The passing of two August spectacles—the 2024 Olympics in Paris and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago—raises an intriguing scenario: California playing host to both events when they next return in 2028.
The Olympics are a given, with Los Angeles committed to staging the summer games from mid-to-late July of what happens to the next presidential election year (the host committee’s ability to keep the games from going far over budget will be worth watching in a land not known for its fiscal discipline).
But as for the Golden State’s also landing the next Democratic convention, that depends in part on what fate has in store for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Should Harris win the presidency this fall and seek reelection in 2028, common sense dictates that Los Angeles would stand a good chance as the host city as: (a) it’s Harris’s current hometown; and (b) the Democrats are overdue for a return to America’s biggest true-blue state—the last two California-based Democratic conventions having been held in 2000 (L.A.) and 1984 (San Francisco).
Such is the temptation to overthink the current state of the election—speculating months, even yearsin advance—when Harris is still far from a sure thing where becoming the nation’s 47th president is concerned. (Though oddsmakers now have her as the betting favorite, the race boils down to the voting whims of a handful of familiar “battleground” states.)
Moreover, history suggests California could get snubbed. The last Californian to hold the presidency, Ronald Reagan, ran for reelection in 1984—also the last time Los Angeles hosted the Summer Games. The Republican choice of convention venue that year: Dallas, Texas (Reagan delivering his acceptance speech 11 days after the 23rd Olympiad’s closing ceremony).
Besides, Harris could opt against Los Angeles if she’s especially superstitious. The last incumbent president renominated at a national convention in their hometown—this would be Houstonian George W. Bush in 1992—didn’t have much luck later that fall.
Even if we’re far from knowing where the next Democratic convention will be held (the choice for 2024 wasn’t announced until April of the prior year), a Harris victory would have a ripple effect on California—not unlike the other two times a Californian claimed the Oval Office.
Let’s review . . .
In 1969, a new White House set up shop with some very evident California connections in the form of veterans of Richard Nixon’s ill-fated gubernatorial run in 1962 and a presidential campaign in 1960 that came agonizingly close to winning. They included H. R. Haldeman, a veteran of the 1962 campaign who served as Nixon’s White House chief of staff and something of a self-appointed “bad cop.” (“Every president needs an SOB,” Haldeman once observed. “And I’m Nixon’s.”)
Nixon also tapped into the Republican bench of state lawmakers (keeping in mind Ronald Reagan was governor at the time and the Golden State was not the progressive citadel it is today), choosing California’s lieutenant governor, Robert Finch, to be his health secretary. (Finch, who managed Nixon’s losing presidential run in 1960, would later serve as White House counsel.)
In 1981, the nascent Reagan White House likewise tapped into two pipelines of talent—aides from his eight years as California’s 33rd governor, plus veterans of his failed presidential run in 1976. Among the more prominent Reagan appointees to fit that profile: Hoover fellow Edwin Meese and communications whiz Michael Deaver (both former gubernatorial aides who made up two-thirds of that White House’s advisory “troika”), defense secretary Caspar Weinberger (a former California state finance director), and Martin Anderson, a Hoover Institution economist and White House senior policy advisor as well as a key advisor to Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns.
Harris, in theory, could tap into multiple pipelines—her failed presidential campaign from 2019, plus three successful statewide runs prior to that (two for state attorney general, one for the US Senate). But that’s not the case so far—not with a hastily assembled campaign dominated by seasoned operatives with ties to Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s presidential runs (Harris’s convention address reportedly was coauthored by a former Obama speechwriter).
That said, a Harris victory could have a larger impact on California’s present political landscape if the following prominent Democrats are offered a job in the new administration.
They might include:
Governor Gavin Newsom. Figuring where Newsom’s head is at these days—in the course of a few weeks he went from prominent Biden surrogate to a prominent governor not offered a podium address at the convention—is a favorite Sacramento parlor game.
Moments like this add to the intrigue: Newsom, in the course of an otherwise jovial interview, sarcastically noting of the switch from Biden to Harris, “We went through a very open process, a very inclusive process. It was bottom-up, I don’t know if you know that.” Then the governor muttering, somewhat under his breath: “That’s what I’ve been told to say.”
While that may seem like picking nits—one small aside uttered by a governor who described Harris as a “star” during the convention’s roll-call vote—Newsom’s attitude and compliance does come into play if a Harris administration sees utility in bringing him to Washington for a cabinet post or some other high-level position, à la Robert Finch in 1969.
And were Newsom to go to Washington in 2025? That means an interim governor for the following two years. Which poses the question of what the future holds for the person who’d succeed Newsom . . .
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis. She’s one of at least nine Democrats either with active candidacies or thinking of seeking Newsom’s current job in 2026. And as acting governor, she presumably would have a leg up on the competition in the top-two primary if she were elevated to the position of California’s chief executive in 2025.
Unlike Newsom, Kounalakis was given a chance to address the Democratic convention from the stage (she called Harris a “friend” and “mentor”). Besides, she might decide that running in the crowded gubernatorial field comes with too much risk (former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lining up as a tough opponent).
But also maybe in the mix, even though she will soon leave office . . .
Sen. Laphonza Butler. It’s easy to forget about Butler, as she’s an interim senator, appointed by Newsom in the aftermath of Dianne Feinstein’s death with not much to show in the way of accomplishments (note how her press releases are chock full of vowels like “introduce,” “celebrate,” and “discuss” that speak more to process than results).
Why Butler’s services could be in demand in a Harris administration: her nearly two decades of work as a labor organizer and leader, as well as her tenure as president of EMILY’s List, an organization dedicated to electing Democratic pro-choice women.
There will be plenty more California speculation to be had should Harris emerge as November’s winner—the line of high-end donors angling for ambassadorial posts and other loyal Democrats looking for administration appointments forming to the rear. (Also keep an eye on any California Democrats who endorsed Harris during her previous presidential campaign—i.e., “BBB” [Before Biden Bailed].)
For now, it makes for the sort of California political intrigue that didn’t exist earlier this summer, when the nomination was Joe Biden’s to be had—and his running mate was seen as more of a political albatross than the conveyor of “the new politics of joy.”
And for Los Angeles: maybe a chance to be the epicenter of both international athletics and national politics four years from now.
