Jeffrey Blehar of National Review Online ponders the end of a political career.
Today a grateful nation celebrates, as it learns it will never have to think about Kamala Harris again for any reason. Yes, Harris has announced that she will not be running for governor of California in 2026. This comes as little surprise to me at this late date — her protracted silence during an era of Democratic angst tipped her hand long in advance — but it frees up other Democrats to announce for the office, who might have felt crowded out by the presence of the former vice president in the race.
Improbably named California elections reporter Elex Michaelson explained Harris’s reasoning on Twitter/X: Apparently Harris was “tempted” to enter the race but decided against it because she “ultimately didn’t want to do the job.“ Normally I’m not one to credit anonymous sources too easily, but that definitely sounds like the Kamala Harris I know.
And I have nothing to say about it except “good riddance,” because I long ago psychologically washed my hands of Harris, after the nightmare of the 2024 campaign. Back in May, when Harris was still playing coy about her future plans, I pulled no punhes:
“Harris’s cackle-faced blandness and incapacity for spontaneous thought nearly claimed my own sanity last fall, when she was promoted to presidential nominee. In truth, I had far less difficulty reckoning with her progressive politics than with the fact that I could never detect even the slightest hint of a recognizably human, unprogrammed impulse lurking within her mind.” …
… They speak of Harris’s decision not to run for governor next year as “clearing the way” for a 2028 presidential campaign. Put simply, this is farcical. There are few things I can guarantee from my position here in 2025, but one of them is that Kamala Harris is not going to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028. You know how I know this? Because she already was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, and she lost.
