Kamala Harris for California governor? Not so fast, said top Democrat donors who are still recovering from the former vice president’s failed presidential campaign.
So reports Politico in a stinging series of interviews with Democrat funders who remain troubled about Harris’s billion-dollar campaign, which not only failed badly but ended in debt and left lingering questions about her role in the coverup of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
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Said one unnamed, six-figure California donor in the report, “Kamala just reminds you we are in this complete shit storm. With Biden, we got bamboozled … I think she did the best she could in that situation, but obviously she knew about the cognitive decline too.”
He added, “I’ve written so many checks because I knew the Trump administration would be horrible, but we’re living in a nightmare because of the Democrats. I’m furious at them, truly.”
Others said on the record to the influential, left-leaning news outlet that what seemed a good idea at first now was being questioned.
“There was more enthusiasm at first,” said Mather Martin, a San Francisco-based fundraiser who has worked for Harris campaigns. “I think it waned a bit.
Politico wrote:
Some party funders have privately shared that ambivalence with each other as Harris has embarked on a quiet schedule of thank you visits, catch-up calls and listening sessions, touching base with her most trusted supporters as she weighs her options. The former vice president has tasked aides with exploring several paths, including not just a campaign for political office but also a philanthropic venture.
While Harris has kept a low public profile since leaving office, according to Politico she held private meetings when she was in the Bay Area in June to headline a Democratic National Committee fundraiser. It also reported she was seeking the input of loyalists who have backed her campaigns since she ran to be San Francisco’s district attorney more than 20 years ago.
Clearly, according to the interviews, the former vice president’s role in asserting President Joe Biden’s mental fitness in the latter years of his presidency is weighing on the minds of many.
Harris has yet to answer to that issue, causing former Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to criticize Harris as well as former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, tearing into the pair in late May on X. Villaraigosa is running for governor.
“For me it’s the consequences of their failure to say anything,” he said in an interview featured in the X post. “That somehow the president was ready for another four years. And the consequences of that is what I’m focused on”:
One Southern California fundraiser, who spoke to Politico anonymously, agreed.
Donors “realize it’s just going to bring up the whole pathetic last presidential, which no one wants to hear about again,” he said. “And then it’s the whole ‘Did you know Joe Biden?’ thing. She still would probably lead, but honestly, no one is incredibly pumped.”
Republicans, Politico reported in a story last week, were hoping Harris would run, writing:
Conservative pundit Steve Hilton and firebrand Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco have launched campaigns focused on what they call failed Democratic governance — a point they’ve both hammered in Fox News appearances — and are holding up Harris as a prime example.
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Harris reportedly has given herself until late summer to decide whether or not to launch a gubernatorial bid. According to Politico:
The reality, according to people who know her well, is that Harris is keeping all of her options on the table. She has tasked aides with delving deeper into three possible routes: running for governor in 2026, running for president in 2028 or exploring a role outside of elected office where she can still have an impact on civic life.
If she chooses to run, the former VP will have to address not only her record in the White House but high-profile problems plaguing the state, including the fallout from devastating wildfires and Trump administration immigration enforcement, which has led to social unrest.
“She is talking to people around the state about whether she is going to run,” Joe Cotchett, a San Francisco trial lawyer and longtime Democrat donor, told Politico. “If she does, she’s going to have very difficult problems.”
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles-based novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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