Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom’s Decades-Long ‘Cold War’

Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom have risen through the political ranks together for more than two decades as two of the nation’s highest-profile California Democrats.

But the 2024 election could prove to be another complex chapter in their complex relationship., Harris will be on the ballot and Newsom, as a high-profile Democratic governor, has become a top surrogate for the Biden campaign – yet according to multiple Democratic sources, Harris’ orbit is not thrilled with Newsom’s rising profile.

Throughout both careers, much of the tension has stemmed from both Democrats’ desire to move up the political ladder. That is true today, too: Newsom’s role as the Biden campaign’s attack dog has only increased his profile in top Democratic circles, making his name one of the first mentioned when political watchers discuss the 2028 presidential election. That has frustrated some close to Harris, who see her as the obvious heir apparent to Biden, given her current role.

“It’s a longstanding San Francisco sibling rivalry,” said Gil Duran, who worked for Harris when she was attorney general and spent more than a decade in California politics. “They both climbed the ladder at the same time.”

“They’re definitely frenemies but they want to look collaborative in public,” said a senior strategist who has worked with both Newsom and Harris. “They’re two highly ambitious people who came up in the same crew. He has the power that she’d like and she has the title that he’d like.” 

The strategist added: “There’s mutual respect but I don’t think it’s grounded in admiration. … Their worlds will collide. Newsom isn’t going to stay in the backseat for Kamala…The writing is on the wall.”

Spokespeople for Newsom and Harris both declined to comment for this piece.

One ladder, two ambitious pols

Harris and Newsom have known each other for decades. They came up together in San Francisco politics, a rough and tumble environment where they both not only succeeded but thrived. They are around the same age – Newsom is 55, Harris is 58. And as young, up-and-coming leaders, they were often mentioned in the same local society pages and the same sentences, with operatives and donors gaming out their careers years before they found their current roles.

There was even reporting in the early 2000s that some tension between the two rising pols stemmed from Kimberly Guilfoyle – then Newsom’s wife and currently Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancee – and a call where Harris reportedly looked to deny the future television personality a job in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. The former Harris adviser said some of the tension stemmed from the awkwardness of that exchange. 

Newsom “inherited beef,” one former Harris aide said. 

For years, Harris and Newsom have traveled in the same political circles – they hired the same consultants, hit up the same donors, and thrived in deep blue California. And they climbed the state’s political ladder next to each other: For Newsom, this meant from San Francisco Board of Supervisors to mayor to lieutenant governor to governor; for Harris, that path was district attorney of San Francisco, state attorney general, and then senator from the largest state in the nation.

“They have greatly and smartly worked together and carved out their own lanes that they were going to pursue,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who is based in California. “As they were moving up through these positions, those generational moments kept opening up for them. 

“There was serendipity on some level,” Lehane added. “They’ve never faced a bottleneck of going up against one another. 

Their paths split slightly when Harris ran for President in 2020 – Newsom endorsed her weeks into the campaign – and, after a lackluster run, eventually became Joe Biden’s vice president.

When Harris became vice president, most political watchers would have said that she had surpassed her friend. But where Harris has struggled to find her footing in Washington and been forced to deal with some of the most complex problems facing the federal government, Newsom has thrived in California, becoming a donor darling and one of the most outspoken leaders of the Democratic Party. He’s seen as a frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028 alongside Harris.

It is this shift in fortune that has caused Harris’ world to grouse as Newsom becomes a predominant surrogate for the Biden-Harris reelection campaign.

“People in her broader world are suspicious of Gavin,” the former Harris aide said. “He's clearly positioning himself for some future political opportunity. It could be 2028. It could be a cabinet post.”

Multiple other Democrats close to Harris acknowledged a growing unease from the vice president’s world about the governor’s growing profile.

That unease does not extend to the Biden campaign, however, where operatives are pleased with the governor’s work and have been routinely made aware of his media appearances on behalf of the campaign – including his plan to debate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Part of the problem is that while Newsom has found success, Harris has largely failed to find her footing as vice president. But few believe the frustration is coming from Harris directly.

“Kamala Harris isn’t losing any sleep about what any other elected [official] is doing other than herself and Joe Biden. That was true back in the day and it remains true now,” said Nathan Barankin, a longtime Harris adviser who worked as her chief of staff in the Senate. “The way Kamala Harris approaches the job - any of her public life jobs - her guiding mentality is that she is in control of her own fate. Whatever Gavin Newsom is doing is not something that is going to be outcome-determinative for her or her perspective.”

Barankin acknowledged that “what we have seen of Kamala Harris over the last two years is not the Kamala Harris that anyone who knows her well believes that she is,” but “there are really good signs that that is changing… because she is being put in situations that allow trained observers and the general public to see what she is all about.”

‘Cold War of visibility’

While a possible clash between Harris and Newsom looks beyond the 2024 election, it wouldn’t be the first time Newsom and Harris’ path to the top have come close to colliding.

In 2015, after then-Sen. Barbara Boxer announced her retirement, the two top California Democrats were keen on running for the open seat. In the end, Harris ran and won, while Newsom stayed as lieutenant governor and successfully ran for the state’s top job in 2018.

“They were on a collision course [earlier in their careers],” said Duran. “Now of course they’re back on the collision course. Both want to be president – there’s this Cold War of visibility.”

He added of their relationship: “It’s friendly on a superficial level…They probably agree on 99.9 percent of everything so it really comes down to personalities and the desire to reach the top. No politician wants to see a rival succeed. That’s just a hard rule.”

There was some speculation that both would run for president in 2020. But Newsom never entered the race and Harris’ campaign was short-lived.

Newsom has also repeatedly said he will not run for president in 2024, even if Biden decides not to seek re-election.

“If Joe Biden keels over tomorrow, God forbid, is Gavin Newsom all of the sudden going to be anointed by the DNC? No,” said a former Harris adviser. “It’s going to be hers.”

There is also a sense among Democratic operatives, including those with ties to both Harris and Newsom, that any angling for 2028 is premature given just how much can and will change between now and a future run for president – all of which may stop Newsom and Harris from ever running against each other.

“An enormous amount will happen between now and then,” said Lehane. “I think, at some level, external events and performance will resolve that hypothetical [match up] before it ever becomes a reality.”