Harris tells advisers to keep her options open for another run for president – or California governor
Kamala Harris has told her aides to keep her options open in case she decides to run for president again in 2028, according to reports.
Sources close to the Harris family told Politico that the vice president has vowed to “stay in the fight” and may even run to be governor of California in 2026.
The sources said Harris would be pondering her path forward over the coming holiday season, but has told allies and advisers she doesn’t want to rule anything out.
In particular, she is said to be planning out how and when she will criticise Donald Trump as she strives to “reassert” her prominence in the Democratic Party.
“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” one former Harris campaign aide told Politico.
“The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”
Another person close to Harris said: “There will be a desire to hear her voice, and there won’t be a vacuum for long.”
The report comes as Democrats debate their future political strategy following Harris’s decisive defeat by Trump in November’s election.
Despite that loss, a recent poll by Echelon Insights found her leading the pack for potential 2028 Democratic nominees, with 41 per cent compared to Gavin Newsom’s 8 per cent and Josh Shapiro’s 7 per cent.
Staying in the running for either the presidency or the California governorship would require maintaining links with other Democratic grandees, rebuilding her online following and potentially setting up a new fundraising organisation.
Meanwhile, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff are preparing to vacate the Naval Observatory in Washington DC – the official residence of the vice president, analogous to the White House – and must choose whether to return to their old home in Los Angeles
