LOS ANGELES — Kamala Harris will not run for governor of California next year, she announced Wednesday, leaving the door open to another White House bid in 2028 as the former vice president considers her political future following her loss to President Donald Trump last fall. Harris has kept her counsel close for months as she weighed whether to enter the crowded field of contenders who are vying to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). The Oakland native returned to her home state in January after attending the inauguration of Trump, whom she faced in 2024 after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and backed her as his successor. Having ruled out a run for governor, Harris is exploring the prospects of forming new groups to keep her involved in politics and positioned to advocate for the ideas she championed during her 2024 campaign. “Over the past six months, I have spent time reflecting on this moment in our nation’s history, and the best way for me to continue fighting for the American people and advancing the values and ideals I hold dear,” Harris said in a statement. “I am a devout public servant, and from the earliest days of my career, I have believed that the best way I could make a difference in people’s lives and fight for a better future was to improve the system from within. And it has been a profound honor to do that work and serve the people of California and our nation — as a prosecutor, Attorney General, United States Senator, and Vice President.” She said that in recent months, she has given “serious thought to asking the people of California for the privilege to serve as their Governor.” “I love this state, its people, and its promise. It is my home. But after deep reflection, I’ve decided that I will not run for Governor in this election,” she said in the statement. The former vice president passed up the opportunity to run for governor once before when she chose instead to run for the U.S. Senate, which she and her advisers concluded was a better fit for her national policy interests and her investigative and prosecutorial background as the state’s former attorney general. Although she was said to be intrigued by the opportunity to help lead California’s recovery from the wind-driven fires that ravaged the Pacific Palisades and Altadena and to tackle the state’s housing crisis, she concluded that she could make a greater impact continuing her work on the national stage, according to interviews with former aides, allies and friends, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. Many in her inner circle believed that running for governor would foreclose her chance seeking the Democratic nomination again in 2028. “For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office,” Harris added in her statement. “I look forward to getting back out and listening to the American people, helping elect Democrats across the nation who will fight fearlessly, and sharing more details in the months ahead about my own plans.” In the immediate future, Harris is most focused on potentially writing a book and building out a new organization that would allow her to travel the country ahead of the 2026 midterms to try to help Democrats regain control of the U.S. House. When it comes to her potential advocacy and policy work, her confidants said she is particularly interested in focusing on the issues that Gen Z Americans are facing and the future of work in a world that could be dominated by artificial intelligence. Those confidants also say she has not ruled out a future run for the White House — which would come with both advantages and challenges. She has greater name recognition than many of the other governors and senators who are considering their own runs; and she built a large fundraising list of small-dollar donors that she could immediately tap if she leans toward a White House run. But at the same time, the field of potential 2028 contenders is already wide and deep with an array of well known governors including Newsom, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and close allies such as Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey. Harris and Newsom are longtime friends, but also political rivals in California, and they share some of the same advisers and donors — once again complicating both their paths if they decide to run for president in 2028. Also complicating matters for Harris, fresh debate has erupted in the party this year over Biden’s initial decision to run even as many voters expressed concerns about his age and ability to serve a second term. The publication of books this years has resurfaced questions about whether his inner circle concealed information about his health and mental acuity. Biden ended his campaign after a disastrous debate performance in which he repeatedly appeared to lose his train of thought. Harris has faced some criticism and questions about what she knew about Biden’s fitness for office and how she handled the situation. Former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat who is running for governor, issued a statement earlier this year in part blaming Harris for a “cover up.” Harris, he said in statement, “repeatedly said there was nothing wrong with Biden.” Harris, who was born in Oakland and served as both San Francisco district attorney and California’s attorney general before heading to Washington in 2017, opted against running for governor once before in 2015 — when she concluded that serving in the U.S. Senate was a better match for both her policy interests and her strengths as a former prosecutor. Her first stop after touching down in California in January was a World Food Kitchen location serving meals to families affected by the Altadena fires and to a fire station that was the first to respond to the blaze. But she has rarely weighed in on California issues since her return. Harris’s loss to Trump in November thrust her political career into uncertainty. In interviews in early primary states such as South Carolina and New Hampshire in recent months, many Democratic voters have said in they are ready to turn the page on the Biden era as they as they try to regroup from devastating losses in the 2024 election. Harris has largely stayed on the sidelines as other Democratic leaders forcefully confronted the Trump administration’s maneuvers, though she has occasionally made statements and sent fundraising emails for the Democratic National Committee. She did not deliver her first major post-election political speech until the end of April, when she condemned Trump’s “unconstitutional demands” and what she framed as a climate of fear that she said the president had fostered to silence his critics. The former vice president argued that what she warned about during the campaign had come true, attacking Trump as a dangerous president who has bulldozed through constitutional guardrails and test the limits of executive power. In her public remarks, she has urged her followers to show courage and expressed her concern about organizations that have stayed quiet or capitulated to what she has described as “clearly unconstitutional threats” from Trump. Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, has also clashed with Trump. The law firm where Emhoff is a partner — Willkie Farr & Gallagher — was among the firms that struck a deal with Trump to avoid punitive actions despite Emhoff’s objections. In late February and March, Trump started using executive orders to target several law firms that had represented clients he considers adversaries. He issued directives that barred them from government contracts and access to public buildings. On April 1, the president announced that Emhoff’s firm had reached a deal to avoid those kinds of punitive actions. Emhoff said publicly several days after Trump’s announcement that he had argued against the arrangement. In the California governor’s race, the Democratic field includes some of Harris’s longtime allies in her home state, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former congresswoman Katie Porter. Other candidates, including former Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra and Villaraigosa, said in recent interviews with The Washington Post that they would stay in the race even if Harris entered. Election 2024 Trump wins: Here’s the inside story of Donald Trump’s remarkable comeback to win the White House and what a second Trump presidency could mean for America and key global issues . Also, see how Project 2025 could reshape America under a Trump presidency. Harris loses: Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election to Trump but mentioned she does not “concede the fight that fueled this campaign.” Her loss devastated voters who hoped she could make history, and it marked yet another loss for a woman presidential candidate . House and Senate control: Republicans are projected to take control of the House and Senate , giving the party a powerful governing trifecta . The results: We mapped where key votes drove Trump’s victory and analyzed how counties shifted in 2024 compared with 2020. Get full presidential election results and voter turnout for 2024 .