Gavin Newsom leads Kamala Harris by 14 points among Dem voters for 2028 primary: UC Berkeley/Politico poll

A new poll has found that in their home state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom is leading among Democrats in a potential 2028 primary race over former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion research-POLITICO poll found that Newsom leads the pack of candidates in the potential 2028 field on the Democrat side at 28 percent. The next-highest polling candidate in the field is Harris, at 14 percent. 

Also polling in the double digits are New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 12 percent and former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg at 11 percent. An additional 12 percent of potential primary voters were undecided. 

Jack Citrin, a UC Berkeley political science professor and co-director of the poll, said, "All Democrats want to beat Trump, and Newsom has pushed himself to be the most visible opponent among the potential Democratic candidates. Harris, in some ways, is old news." 

The majority of Democrats said they were not excited to see Harris run again in 2028, with 59 percent saying they were "not too excited" or "not excited at all." With Newsom, the results were more evenly split, with 52 percent not being excited about a potential 2028 run and 48 percent being excited. 

Citrin said that Newsom’s plans to run appear obvious, while Harris’ plans are not as concrete. "Anyone with an IQ of over five knows that Newsom is running for president. Harris is still in this kind of Hamlet-like stage. Maybe she’s trying to make up her mind. Maybe she doesn’t know."

The poll was conducted between February 25 and March 3 of 1,220 registered voters, 702 of whom said they were likely to vote in the Democrat primary. The margin of error was 2.8 percent.