Former Vice President Kamala Harris has been taking her time deciding her next political move as rumblings of a run for California governor are leaving many constituents unsure they want the former vice president running the Golden State.

While polling numbers are high for Ms. Harris, the Democratic voting bloc in California appears to be tepid on news of a potential run. Many delegates in attendance at this weekend’s California Democratic Party Convention in Anaheim said they feel the position would be nothing more than a consolation prize handed to her after losing to President Trump in 2024.

“We haven’t really heard from her on California issues since Trump’s inauguration,” a state party delegate from Shasta County, Madison Zimmerman, said to Politico. “I feel like California isn’t a consolation prize.”

Many delegates in attendance shared the sentiment. 

“My concern about Harris is that she would be using the position, if she won, as a placeholder for a second run at the presidency,” a delegate from Sunnyvale, Carol Weiss, said to the political news website. “And that would make me feel like I’m wasting my vote. I want a strong governor for at least four years.”

Ms. Harris did not attend this weekend’s convention, opting to travel to Australia to speak at a real estate conference. She sent a brief video message, which was reportedly met with muted applause from the delegates in attendance.

Other hopefuls looking to secure the Democratic ticket have come out and said they have no intention of stepping down should Ms. Harris decide to enter the race. A former Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, has said that Ms. Harris needs to address questions on whether she helped to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline.

“At the highest levels of our government, those in power were intentionally complicit or told outright lies in a systematic cover-up to keep Joe Biden’s mental decline from the public,” he said in a recent statement to the Los Angeles Times, alleging that the former vice president along with a former HHS secretary, Xavier Becerra, who also intends to run for governor, had helped to keep Mr. Biden’s mental acuity issues from the public.

“Now, we have come to learn this cover-up includes two prominent California politicians who served as California Attorney General — one who is running for Governor and another who is thinking about running for Governor,” he added, according to the TImes.

“Voters deserve to know the truth, what did Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra know, when did they know it, and most importantly, why didn’t either of them speak out?”

The question of ‘will she or won’t she’ has been swirling amongst Democrats in the Golden State since reports that she has been mulling a run recently made news. Despite leading an April 2025 Emerson College poll of hypothetical candidates by 31 percent, Ms. Harris has not committed to throwing her hat in the ring, only telling supporters at an April event in Orange County, “I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere.”

Multiple sources close to former presidential candidate have said she is giving herself until the end of summer to decide.

“If you’re doing the sports-betting analogy, the odds are in her favor, she’s got the big point spread,” a Democratic strategist, Roger Salazar, said to Politico. “The name ID, the fact she’s won [multiple] times in California already — that track record is one that’s hard to duplicate for others jumping into the race.”

“It really depends on — what is it she wants to do? Does she want to be governor?”