He made that promise during his 2021 anti-recall campaign, and a new article from the Associated Press’ Michael R. Blood conveys the extent to which the governor may have boxed himself in. While many Black Democrats expect the governor to follow through on his pledge, the two candidates who seemed the most likely at the time of the pledge — Reps. Barbara Lee and Karen Bass — may no longer be options. Lee is running against Rep. Adam Schiff to succeed Feinstein, so Newsom may want to avoid tilting the scales in that race. Meanwhile, Bass just began her tenure as mayor of Los Angeles.

That leaves the “caretaker” route, in which Newsom appoints someone who doesn’t enter the Senate race, and the Associated Press story provided just one name that has been “floated in California circles” as a caretaker pick: celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

For whatever it’s worth, people in “California circles” often float a ton of unsubstantiated gossip that’s more “Hey, I’m just spitballing myself here” versus “Hey, a person close to the actual decision-maker told me this thing.” On the Oprah rumor specifically, however, there’s reason to believe it may be closer to the latter than the former. 

Winfrey has publicly teased running for president one day but ultimately passed on running in 2020. Still, CNN reported in 2018 that she was taking a presidential bid seriously. If Winfrey wants to be a candidate in 2028 or beyond, gaining political experience as a caretaker in the Senate until January 2025 would certainly help her cause. And even if she doesn’t want to run for president, simply being able to say “Oh, I was once a United States senator” is fun, too.

Returning to the Associated Press story itself, it’s notable that Blood explicitly named Winfrey. The Associated Press typically isn’t as freewheeling as say, Politico, when it comes to floating names for roles; it’s eyebrow-raising not only that she was the singular name floated but also that she was invoked twice in the story. When discussing the caretaker dynamic, Blood writes, “That’s where names like Winfrey come up — a celebrity who is Black and happens to meet Newsom’s appointment pledge.”

The Associated Press does state that “a range of names, from obscure to famous” have been “floated in California circles,” so this could simply be a case of the publication deciding Winfrey, with her celebrity status, was the only one worth mentioning. But there’s a pretty solid chance it’s something more.

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