Ric Grenell, President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, told Newsmax on Friday that should former Vice President Kamala Harris run for governor of California, it would be a game-changer “because every Californian knows her as a complete failure.”
Since losing the 2024 election to President Donald Trump, Harris has been mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 and a potential candidate to run next year to replace fellow Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat who is term-limited from seeking reelection.
Harris, a former California attorney general and U.S. senator, reportedly told allies that a successful campaign for governor would give her a prominent perch from which to push back against Trump and defend Democrat priorities.
“We know her in California, and we were all shocked that she became vice president,” Grenell told “Finnerty.”
“But remember, Joe Biden said that he wanted to find a Black woman as the running mate, and so he considered Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, and Kamala Harris as two of the options. And we’ve seen both of them spectacularly fail. And so, Californians are really frustrated at the leadership that we’ve been producing on the Democratic side.
“Unfortunately, we are a state that is a one-party state. And so, when we think about what’s next, we’re really tussling with how do we change the state, how do we get rid of the ‘woke’ policies, how do we bring businesses back.
“Gavin Newsom is somebody who has chased every single business away. We’ve got the California Coastal Commission that overlays our local governments and really undermines the authority of the local governments.”
Grenell, who was appointed by Trump as president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, said he is passionate about his home state but is not committing to competing in the California Republican primary next year.
“This is not a start of a campaign,” he said. “This is not a campaign speech. This is a passion for California, a frustrated Californian. I may not run. We need to have options here.
“The one thing that I am doing is I believe in voter registration for California. There are too many people on the sidelines. We have 50% of our electorate, literally of our society, sitting on the sidelines, not registered to vote. We’ve got to change that because I think those people are really frustrated.
“Somebody’s going to run. It may not be me. I truly don’t know what’s going to happen. … All I’m saying, if Kamala runs, and I don’t know if she’s going to, but if she does run, then we on the Republican side, the commonsense people in California, get to decide to put someone forward because we could win. We could actually beat her.”
Grenell also dismissed any chance of Newsom having a successful campaign for president in 2028.
“Look, the media is silly to even put Gavin Newsom forward,” Grenell said. “I know he’s a big personality, but Gavin Newsom does not work in the Midwest. You tell me Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are going to embrace this robot who has failed with ‘woke’ policies and chased every business out of California? They’re not going to go for it.”
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