion-plus annual budget and sprawling bureaucracy.
He cited the “California Forever” project — a controversial plan led by Laurene Powell Jobs and Silicon Valley investors to build a utopian city east of San Francisco — as an example of the bold, business-like innovation needed to lead the state.
“If Kamala Harris does something similar in her quest to become governor, she may get there,” Brown concluded.
Decision Looming
According to Politico, Harris is expected to make a final decision on whether to launch a gubernatorial campaign by the end of the summer. If she does enter the race, she would instantly become the most recognizable figure in a likely crowded Democratic primary.
Still, Brown’s remarks underscore the steep political and managerial challenges Harris would face in returning to California politics — even with name recognition and national experience on her side.
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I think she’s a great fit for CA. And Mamdani for NYC. The two of them can demonstrate how well their Marxist workers paradise philosophy works. And the people who vote for them deserve it.