Former Vice President Kamala Harris may not be shutting the door on politics yet.
Harris is emerging as the Democratic frontrunner for governor of California, according to a new Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics/The Hill survey released Thursday. The poll comes amid speculation that she is gearing up to make a bid in her home state’s gubernatorial race after losing to President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
The poll found that a majority of Democratic Primary voters, 57%, would support Harris if she ran for governor of California. Another 9% said they would support former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and another 17% are undecided, according to the poll.
The poll also found that without Harris in the race, there is no clear frontrunner. When Harris is not on the hypothetical ballot, 45% are undecided while another 21% would support Porter.
“Support for Harris is strongest among women (60%), Hispanics (61%), and Black Democratic voters (64%),” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement.
“If Vice President Harris enters the Democratic Primary, she would start as the clear favorite. Without Harris in the race, the primary is wide open. Former Rep. Porter leads the pack, performing well among voters with college degrees (26%) or postgraduate degrees (25%),” he added.
Harris has been mulling over whether to toss her hat in the ring for the governor’s race. She is reportedly “instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open,” according to a report from Politico after the election.
The poll found that Newsom has a 42% job approval rating among California voters while 40% disapprove of him. Trump has a 37% job approval rating and a 53% disapproval rating.
The poll also pressed California voters on whether Trump’s order to open the dams in Central California was a good thing. Trump’s order to open the dams came in the wake of the deadly wildfires that ravaged Southern California last month, but many critics said that his order ended up wasting billions of gallons of water in the state.
The poll found 52% said opening the dams was a bad thing while 48% said it was a good thing.
The poll was conducted Feb. 10-11 among 1,000 registered voters in the state. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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