Harris and Pelosi stay quiet as California weighs a billionaire wealth tax

Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi have refused to take a side on California’s Proposition 40 billionaire tax, even as labor allies press the issue and Gov. Gavin Newsom openly opposes it.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi have not endorsed or opposed California’s Proposition 40, a one-time 5% wealth tax aimed at residents worth more than $1 billion.

Both the Yes on Prop 40 and No on Prop 40 campaigns say they have no record of either Democrat backing their side. Spokespeople for Harris and Pelosi did not answer repeated requests for a position, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The measure would apply retroactively to people living in California on Jan. 1, 2026. Supporters frame it as a way to offset state budget pressure they tie to federal cuts and warn that Medi-Cal coverage for roughly 2 million Californians could be at risk without new revenue.

Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the tax. He has said he fears billionaires would leave the state. California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has warned that lost tax revenue could run to “hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year” if high-net-worth residents depart.

Newsom draws a line while Harris and Pelosi hedge

Newsom’s stance is public and clear. Harris and Pelosi have left a vacuum. That silence lands hard in a state where Democratic voters often hear tough talk about wealth and inequality, then watch top names dodge the ballot fight that would put those words to a test.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a Santa Clara Democrat and possible 2028 contender, is one of the few prominent state Democrats backing the tax. He has cast the fight as a “whose-side-are-you-on moment” for the party.

A September survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found 52% of likely voters support the tax and 46% oppose it. An August Data for Progress survey found 72% of Democrats, and 53% of all likely voters, said billionaires “earned their wealth through exploiting workers and/or consumers.”

Those numbers give the left a ready argument. They also raise the cost of staying silent for politicians who still need Silicon Valley checks and labor turnout.

Opponents flood the airwaves with cash

Billionaire tax opponents have raised roughly $259 million, about $8 for every $1 raised by supporters. The No on Prop 40 campaign has spent $48 million on statewide ads this year, according to a Chronicle analysis of AdImpact data. A healthcare union largely funds the tax’s backers.

That spending gap is not abstract. It shapes what voters see on television and phones while Harris and Pelosi keep their powder dry. Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy PAC has reported $7.1 million on hand. Harris’s Fight for the People PAC has shown $1.7 million. Her 2024 presidential campaign burned through $1.5 billion in 107 days, another reminder of how much modern Democratic politics still runs on large-dollar infrastructure.

Pelosi has raised more than $1 billion for Democrats over three decades. That record helps explain why a blunt “yes” or “no” on a billionaire levy is not a free vote for her, even after years as a dominant force in House Democratic politics.

Labor pushes hard; Pelosi stops short

Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, has pressed elected officials to stop explaining away the tax. She ties the measure to healthcare jobs and coverage after federal budget changes she blames on “Trump cuts.”

Gonzalez put the pressure in plain terms:

“every elected official, every union, every everybody who has twisted themselves into a pretzel to explain why this particular tax doesn’t work, needs to really think about the ways in which we are going to continue to fund healthcare, ensure that those jobs continue, and ensure that lives aren’t lost as a result of HR 1 and the Trump cuts that are coming.”

On Sept. 4 in San Francisco, Pelosi stood with labor leaders at a press conference focused on bills meant to protect workers from artificial intelligence. A “Workers over billionaires” sign was on the podium. Pelosi criticized CEO pay. She did not endorse Proposition 40.

Her remarks hit familiar notes about inequality:

“In our community, there are people, CEOs, who make in two weeks what some of their workers make in a lifetime. In a lifetime. They wouldn’t be making that money without the workers doing the job. So let’s use this as an opportunity, with joy, knowing that we are right on this, because we cannot go down any path other than what is described here, respecting the dignity and worth of every person.”

Talk is cheap when the ballot question is sitting there unanswered. When the San Francisco Democratic Party weighed Prop 40 last month, Pelosi’s proxy voted “no endorsement.”

After the September event, Gonzalez shrugged off the missing endorsement and pointed to Pelosi’s House succession fight instead:

“It is what it is. But she is definitely supporting our priority candidate here in San Francisco, Connie Chan.”

Chan is running against state Sen. Scott Wiener to succeed Pelosi in the House. Gonzalez added that Pelosi has “always supported unions and working people.” Support for a preferred successor is not the same as taking a side on a statewide wealth tax, especially one labor is treating as a core priority. That same succession fight has already produced sharp intraparty friction, including a recent episode in which Pelosi accused rivals of sexism after an AI chatbot jab at her chosen candidate.

Harris has a record of ducking California ballot fights

Harris’s silence fits a pattern. In 2016, as state attorney general and a Senate candidate, she declined to take a position when California voters legalized recreational cannabis. In 2024, during her presidential run, she never publicly revealed a position on Proposition 36, the measure to toughen penalties for drug possession and theft. She declined to disclose that position when reporters asked two days before the election.

Now Prop 40 arrives while she weighs another 2028 presidential bid. Newsom is also eyeing that lane. Both have long ties to deep-pocketed California donors. Opposing the tax risks angering left-leaning primary voters who back “tax the rich” rhetoric. Supporting it risks alienating the billionaire class that has funded Democratic infrastructure for years.

That donor-and-base split is not unique to this measure. It shows up whenever Democratic leaders try to manage the party’s left flank without torching their fundraising networks.

California voters get the hard choice; party stars get the soft exit

Proposition 40 forces a concrete decision: impose a one-time 5% levy on billion-dollar fortunes tied to California residency on the first day of 2026, or reject it because of flight risk and revenue damage. Newsom chose oppose. Khanna chose support. Harris and Pelosi chose neither.

The nonresponse is itself a political product. It protects relationships with labor while avoiding a direct hit on the ultra-wealthy donors who support campaigns, PACs, and party machinery. It also leaves California voters to sort a high-stakes tax fight without guidance from two of the state’s most famous Democrats.

California remains a proving ground for national Democratic priorities, from budget fights to election administration disputes such as the federal case over noncitizens listed on state voter rolls. When the state’s own marquee names will not say yes or no to a billionaire tax their base cheers in theory, the gap between slogan and ballot gets hard to miss. Pelosi’s long imprint on caucus tactics still echoes in fights like the one where House Democrats blocked a court-size amendment, but influence is not a substitute for a clear answer to voters.

When the bill comes due, ordinary Californians cast the vote, while the party’s biggest names keep their options, and their donors, intact.