California Governor Gavin Newsom will end his second term in 2026, and a slew of candidates are already campaigning a whole year before the gubernatorial elections on November 3, 2026.
March 6, 2026 is the deadline for candidates to file their paperwork in order to run for the June 2026 primary. Currently, 9 people have publicly announced their candidacy in hopes of leading the most populated state in the U.S.
Kamy Akhavan, managing director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, said that the race for California governor will be long, wild and expensive.
“Running the state of California is like running a large nation, so [becoming governor is a] tremendously influential position,” Akhavan said.
The California gubernatorial race uses an unusual “jungle primary system,” Akhavan explained. The November 3 election will be a final runoff between the top two candidates from the June primary, regardless of what party the candidates belong to. This means the final runoff could be two Democrats, two Republicans or one representing each party. After the November 2026 election, one of those two candidates will be the next California governor.
Of the nine candidates currently on the ballot, seven are running for the Democratic party. Akhavan said a candidate from the Democratic party is likely to win the gubernatorial race.
Among the Democratic party, several former and current leaders in the state have announced their candidacy, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former U.S. House Representative Katie Porter, former Speaker of the California State Assembly Toni Atkins and California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, among other notable candidates.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has been rumored to be considering running for California governor, according to Politico, but has not announced her candidacy. She is predicted to be the front runner of the race if she chooses to do so, according to Emerson College Polling.
Villaraigosa said he is running to be a “problem solver” and Porter said she has the “grit” to take on the governorship. Incoming president of Trojan Democrats Patrick Done said that he thinks these candidates are the front runners.
“I think those two candidates are really exciting [and] offer very different visions for [the] state of California,” Done said.
In a September 2024 forum, Atkins and Kounalakis, along with former State Controller Betty Yee and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, agreed with each other on policy, but differentiated with each other through their personal biographies. CalMatters reported that the four Democrats “sounded nearly indistinguishable in their positions.”
As California is a deep blue state, there are more notable Democratic candidates than Republican ones — but that could be an advantage for Republicans in this race, Akhavan said.
“If there’s two Republicans and they consolidate enough of the Republican vote to that number two person, whereas all the Democratic votes will be split among the other [seven], then it leaves room for the Republican candidate to end up in that second position and end up in what will be a 50/50 race in November,” Akhavan said.
One of the two notable Republican candidates is Chad Bianco, a current sheriff in Riverside County. Bianco is running to ensure public safety as a vocal advocate of Proposition 36, which allows felony charges against a defendant that had two prior drug or theft convictions.
The other Republican candidate is former political commentator and Fox News advisor Steve Hilton. He pledged to focus on “Great Jobs, Great Homes, Great Kids,” and through his campaign, Hilton said he will make California “Golden Again.”
Although Akhavan laid out a possible roadmap for a Republican victory, he still thinks it’s “extremely improbable.”
“There’s some thinking that the Republican party might be growing in California,” Akhavan said. There’s some truth to that, but there’s also a lot of truth to many people who just sat [the 2024 presidential election] out. So we didn’t see the Democratic electorate show up as it had in years past.”
For now, Akhavan said the race is “really a matter of waiting” as it isn’t known whether heavy-hitters like Kamala Harris and Rick Caruso will run for California governor.
“We’re in April 2025 and we have a long way to go until this election takes place, so I expect there to be many, many more new breaking developments between now and then,” Akhavan said. “This conversation may sound very different three months from now, so we’ll see.”
Correction: This story has been updated to accurately reflect Toni Atkins’ job title.