Gov. Gavin Newsom: ‘Preposterous’ to say I don’t like Kamala Harris
Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back on assertions that he has had a deep-seated rivalry with former Vice President Kamala Harris dating back to their salad days of San Francisco politics in the early 2000s.
“It’s a preposterous premise to the question because we absolutely do,” he said in an Axios interview about why he and Harris don’t “like” each other. The two have known each other since at least 2000, shortly before he married Kimberly Guilfoyle, a conservative-leaning prosecutor turned Fox News host who clashed with Harris when they briefly overlapped at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.
Harris later won election as District Attorney in the same November 2003 election in which Newsom won the mayor’s race. In 2005, Newsom divorced Guilfoyle, who is now President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Greece.
Publicly, Newsom and Harris’ relationship has been marked by ongoing questions of which of the ambitious Bay Area Democrats would run for which higher office. In 2016, Newsom appeared to preemptively endorse Harris’ successful run for the U.S. Senate by posting on Facebook that he would not run days before she announced her bid to succeed Barbara Boxer. Behind the scenes, the two had hammered out a deal that allowed Harris a clear path to victory while Newsom ran for governor two years later in 2018.
Eight years later, Harris said she texted Newsom for his endorsement after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election after a disastrous debate appearance that called his cognitive fitness into question. Harris wrote in her “107 Days” memoir that Newsom messaged back that he was on a hike and never called back, though in reality he endorsed her that night.
Newsom dismissed the flap as creating “color” for her memoir, which he said he had not “fully absorbed” as he was too busy focusing on his own autobiography. He mentioned Harris twice in passing as a “longtime friend” with whom he shares communication advisers, fundraisers and political strategists. Harris also briefly dated former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who gave Newsom his start in politics as president of the city Parking and Traffic Commission in 1995.
Newsom is currently in his second and final term as governor, and is widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. After declining to run for governor, Harris is believed to be mulling another run for president.
Recent polls showed Harris remains ahead of Newsom in a matchup of whom likely Democratic voters would favor in the 2028 election, though Newsom has gained steam in recent months.
“I’ve always had a relationship (with her) in that respect,” Newsom said. Harris is older than Newsom by three years, and he suggested that their dynamic has been marked by Harris having a first shot at every position they’ve both eyed.
“But I’ve always known my relationship to that relationship,” he said. “When she goes, she goes first. I’ve always understood that. And that’s wonderful.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2026 at 3:19 PM.
