Former NBC anchor and correspondent Chuck Todd offered former Vice President Kamala Harris a direct piece of advice this week as she considers a potential run for California governor in 2026: Don’t. “Boy, I would be shocked if she does,” Todd said during an interview. “If she wants to run for president in ’28, you can’t run for governor of California in ’26. So I do think if she runs for governor, she’s made the decision she’s not running.”
The pointed remarks signal a clear departure from Todd’s earlier, more restrained coverage of Harris. As the Democratic Party continues to grapple with the fallout from her defeat to President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, emerging fissures in support for her future political career are becoming evident.
Harris has not yet confirmed whether she will run in the 2026 California governor’s race. Although she is said to have set a decision deadline for the end of the summer, several Democrats have already thrown their hats into the ring—including current Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“Here would be my warning to any conventional Democrat running for governor of California in ’26,” Todd continued. “Go look at the track record of any political party trying to win a governorship for basically 20 straight years. It doesn’t happen very often, right? And so this is 16 straight years of Democratic governance in California. It’s the longest, I think, going back nearly 100 years. Governor is the one place where voters won’t always vote their jersey color.”
“I think voters are going to be looking for somebody from the outside,” Todd said. “And I think that Harris, somebody who’s the former vice president, former U.S. senator, former district attorney in San Francisco, I just, you know, how does she sell change? She’s got to somehow run against Gavin Newsom’s governorship. So I just don’t see the path for her.”
That criticism hits particularly hard in light of Harris’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. After former President Biden suddenly bowed out, Harris launched a rushed campaign that struggled to gain momentum. Her inability to connect with working-class voters—and the view that she was simply prolonging Biden’s unpopular legacy—ultimately proved detrimental, making her yet another cautionary example for the Democratic establishment.
“If I were advising her,” Todd said, “I’d tell her, go throw yourself into the rebuild of LA and get involved with the LA Olympic Committee. Be above politics for a couple of years and come back maybe in 2030 or 2032.”
