California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta opts against running for governor. Again.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Sunday that he will not run for governor of California, a decision he said was based on his belief that his legal efforts to fight the Trump administration as the state’s attorney general are paramount at this moment in history.

“Right now, my place is here, on the front lines, in the trenches, serving as a bulwark, creating a protection around our state and our people, our values ​​and our progress in the face of these vicious, inhumane, illegal and cruel attacks by the Trump administration,” Bonta said in an interview Sunday evening.

Bonta said his role as state attorney general gives him greater power to fight President Trump’s policies that have disproportionately affected Californians than he could as governor.

“I have a role to play that I think is prominent in the country,” Bonta said. “I want to continue to be the biggest and most powerful check on this president’s abuse of power.”

Bonta said Trump’s actions in Venezuela, attempts to block welfare funds in Democratic-led states and the fatal shooting of a Minnesota mother of three last week by a federal immigration agent cemented his decision to seek re-election to his current position.

The 53-year-old former state lawmaker and close political ally of Gov. Gavin Newsom has been the state’s top law enforcement official since Newsom appointed him to the post in 2021, after Xavier Becerra became head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under then-President Biden.

Bonta’s office has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times — a track record that likely would have stood him in good stead had he decided to run in a state where Trump lost three times and where approval ratings are dismal.

In 2024, Bonta said he plans to run for governor. Then, in February, he announced that he had ruled out that possibility and was instead focusing on his work as attorney general. After former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced in 2025 that they would not run for governor, Bonta began to reconsider his decision, he said. Bonta’s final decision not to run was first reported by Politico on Sunday.

“I already had two horses in the governor’s race,” Bonta told the Times in November. “They ultimately decided not to get involved. … Racing is fundamentally different today, isn’t it?”

The race for California governor remains wide open. Newsom is serving the final year of his second term and is barred from running again due to term limits. Newsom has said he plans to run for president in 2028.

Former Rep. Katie Porter — an early leader in the polls — faltered late last year after videos surfaced of her yelling at an aide and berating a reporter. The videos contributed to his removal of Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, in a November poll released by the UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies and co-sponsored by the Times.

Porter rebounded somewhat toward the end of the year, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll, but neither candidate had a majority of support and many voters remained undecided.

California hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006, Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans in the state, and many are seething with anger at Trump and looking for Democratic candidates willing to fight back against the current administration.

Unions as well as business leaders encouraged Bonta to enter this volatile race. Bonta said he has no immediate plans to support any candidate.

“I think I could have been a game-changer and I think I would have solidified a lot of support,” Bonta said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think it’s still very dynamic. It’s not static, it’s moving. It’s moving. It’s changing. I think you’re going to see potentially more candidates enter the race.”

Bonta has faced questions in recent months about spending about $468,000 in campaign funds on legal advice last year as he spoke to federal investigators about alleged corruption involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who was charged in an alleged bribery scheme involving local businessmen David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong. All three have pleaded not guilty.

According to his political consultant Dan Newman, Bonta – who had received campaign donations from the Duong family – was approached by investigators because he was initially considered a “possible victim” in the alleged scheme, although this was later ruled out. Bonta has since returned $155,000 in campaign contributions to the Duong family, according to media reports.

Bonta is the son of civil rights activists Warren Bonta, a white Californian, and Cynthia Bonta, a native of the Philippines who immigrated to the United States on a scholarship in 1965. Bonta, a United States citizen, was born in Quezon City, Philippines, in 1972, when his parents worked as missionaries there, and immigrated with his family to California when he was a child.

In 2012, Bonta was elected to represent Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro as the first Filipino American to serve in the California Legislature. In Sacramento, he led a series of criminal justice reforms and established himself as one of the agency’s most liberal members.

Bonta is married to Rep. Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), who succeeded him in the State Assembly, and the couple has three children.

Times Staff Writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.