Attorney General Rob Bonta Announces He Won't Run for Governor

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he will not run for governor late Sunday, saying he does not want to walk away from his current role defending California and will instead seek reelection as attorney general.

Bonta’s potential entrance into the race has been anticipated for months, but in an interview with Politico and subsequent statement, Bonta said the state needs a “battle-tested” top prosecutor to defend against attacks from the Trump administration. Bonta’s office has sued the federal government more than 50 times in the past year.

“Watching this dystopian horror come to life has reaffirmed something I feel in every fiber of my being: In this moment, my place is here — shielding Californians from the most brazen attacks on our rights and our families,” he said.

The current field of candidates running for governor includes a number of Democrats. Among them: former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter; East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer.

Polls in the second half of 2025 showed the race wide open, with large numbers of voters undecided and support among Republicans split between two GOP candidates: businessman Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Given the large number of Democrats splitting support and the difficulty a Republican would have winning statewide in California, it’s possible that the June primary could result in a November runoff between one of the GOP candidates and a Democrat. If that’s the case, the June primary could effectively decide who becomes the state’s next governor.

Bonta, a former Oakland lawmaker, has repeatedly made headlines in 2025, as his office filed more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, making him a prominent face of the state’s resistance to the president’s agenda. As a state lawmaker, he was known as a progressive, pushing laws that furthered criminal justice reform and strengthened worker, immigrant and renter rights.