Much like she did getting out ahead of the race for Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat in early 2023, former Congresswoman Katie Porter is jumping ahead of presumed candidate Kamala Harris in announcing her bid for the governor's office in 2026.

Katie Porter announced Tuesday that she is running for governor of California, in what is already becoming a crowded field of candidates with one particularly notable, rumored candidate still not official, Kamala Harris.

"In Congress, I held the Trump administration’s feet to the fire when they hurt Americans," Porter said in a statement. "As governor, I won’t ever back down when Trump hurts Californians — whether he’s holding up disaster relief, attacking our rights or our communities, or screwing over working families to benefit himself and his cronies."

For the moment, in terms of name recognition, the 51-year-old Porter steps out ahead of other Democrats who have announced their candidacy, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis. But as the Associated Press and others are noting, all of their races will likely be upended if Harris decides to join the race.

If Harris runs, "She’d be likely to win the Democratic nomination and Democrats are likely to win the governorship," says Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney, speaking to the AP, adding, "There are very few politicians who would want to take her on."

Two months ago, as she was departing Congress, Porter announced she would be returning to teaching — she became a tenured professor at UC Irvine's school of law in 2011 — but in her announcement there was a hint at future political ambitions.

"I’m heading back to the classroom to share my experience in Congress with our next generation of leaders — and where I'll keep listening to and learning from Californians about the issues facing our state," she wrote on X in early January.

Voters may recall how Porter boldly announced her candidacy for Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat in January 2023, while the late Feinstein was still alive and kicking and had not even announced her intentions for 2024 — though there were signs at that point that she needed to retire, and could end up retiring before her final term in the Senate was up.

At that point, Porter had made some national headlines for making a show of her presence, among amused Democrats, during former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's blistering battle for the speakership. Porter made sure she was photographed sitting in House chamber reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.

U.S. Rep.-elect Katie Porter (D-CA) reads a book in the House Chamber during the fourth day of elections for Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is meeting to vote for the next Speaker after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn more than 218 votes on several ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

While the early announcement may have helped in her early fundraising efforts, Porter would later complain that her candidacy, in an open primary against fellow Rep. Adam Schiff, was doomed by tech billionaires flooding the race with money to defeat her.

Porter subsequently caught flack for using the word "rigged" in those complaints, because critics said she sounded like she was casting doubt on election integrity in the style of Donald Trump.

Porter then did not run for re-election in her purple Orange County district, and an October poll by USC and the Long Beach Center for Urban Politics and Policy at Cal State Long Beach found that she could have a chance at being governor — tbough that poll did not consider Kamala Harris as a potential candidate, because she had not yet lost the presidency.

Porter's announcement video, posted to Instagram early Tuesday suggests she wants to position herself as a tougher-talking, more no-nonsense candidate than Harris.

"What California needs now is a little bit of hope and a whole lot of grit," she says. She also employs the world "bullshit," London Breed-style, in referring to the "excuses" that Californians hear from elected officials such as "That's a complex problem" and "It's too hard."


Your move, Kamala.

Previously: Katie Porter for Governor? Poll Suggests She Might Do Well

Top image: Congresswoman Katie Porter speaks at the "Just Majority" Irvine Press Conference on May 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Demand Justice)