Congresswoman Katie Porter Inches Closer to 2026 Gubernatorial Run

Build up for a possible Gubernatorial run for Orange County Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA) continued over the weekend, with Porter herself offering up further hints on the matter.

Gubernatorial candidates have been slowly trickling into the Gubernatorial race since April 2023 when Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis became the first major candidate to declare her intent to run a full three and a half years before the election. Since then, on the Democratic side, she has been joined by six others, including the major candidates of State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), Former State Controller Betty Yee, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. On the GOP side, no major candidate has come forward yet, although two have declared so far, including Vice President of Zacky Farms, Leo Zacky.

Others not yet in the race have been widely speculated on, with many expected to give serious consideration for the race following the 2024 election, or at the very least, give confirmation if they will or will not run. For the Democrats, this has included Attorney General Rob Bonta, 2022 L.A. Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Meanwhile, the GOP currently has State Senator and 2022 Gubernatorial candidate Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, and Fox New Host and former advisor to UK Prime Minister David Cameron Steve Hilton all as possible candidates.

However, the biggest name in recent weeks has been Porter, whose political future had been rocked heavily throughout 2024. A year ago, in October 2023, Porter had been widely expected to be the main candidate running against Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the California U.S. Senate race. She had been so confident that she had actually dropped out of her Congressional race to focus on her Senate run. However, an out of left field run by former baseball star Steve Garvey led to her placing a distant third in the primary. The humiliating loss, compounded by Porter going on a rant about the election being “rigged”, quickly lost her credibility. With her House term now expiring, speculation grew as to what she would do next, ranging from going back to being a Professor to running for another office like the state Assembly to possibly putting her name in for a Harris administration cabinet post.

Slowly, Porter began building up the foundations for another run for office throughout the year. She kept her PAC alive, with speculation to a 2026 run for Governor shoring up. Earlier this month,  a new University of Southern California and California State University, Long Beach poll showing both current and speculative candidates found that she is actually the most popular candidate in the state. The poll showed that the leader, by a wide margin, was Porter, with 14%. The next closest candidate, Dahle, had only 5.3%. Going down the list at 3% or above, Bianco had 4.7%, Hilton 4%, and Bonta with 3.5%. The closest declared candidates were Villaraigosa and Yee with 2.6% each. However, 49.7% still indicated that they didn’t know who to vote for in the election yet.

While the poll is still over two years out from the actual election, the unexpected lead by Porter led her to post on X, further fueling a possible run.

“In Congress, I’ve stood up to special interests and shown that government can deliver for families by doing things differently. I’m grateful that Californians recognize we need fresh voices in our politics who are not afraid to call out nonsense, from Republicans or Democrats,” said Porter of the poll. “Our next Governor needs to be laser focused on solving Californians’ biggest challenges, most of all cost of living.”

In Congress, I’ve stood up to special interests and shown that government can deliver for families by doing things differently. I’m grateful that Californians recognize we need fresh voices in our politics who are not afraid to call out nonsense, from Republicans or Democrats. https://t.co/psSm2i9s9R

— Katie Porter (@katieporteroc) October 2, 2024

Over the weekend, pollsters working on more preliminary polls found that Porter is getting an unusually high amount of support for a candidate who hasn’t even declared yet, although many potential voters are also not keen on Porter at all.

“We’ve been doing blanket asks, and yeah, Porter is the most popular candidate,” said gubernatorial pollster Guillermo Williams to the Globe on Monday. “However, a lot of that has to do with name recognition. By region, she’s the most well known throughout the state as she is a Congresswoman, ran for Senate, and has made the news for some of her antics in Congress. If nothing else, she’s the white board person. Well, all regions except L.A., Villaraigosa is still more known there.

“And this past weekend, we actually saw Porter’s support actually be a little higher than the poll from September, especially with younger voters. The problem though, and this is her Achilles heel, is likeability. A lot of people, especially critical older voters, don’t like some of the things she does. One person we polled, a longtime Democrat from Orange County no less, said that she didn’t like her because of her shenanigans. She definitely has a Hillary Clinton effect which we saw come to play in her House run in 2022 and the primary in March. A lot of quick popularity out of the gate, but as people come to get to know her more, they don’t like her. A few zingers are fine, but she overdid them according to a lot of people. She barely won the House vote and then got thumped in the Primary.

“It’s looking more and more that she’ll go into the race, so if she does, she needs to learn to be more likeable. And it is looking like she’ll go into the race. With these polls showing the people behind her, her odds of running went up the past week. But we need to keep track of the numbers against her too, as they are high as well.”

As of Monday, Porter has yet to comment further on a 2026 run for Governor.