COULD California see its first Filipino American governor?
Attorney General Rob Bonta is “seriously considering” a run for the Golden State’s top office, according to a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Quite a few folks have reached out to me encouraging me to run for governor,” Bonta told the Chronicle.
The 50-year-old Democrat, who served as a state assemblymember for five terms, was appointed to the attorney general post by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021 after then-attorney general Xavier Becerra was appointed as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. With the appointment, Bonta became the first Fil-Am to hold the office, and subsequently was elected to a full four-year term last November 2022.
If he throws his hat into the governor race after Newsom terms out in 2026, Bonta would join current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and former State Controller Betty Yee who have announced their intentions to run for governor.
Despite the consideration to run for governor, Bonta told the Chronicle that he will continue to be focused on “being attorney general” and that the decision to run for the state’s top office is not “something that I’m making a decision on today.”