One of the biggest takeaways from Kamala Harris's new book 107 Days is that there's no love lost between her and Governor Gavin Newsom, after each has risen separately out of the same political orbit over the past 25 years.

Longtime California residents may remember how, while Gavin was still lieutenant governor and Kamala was still attorney general, it became clear that they would be rivals of some kind. SFist noted their potential political "demolition derby" as far back as 2014, when it was being floated that Newsom might be interested in skipping over the governor's office to run for the Senate, after the announcement that Barbara Boxer was retiring. Or, it remained possible at the time that Harris could run for governor, and she and Newsom could butt heads in that race.

Instead, whether they explicitly agreed to this or not, Newsom stayed in his lane and waited for the governor's job, and Harris ran for the Senate seat, winning pretty handily in 2016 — in the same election in which Trump won the first time around.

Newsom and Harris can both credit former SF Mayor Willie Brown for their entries into California politics — and arguably for their swift rises as well. Harris notoriously dated Brown when she was in her 20s, something that she only obliquely mentions these days. And Newsom, as CalMatters notes, was appointed to his first city commission in 1996 by Brown, who later appointed him to the Board of Supervisors, setting him up for his 2003 mayoral bid.

Now, here we are in 2025, with both Harris and Newsom almost certainly eying presidential bids in 2028. They both likely have uphill climbs there, with much of the country convinced by Trump that California is a mismanaged hellscape, and with Harris having already lost once around. But, she has more national recognition and airtime under her belt that Newsom, and we'll see how this plays out when it's ultimately primary season in 2027.

Harris's book tour, which launched last week, can be seen as Stage 1 in her return to public life. And the book itself shows her trying to be dishy and authentic, and clearly throwing a jab in the direction of Newsom — or at least sending the message that she and he remain frenemies at best.

The terse detail in the book comes from the July 2024 day when Biden announced he would not run for reelection, when there was a mad rush by Democrats to endorse Harris as his heir apparent — though Nancy Pelosi notably waited a beat, and rumor has it she was pushing for a quick primary behind the scenes, as impossible as that would have been.

Harris says that she had a record on a call sheet of an attempt to reach Newsom which just said, "Hiking. Will call back."

"He never did," Harris writes.

Newsom would later tell the media that he had seen an unknown number come up on his phone and "That exact same moment, was working with my team to draft a statement [to endorse Harris]."

Newsom did, in fact, endorse Harris that day, but apparently the pair did not speak for some time, and Harris neglects to mention the endorsement in the book.

Harris seems more bitter toward the Bidens on a few fronts, but she puts some of this in the voice of her husband Doug Emhoff, who was apparently pulled aside by Jill Biden at a July 4th gathering last year — shortly after Biden's disastrous first debate performance.

Emhoff reportedly said of the Bidens, to his wife, "They hide you away for four years, give you impossible, shit jobs, don’t correct the record when those tasks are mischaracterized, never fight back when you’re attacked, never praise your accomplishments, and, now, they want you out there on that balcony, standing right behind them. Now, finally, they know you are an asset, and they need you to reassure the American people. And still, they have to ask if we’re loyal?"

But when it comes to Newsom and Harris, they'll probably have to start mentioning each other by name, in public, at some point, if in fact they are both planning to run in a Democratic primary race that will be taking shape in less than two years. For now, Newsom just took a sideways jab at Harris in his appearance last week on Stephen Colbert, saying, "As the Democratic Party, we have a lot of work to do to make up for our failures in the past. We got crushed in this last election."

When Harris made her own Colbert appearance in late July, she said that she planned to tour the country and "listen to people," and that in this next stage, "I don’t want it to be transactional, where I’m asking for their vote."

Top image: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (C), First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom (R) and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) greet supporters during a No on the Recall campaign event at IBEW-NECA Joint Apprenticeship Training Center on September 08, 2021 in San Leandro, California. With six days to go until the California recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom was joined by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as he continues to campaign throughout the state. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)