Rep. Katie Porter doesn’t necessarily want to be asked if she’s running for governor. Instead, she’d rather people tell her what they’re looking for in California’s next chief executive.
Porter is set to leave Washington, D.C., on Jan. 2 after just three terms in Congress. She opted not to run for re-election this year; instead, she mounted a bid for California’s open U.S. Senate seat, losing in the March primary.
For now, life after D.C. looks like a return to teaching at UC Irvine School of Law next month. Porter is excited, she said, to rejoin the institution where she’s worked since 2011 (she’s been on leave for the past five years as she’s been in the House). She’s spent recent days walking the campus and preparing for her first-year class on how legislation happens.
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But in the backdrop of her UCI homecoming are the rumblings about her political future. Is Porter gearing up for a run for California’s governor in 2026?
She’s not ready to say yes — but she’s not saying no.
Right now, she said, she’s “listening” to her neighbors, business owners and nonprofit leaders. She’s contemplating what the future of California does — and should — look like.
“I’m thinking about what a lot of Californians are, like will my kids be able to get into college here? Or will they get jobs in California? And if they do, will they ever be able to move off my couch and afford to buy an apartment or rent an apartment here,” Porter, 50, said in a recent interview at a Costa Mesa Starbucks.
“I don’t know whether I’ll run in 2026 or not, but I know that I’m tremendously benefiting from having conversations with people who are currently in office, who used to be in office, who are business leaders and just thinking about California,” Porter said.
In the meantime, Porter’s Woman Up PAC recently commissioned a poll of likely 2026 primary voters in California.
It’s an internal poll — which means it may not be the most unbiased look at predicting voters’ behaviors — but it did show Porter leading a field of both declared and hypothetical gubernatorial candidates, according to the findings obtained by Politico.
That was also the case for a survey conducted by researchers from USC, Cal State Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona in September of likely California voters. That poll found the Irvine Democrat leading among 13 declared and potential candidates — but about half of respondents said they did not know yet who they would vote for.
Notably, neither poll asked voters about another potential gubernatorial candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris, who has a home in Los Angeles, hasn’t made known her plans about what’s next for her after losing the presidential election, but she has reportedly told advisers she wants to remain in politics. A recent poll of registered California voters by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found 1 in 3 respondents said they would be “very likely to consider” backing the former senator and state attorney general should she get into the race.
But Porter herself recently addressed the possibility of Harris joining the already crowded field during a speech at UCI.
“If Vice President Harris were to choose to run,” Porter said, “I am certain that that would have a near field-clearing effect on the Democratic side.”
In the meantime, as Porter is still weighing her gubernatorial options, she is hoping people would tell her what they’re looking for in a leader for California.
“I wish they’d tell me what they ask for from California,” Porter said.
“I’m flattered to be asked (about running for governor), but I really am looking to build the biggest, smartest, most compassionate set of partners, and I think that means including voices that are not just the ones that we’ve heard in the past.”
Porter’s last day in office is Thursday, Jan. 2. New members get sworn in a day later.