Former Los Angeles Mayor and State Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa announced on Tuesday, July 23, that he is running for governor of California in 2026, branding himself as a “proven problem solver” ready to address the state’s biggest problems head on.
“I know we can do big things for California, because I’ve done them before,” Villaraigosa said in his campaign announcement. “As governor, I’ll balance the state budget, make sure our neighborhoods are safe and our kids have great schools. I’ll bring down costs for small businesses and middle-class families.”
Villaraigosa ran for governor of California in 2018 and finished third in the primary behind now-Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox.
He joins a crowded race of high-profile Democrats vying for the seat, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Sen. Toni Atkins, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former state Controller Betty Yee.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is weighing a bid, as is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican and outspoken critic of Newsom.
Related: These are the candidates for California governor in 2026
Villaraigosa served in the State Assembly from 1994 to 2000 and was Assembly Speaker from 1998 to 2000. He became mayor of Los Angeles in 2003, the first Latino to lead the city in more than 130 years and he was mayor through 2013.
Now, at 71, he is seeking to return to elected office.
Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said that unlike in 2018 when Newsom, then California’s lieutenant governor, was the clear frontrunner, there is no current candidate in the 2026 gubernatorial race that people are saying will be the obvious winner.
In 2018, “the whole narrative was ‘it’s going to be Gavin Newsom.’ … The challenge was overcoming that. (Villaraigosa) just wasn’t able to do it,” Guerra said.
But some recent polls show Villaraigosa as a viable candidate today, Guerra said.
“He’s starting off in a much better position than in 2018. He’s starting off as one of the top two or three candidates in terms of name ID, experience,” the LMU professor said.
With four other Democrats – and potentially more – running for governor, it’s possible that the top Democrat will need to capture just 25% to 30% of the vote to advance beyond the primary election, Guerra said.
And, he added, if Republicans are successful in getting their candidate to surge past a crowded field of Democrats to advance to the general election – as they did with Steve Garvey this past spring to land him a spot in the runoff in the U.S. Senate race against Adam Schiff – then it will be a foregone conclusion that whichever Democrat wins the primary election will be the next governor.
Of the Democratic candidates who have announced plans to run for governor so far, Villaraigosa is the only one with chief executive experience, having served as mayor of L.A. for two terms, and he would get the majority of the Latino votes, Guerra said.
His campaign announcement focused on his key accomplishments as a politician. In the state Assembly, he worked to balance the state budget and boost graduation rates. He also touted his record as mayor when he cut violent crime in Los Angeles by a huge 48%, and by steering the city through the great recession.
“California is the state where anything is possible with hard work and determination,” Villaraigosa said. “But our future depends on our willingness to face our biggest challenges. I believe we need a problem solver to lead our state. That’s why I’m running for governor.”
While Villaraigosa is a steadfast Democrat, he indicated a willingness to shake up the status quo and try new approaches to address challenges like public safety and the state’s soaring cost of living.
“We have serious problems, and money alone won’t fix them,” he said. “We need to focus on better outcomes, fixing what’s broken and investing in what works.”
Joel Fox, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, said one way Villaraigosa could set himself apart from the other Democratic candidates is if he decides to take a more centric position politically, rather than lean far left.
While he was Assembly speaker, Villaraigosa appointed Fox – once a Republican political consultant and head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association at the time – to serve on the California Assembly Speaker’s Commission on State and Local Finance.
Fox said Villaraigosa showed a willingness to work across the aisle.
“If he can identify a little bit toward the center in the primary, more so than the other candidates who tend to emphasize their liberal or progressive identification, it makes him a little unique,” said Fox, noting that Villaraigosa has supported education reform efforts that weren’t always popular with teachers unions.
Mike Madrid, a Republican who worked as a senior advisor to Villaraigosa during his previous bid for governor, said that in 2018 Democrats were still reacting to President Donald Trump’s election two years earlier and looking for an “anti-Trump warrior” who was “very far left.”
“That wasn’t Antonio. Antonio was running on a more pro-growth, upwardly mobile agenda for working-class people,” Madrid said. “The difference this time is there’s a growing realization that the neglect of Democrats to focus on working-class people is jeopardizing their ability to win elections. They’ve been losing Latino voters.”
Madrid, whose book “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy” was released in June, said Villaraigosa did well with Latino and Black voters in 2018 and has consistently focused on fighting for the middle-class and poor people.
“He’s unique in the Democratic primary (for governor). … He’s the only person talking about affordability and working-class issues,” said Madrid, who said he won’t be involved in Villaraigosa’s latest campaign.
Longtime political strategist Garry South said that while other Democrats in the gubernatorial race hail from the northern half of the state and may split the votes among the same group of voters, so far Villaraigosa is the only Democratic candidate from the greater L.A. region.
That may change if Xavier Becerra, the current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, decides to enter the race, as some have speculated.
Both Villaraigosa and Becerra are Latino and have represented Los Angeles in elected office – though South said he believes Villaraigosa has greater name recognition than Becerra.
“Villaraigosa is very well-known not just in L.A. city or L.A. County. … Even a former mayor of L.A. does have a considerable advantage down here in the wider L.A. media market,” South said.
Villaraigosa comes from humble roots.
He was raised by a single mother in East L.A. and dropped out of high school for a short period of time. He went on to re-enroll, and he later graduated from UCLA before beginning a career as a civil rights and labor leader.
Before jumping into politics, he was president of the American Civil Liberties Union Southern California, an organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles, and president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
In 2022, Villaraigosa was appointed by Newsom to serve as an advisor on federal infrastructure funding. He has also advised several companies including Banc of California, the marketing company Herbalife, the AltaMed chain of health clinics and the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.
City News Service contributed to this article.
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