Former Orange County Councilman Katie Porter announced Tuesday morning that she is running for governor, potentially changing the dynamics in the already crowded field of prominent Democrats who are about to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom next year due to her national profile and fundraising capabilities.
“What California needs right now is a little hope and lots of grit. Fresh blood and new ideas. Leaders with a backbone fight to fight for the right thing,” Porter said in a video announcing her campaign. “That’s why I’m running for governor.”
Emphasizing a theme that is expected to dominate in next year’s governor’s contest, Porter expressed his desire to protect California from President Trump’s policies, including the threat of retaining disaster relief, an attack on the rights of national residents, and fraudulent actions that “working families benefit themselves and his Crony.”
The looming question for California’s 2026 governor’s race is whether former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will jump into the race. Her decision is expected by the end of the summer. Given Harris’s name recognition and fundraising skills, she will likely urge some Democrats to drop out of the race. Porter hinted at a post-election meeting in Irvine, California in December.
“If Vice President Harris chooses to run, I’m sure it will have the effect of exempting fields that are closer to the democratic side,” Porter said.
Other announced candidates include Democrats Lt. Colonel Eleni Kunarakis, state controller Betty Yi, state schools chief Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Senate speaker Pro Tem Toni Atkins, businessman Stephen Crubeck and Sheriff Chad Bianco, Ripolikan Riverside County.
Porter, 51, is a native of Iowa who attended Harvard Law School and is now taught. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Warren became her leader – a relationship that was so important that one of Porter’s children was named after her – and she was a fiery supporter of Warren in the 2020 presidential election.
After the Great Recession, Porter was appointed by then-California Attorney General Harris, and oversaw a $25 billion mortgage settlement with the country’s top banks. Porter was elected to Congress in 2018 at Orange County’s longtime GOP hub, and was one of the most astounding fundraisers in Congress.
Porter’s national reputation grew during Congressional hearings when she burned Trump administration officials and corporate chiefs to help her understand esoteric policies using whiteboards. Videos of these performances went viral, cheering on Democrats and disgruntled voters.
At times with a brave attitude, Porter alienated prominent Democrats along the way. In particular, he supported former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who clashed in 2021 with committee allocations, and later a ban on members of Congress from trading individual shares.
However, she was also accepted by constituents who deemed her as friendly and ran around the council districts in the woods green Toyota Sienna with personalized license plates that read “ovrsite”, juggled her career and frankly about being a single mother of three children, deemed her friendly. As she explained in an interview with TBS’s Samantha Bee, she has almost patience with political elegance.
“If you’re full of B, I’m here for you,” she told Bee in 2020. “I don’t have time. I’m a single mother. Dinner is on fire. I’m late to something. I have 4,000 mails. My hair is curly. I haven’t shaved my legs in a week.”
Porter served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, but did not seek reelection in 2024. Diane Feinstein.
She angered several prominent Democrats by announcing her run before the aging and sick Feinstein announced he would not seek reelection. Democrat leaders lined up behind the range of the day. Adam Schiff of Burbank, who ultimately won a Senate seat. Porter finished in a distant third place in the March primary after Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey.
After her loss, she further angered the Democrats by claiming that they were “equipped.” Porter’s language plagued Democrats as it reflected Trump’s false claims about why he lost the 2020 election. She later said she regretted her choice of words.
During Porter’s 2022 Congressional Reelection Bid, GOP rivals raised the purchase of Irvine’s home through a program established by state leaders to create affordable housing for newcomers in the faculty. (She followed state and university rules.)
After losing the 2024 Senate race, Porter returned to education at UC Irvine’s law school. However, her voice’s political activity strongly hinted at her re-run for the “Truth to Power” Political Action Committee, which raised over $1 million over the two years that ended December 31st, particularly her “Power to Truth” Political Committee. Last week she hosted Zoom Town Hall with Assemblyman Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach).
“Katie is a force in Congress and she will be a source of the future and everything we do for us in our state and our country,” Garcia said on Feb. 27. And I want to take the same kind of energy and passion, and truly fearlessness with surveillance. ”
