Alex Edelman/Getty Images 2020 elections Gavin Newsom endorses Kamala Harris for president

Kamala Harris won the endorsement of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced to a national television audience on Friday that he was backing his home-state senator for president.

“I’m very enthusiastic about Kamala Harris,” Newsom said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “I’ve known her for decades, not only as district attorney where she did an extraordinary job with a very progressive record, but I watched her up close as lieutenant governor, when she served as attorney general, and I have the privilege of working with her as a U.S. senator.”


“I think the American people could not do better,” Newsom added.

California is central to Harris’ plans to lock down the Democratic nomination for president — and she’s been rolling out high-profile supporters including Rep. Barbara Lee, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Dolores Huerta, the ironic labor and civil rights leader.

Newsom, Lee and Huerta will all serve as Harris’ California co-chairs for the presidential bid.

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Newsom and Harris have been seemingly joined at the hip politically for decades — rising through the ranks of San Francisco and California politics. Many of the same California-based strategists form their campaign brain trusts, and their respective careers were elevated by former San Francisco Mayor and powerful state legislative leader Speaker Willie Brown, who went by the nickname the “Ayatollah of the Assembly.”

When former Sen. Barbara Boxer retired ahead of the 2016 election, it represented a fork in the road for Harris and Newsom. After roughly five days of intense deliberations — among not only Harris and Newsom, but former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the billionaire impeachment activist Tom Steyer — Newsom made the first public utterance. On Facebook, he announced he would forego a Senate run, and soon after unveiled his gubernatorial bid.

Harris jumped into the Senate race hours later, rolling out a list of endorsements that ultimately scared off any meaningful competition. When Newsom endorsed her Senate campaign in 2016, he nodded to their past in the trenches of one of America’s most progressive cities. “If you can survive San Francisco politics,” Newsom said, pausing, “Washington, D.C., is a cakewalk.”

Two years later, Harris returned the favor in Los Angeles, endorsing Newsom for governor, and predicting that he would “lead with courage.”

Added Newsom at the time: “It is an amazing journey Kamala and I have been on as friends.”