‘I am staying in the fight’: Did Kamala Harris just tease her 2028 presidential campaign?

Fresh from her post-election stint in Hawaii, Kamala Harris is back. The Vice president has reportedly told her advisers and allies that she is “staying in the fight.” Does this mean it’s Brat Summer forever now? Maybe just.

While it’s unclear exactly what political arenas Harris’ “fight” will take her to, it’s likely that she and her allies will use the coming holiday season to regroup and re-strategize. According to a campaign aide, she will likely use the next six months to “travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.” According to members of Harris’ inner circle, Harris’ next target may be the governorship of California, to replace current state governor Gavin Newson when his term ends in 2026. It’s also possible that Harris could save her political efforts to run for president again in 2028, though, according to that same inner circle, it’s unlikely that she can do both.

According to a recent poll, Harris may just have a chance at clinching the Democratic party’s nomination. Of the high-profile democrats surveyed, 41% have given Harris their vote of confidence, far surpassing the percentages afforded her competitors in the party.

While Harris may be poised to take on another shot at the presidency, Harris ally and former Al Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile said that the vice president would be wise to take her time before making such an announcement. According to Brazile, Harris was able to garner “a lot of political capital” in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election, capital that she shouldn’t “squander” by making “snap decisions.”

Brazile’s framing of Harris’s accrued political capital is an understatement. With only around 100 days until Election Night, Kamala Harris was able to mount one of the most significant political comebacks in history, raising $81 million in a mere 24 hours after her announcement. She subsequently became pop culture internet royalty, certified by Charli XCX herself. Despite her loss in the 2024 election, she has been elevated to the status of a true political icon, one that her base will not soon forget.

According to allies, Harris’ subsequent election loss is unlikely to taint her nomination prospects in her party’s eyes. Democratic strategist Joel Payne said that Harris was put in an “incredibly difficult situation” after Joe Biden pulled out of the race, but nevertheless was able to meet and surpass the party’s expectations, giving Donald Trump a true run for his money. In the Democratic Party’s eyes, Harris made the best of an impossible political circumstances and succeeded in unifying the Democratic Party and energizing voters despite overwhelming odds against her.

While many of Harris’ Democratic colleges acknowledge her political power and her “X factor,” some of the party’s leading minds are skeptical. Rep. Yvette Clark of New York told theGrio that “only time will tell” when asked if Harris would receive the party’s nomination, citing the ever shifting “political landscape” of the nation, which may be a very different America after 4 years of Trump. Former Congressman Mondaire Jones was more clear cut, saying Harris “should not run again.” He said that before the party chooses a candidate, Democrats need to have some “really tough, introspective conversations” to decide the party’s identity and who should represent it when the time comes.