California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta introduced Sunday that he wouldn’t run for California governor, a call grounded in his perception that his authorized efforts combating the Trump administration because the state’s prime prosecutor are paramount at this second in historical past.
“Watching this dystopian horror come to life has reaffirmed one thing I really feel in each fiber of my being: on this second, my place is right here — shielding Californians from essentially the most brazen assaults on our rights and our households,” Bonta stated in a press release. “My imaginative and prescient for the California Division of Justice is that we stay the nation’s largest and strongest verify on energy.”
Bonta stated that President Trump’s blocking of welfare funds to California and the deadly taking pictures of a Minnesota mom of three final week by a federal immigration agent cemented his determination to hunt reelection to his present put up, in line with Politico, which first reported that Bonta wouldn’t run for governor.
Bonta, 53, a former state lawmaker and an in depth political ally to Gov. Gavin Newsom, has served because the state’s prime legislation enforcement official since Newsom appointed him to the place in 2021. Within the final yr, his workplace has sued the Trump administration greater than 50 occasions — a monitor report that might in all probability have served him properly had he determined to run in a state the place Trump has misplaced 3 times and has sky-high disapproval scores.
Bonta in 2024 stated that he was contemplating working. Then in February he introduced he had dominated it out and was centered as an alternative on doing the job of lawyer common, which he considers particularly necessary underneath the Trump administration. Then, each former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced they wouldn’t run for governor, and Bonta started reconsidering, he stated.
“I had two horses within the governor’s race already,” Bonta instructed The Occasions in November. “They determined to not get entangled in the long run. … The race is essentially completely different right now, proper?”
The race for California governor stays broad open. Newsom is serving the ultimate yr of his second time period and is barred from working once more due to time period limits. Newsom has stated he’s contemplating a run for president in 2028.
Former Rep. Katie Porter — an early chief in polls — late final yr faltered after movies emerged of her screaming at an aide and berating a reporter. The movies contributed to her dropping behind Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, in a November ballot launched by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Research and co-sponsored by The Occasions.
Porter rebounded a bit towards the top of the yr, a ballot by the Public Coverage Institute of California confirmed, nevertheless not one of the candidates has secured a majority of help and many citizens stay undecided.
California hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006, Democrats closely outnumber Republicans within the state, and lots of are seething with anger over Trump and in search of Democratic candidates prepared to combat again towards the present administration.
Bonta has confronted questions in latest months about spending about $468,000 in marketing campaign funds on authorized recommendation final yr as he spoke to federal investigators about alleged corruption involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who was charged in an alleged bribery scheme involving native businessmen David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong. All three have pleaded not responsible.
In keeping with his political guide Dan Newman, Bonta — who had obtained marketing campaign donations from the Duong household — was approached by investigators as a result of he was initially seen as a “potential sufferer” within the alleged scheme, although that was later dominated out. Bonta has since returned $155,000 in marketing campaign contributions from the Duong household, in line with information studies.
Bonta is the son of civil rights activists Warren Bonta, a white native Californian, and Cynthia Bonta, a local of the Philippines who immigrated to the U.S. on a scholarship in 1965. Bonta, a U.S. citizen, was born in Quezon Metropolis, Philippines, in 1972, when his mother and father had been working there as missionaries, and immigrated together with his household to California as an toddler.
In 2012, Bonta was elected to symbolize Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro as the primary Filipino American to serve in California’s Legislature. In Sacramento, he pursued a string of prison justice reforms and developed a report as one of many physique’s most liberal members.
Bonta is married to Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), who succeeded him within the state Meeting, and the couple have three youngsters.
Occasions employees author Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
