Newsom’s new podcast: Tim Walz and Kamala Harris have yet to do ‘debrief’ over election loss
Kamala Harris has not yet discussed her 2024 election loss to Donald Trump with her former running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as she eyes a run for governor of California in 2026.
Walz told California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a new podcast interview that he had not yet met for a detailed conversation with the former vice president after they lost to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in November.
“I spoke to the vice president last week, we talked a little bit about this ... but we haven’t done like a formal debrief,” Walz said during the fourth episode of Newsom’s “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast that published Tuesday. The podcast, which Newsom launched late last month, has generated national attention but also earned him backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who view it as a calculated attempt to re-calibrate his image for a national audience as he contemplates a run for higher office.
Aides from both sides of the Harris-Walz campaign disputed the Minnesota governor’s remarks, and said the two had analyzed voter data together and spoken as recently as Monday.
Harris moved back to Los Angeles from Washington, D.C., earlier this year, where she was spotted visiting sites devastated by January’s wildfires. She will decide whether to jump in the governor race by the end of the summer, a Harris aide said Tuesday.
Harris remains popular here
Other candidates who have declared their intent to run for California’s top office have said they will step aside if Harris, who is still popular among Democratic voters, enters the race. That includes former Rep. Katie Porter and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, both allies of the former state Attorney General and Senator.
California law bars Newsom, who is serving his second term, from running again in 2026.
Democrats nationwide are divided on how to move forward and recapture voters in the 2026 midterms as they face historically low polling numbers. Supporters have called for them to take a more combative approach to Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who have laid off thousands of federal employees and made drastic cuts to federal agencies.
Newsom, who is considering a 2028 presidential run, has taken a more moderate approach by saying he agrees with Republicans on some culture war issues. He said recently on his podcast that he objected to calling Hispanic people “Latinx” and that it’s “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete with cisgender competitors.
Reporter Alex Isenstadt reported in a book about the 2024 Trump campaign published Tuesday that the president had feared Newsom would run and viewed him as a viable threat after the governor blitzed red states with billboards advertising California reproductive health services in 2022.
That initial fear dissipated after Newsom’s debate performance against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, which Trump viewed as a disappointing “stunt,” Isenstadt said in a recent interview with independent journalist Tara Palmieri.
In Sacramento, the California governor is under fire as the state faces a $6.2 billion shortfall for Medi-Cal, the state’s insurance program for low-income Californians. Republican lawmakers have blamed the cost overruns on the state’s expansion of coverage for undocumented residents, which went into effect last year.
Newsom told reporters after Tuesday’s State of the Judiciary address that he was open to “adjustments and changes” to Medi-Cal but defended the decision to expand universal health care access as one of his “core principles.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 2:59 PM.
