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Kamala Harris is strongly considering a run for governor of California in 2026, and/or another presidential run in 2028. The idea of running for governor, however, is fraught with risks: if she loses the gubernatorial race, she will in the process lose a great deal of her luster as the Dems’ presidential candidate two years later.

This is California we’re talking about, however, and so she is unlikely to lose, but on the other hand, this is also Kamala Harris we’re talking about, so you never know. Even if she wins, she may face considerable opposition in a 2028 presidential run, not least from Californians offended at her embracing the state in ’26 and deserting it two years. And now a new poll has made matters even worse for Old Joe’s ace border czar.

Fox News reported Tuesday that a new poll that Politico and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center conducted showed that registered voters and a “selected group of policy insiders” are largely “indifferent” to the prospect of a Kamala gubernatorial run. Yes, “indifferent.” For a politician, that’s even worse than being hated. At least those who hate you are passionate about you, which will have the effect of raising interest in the hated person’s candidacy — look at Donald Trump. But indifference? A politician cannot survive that.

The poll, according to Fox, asked California registered voters what they thought about Kamala run for governor, along with that gaggle of “policy insiders,” which included “lawmakers, as well as state and federal government staffers.” The Candidate of Joy did not inspire a great deal of enthusiasm: only 33% of the registered voters said that they were “joyful” at the prospect of Kamala running for governor, and they were significantly more enthusiastic about the idea than the “policy insiders” were.

Among those insiders, four percent said that they would be “outraged” if Harris made a gubernatorial run. Twenty percent said they would be “irritated.” On the other hand, 22% said they were “mostly excited” by the idea.

The biggest group, however, was the 36% that said they were “indifferent” regarding Harris running for governor. So that’s 22% who were happy at the thought, 24% who were decidedly unhappy about it, and 36% who simply didn’t care. The rest were apparently even more indifferent than those who said they were indifferent, and didn’t register any reaction at all.

The polled groups included both Republicans and Democrats, and so that means that in a state in which 46% of registered voters are Democrats and only 24% are Republicans, and where presumably no Republicans are happy about Kamala, she could still get only 22% of policy insiders and 33% of registered voters to say they were excited about a Harris gubernatorial run.

Even worse, “the former vice president received a low level of enthusiasm among independent voters in California, with 21% saying they felt ‘hopeless’ about Harris potentially running, and 26% saying they felt ‘irritated’ by the possibility.” And a worryingly (for Harris, not patriots) high “nineteen percent of Latino voters said they felt ‘hopeless’ about the former vice president running in California.”

Jack Citrin, who teaches political science at UC Berkeley and thus is likely to make Joseph Stalin look like a MAGA Republican, commented: “It’s almost a surprising lack of enthusiasm, but we know from the general election that Latino voters shifted as compared to 2020 or 2016 towards Trump.” Indeed. And so that doesn’t look good for Harris, either.

Still, while the picture looks bleak for Harris now, she may opt to play the long game. At the time of the 2028 election, she will be 64 years old, which is extremely young by recent presidential standards. It isn’t as if her time is running out. She recently declared: “I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere.” Her reputation has taken a hit now after her disastrous four years as vice president, but she has plenty of time to rebuild it, and a compliant leftist propaganda media to help her do so. Maybe 2026 won’t be her year. Maybe 2028 won’t be, either. But then there is always 2032.