Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) will run for governor of California in 2026 after current Gov. Gavin Newsom reaches his two-term limit.
Villaraigosa, who has been out of elected office since leaving Los Angeles City Hall in 2013, joins a crowded field of high-level Democratic candidates that includes Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former state Controller Betty Yee, state Sen. Toni Atkins, and state schools Supt. Tony Thurmond. All are vying to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is serving his second and final term in office.
In his announcement, Villaraigosa, 71, emphasized his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans while mayor and when he served as speaker of the California Assembly, and his record of balancing budgets and enhancing public safety and education.
Villaraigosa lost — badly — to Newsom in the 2018 Democratic primary, spending “almost $35 million in the California primary to come in third for governor behind Republican businessman and first-time candidate John Cox, who spent just $6.6 million,” Breitbart News reported at the time.
He was nationally famous for another reason that is currently newsworthy: when presiding over the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2012, Villaraigosa pushed through a floor vote amending the party platform to restore pro-Israel planks, over the clear objection of the delegates.
That episode marked the beginning of the party’s public decline into anti-Israel sentiment — a change that has reached its nadir today, when the party’s presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris, will not be seen in public with Israel’s elected prime minister.
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