California Insiders Eye Sen. Alex Padilla for Gubernatorial Race

Prominent California Democrat strategists are eyeing Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., for a bid to be the next governor of California. 

The longtime California politician is seen as a reliable and known quantity in the state’s uber-left politics at a time when Democrats face historic unpopularity.

“This is an uncertain time for California, and Alex Padilla brings certainty and stability,” California lobbyist Afrack Vargas, told Politico. 

Padilla garnered national attention in June for disrupting a press conference by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. At the press gaggle, Padilla actively disregarded instructions from Noem’s security team. He subsequently was removed from the room where the press conference was happening and put in handcuffs. Some of his Senate colleagues were less than impressed with his behavior.

“You can’t show up without your pin, refuse to announce yourself, and lunge at a Cabinet secretary. It doesn’t matter who you are,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who has launched his own campaign to be a state governor, posted on X.

Yet the incident earned Padilla national press coverage and the solidarity of his fellow Senate Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the footage of Padilla’s conflict with Noem’s security “sickened his stomach,” and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., noted that he was “disgusted by what I saw.”

Padilla has spent decades climbing his way up the political ladder serving as a member and president of the Los Angeles City Council, a California state senator, and then California’s secretary of state until his appointment by Gov. Gavin Newsom to finish out the term of Sen. Kamala Harris after she was elected vice president in 2020. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 2022 and therefore would not have to forfeit his Senate seat if he chose to seek the state office. The Democratic Party gubernatorial primary is on June 2, 2026

The current frontrunner in the polls is former California congresswoman Katie Porter. An ardent progressive, Porter co-chaired her former professor Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s failed 2020 presidential campaign and earned fame for taking bank CEOs to task in House hearings. She is reportedly seen by some California politicos as too left-wing a candidate even by California standards. 

“There’s a lot of the chattering class of Sacramento who haven’t yet been enamored with some of the other candidates,” Democrat consultant Andrew Acosta told Politico.

But is Padilla even interested in succeeding Newsom as governor? Politico reports he “ducked and dodged queries” on the matter. “I love California,” he told the outlet, “I’ve had the privilege and the honor of serving in so many different capacities … I’ve tried to do my best to help improve people’s lives, so hope to continue to serve in some capacity for the foreseeable future.”

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