After a devastating and decisive loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris is keeping her “options open” about her political future once she leaves office next year.
Harris has told her advisors and close allies, “I am staying in the fight,” Politico reports. What that fight looks like, however, remains up in the air.
According to Harris’ inner circle, the vice president is considering running for governor of California when Gov. Gavin Newsom’s term-limited time in office comes to an end in 2026. Harris is also not ruling out running for president again in 2028. However, insiders told the news outlet that it is unlikely Harris can do both.
While Harris, who left Washington, D.C. last week to vacation in Hawaii with family and advisors, has plenty of time to decide on her next move, those close to the vice president make clear she will remain a critical voice against Trump and his incoming administration.
Politico notes that another option for Harris is setting up an independent entity as a former vice president, in which she would continue to travel across the country, deliver speeches, and maintain her political relationships in the event she seeks public office again.
Longtime Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, a close advisor to Harris, told Politico that the vice president has earned “a lot of political capital” as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. Though Harris lost the presidential contest, including the popular vote, she earned the most votes out of any Democratic presidential candidate other than President Joe Biden’s total vote count in 2020.
“You don’t squander that by making snap decisions,” said Brazile.
According to a recent poll conducted by Puck News/Echelon Insights, Harris remains the favorite among high-profile Democrats in a potential 2028 presidential run. The vice president garnered 41% among those surveyed, far exceeding the average support for Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others.
Democrats who spoke with theGrio in recent weeks about Harris’ chances in the 2028 presidential election expressed neutral or mixed feelings about a Harris comeback.
“Certainly, Vice President Kamala Harris was an extraordinary candidate and is an extraordinary vice president,” Rep. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., told theGrio. The presumptive chair of the Congressional Black Caucus added, “Only time can tell what the lay of the land will look like, should the opportunity arise … to identify that nominee. I don’t think we’re in that space yet.”
Democratic strategist Joel Payne said he sees “no why Kamala Harris doesn’t have a place in the future of the Democratic Party,” noting she had only 100 days to build a presidential campaign after President Biden dropped out of the race three months before Election Day.
“She was put in an incredibly difficult situation,” he told theGrio. “[She] came up with a creative way to compete with Trump in the attention economy, raised money, brought the coalition of Democrats back together.”
Despite Democrats pointing fingers at each other after Trump’s victory, Payne added, “I think Kamala Harris is a lot to be proud of. What befell Democrats this cycle, I think it would be short-sighted to just lay it at the feet of Kamala Harris.”
Former Congressman Mondaire Jones, who lost his reelection bid in New York’s 17th Congressional District to incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in November, told theGrio flatly, “Harris should not run again.”
“Frankly, I think even before talking about who should be the nominee in 2028, we need to have some really tough, introspective conversations about who we are as a party and who we want to be as a party,” said Jones.
