More than half a dozen people who spoke with Harris before she opted to skip the governor’s race advised against over-interpreting her decision as guiding her 2028 plans.
“I don’t think that any of us should jump to the conclusion that this decision had anything to do with 2028,” said Laphonza Butler, a former California senator who is close to Harris.
“I do think that for her, all options are on the table if she wanted to go again and run for the presidency.”
Harris has been perched at or near the top of some of the way-too-early 2028 primary polling, though political professionals say that is largely because of her relative level of fame.
If Harris does run, it would set up a highly unusual situation where a number of candidates whom she had vetted to be her running mate, and the man she actually selected, could be her primary rivals.
That group includes Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
None of those would-be candidates are expected to defer to her should she run again.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California, with whom Harris has long shared senior political aides, has for months been acting like someone preparing a national campaign.
And there is ample video of just about everyone in the top ranks of Democratic politics vouching for Harris for president last year.
Harris, perhaps more than any other Democrat, would have to reckon with her support for Biden as his acuity deteriorated before the American public.
She did not allow any daylight between herself and Biden while he was still running for re-election.
Then, when she became the party’s nominee, she said in an interview on The View that there was nothing she could think of that she would have done differently from him.
Some ambitious Democrats have said that Harris was handicapped by the truncated nature of her own campaign. Those same Democrats — almost all of whom had backed Biden to the end — have mostly avoided blaming Biden for seeking re-election in the first place.
“There’s always the fear that if she runs for president again, 2028 could devolve into a discussion of what went wrong in 2024,” said Roger Wolfson, a Hollywood writer and Democratic speechwriter.
Harris is said to be working on a book but has yet to reveal an arrangement with a publisher, though a deal is expected soon. A book, of course, would eventually allow Harris to do a book tour and keep herself in the public eye.
She is also expected to form an organisation shortly that would allow her to raise funds and pay for travel and political activities.
Representative Robert Garcia of California said today that he had spoken with Harris about travelling to competitive House districts beginning this northern autumn to assist Democratic candidates.
“She’s going to be all across the country for the 2026 Midterms,” Garcia said. “She wants to help us flip the House.”
Harris, who was widely criticised last year for doing very few media interviews, is expected to begin talking with podcast hosts and journalists beginning after Labour Day, according to a person she has spoken with about her plans.
One person who spoke with Harris said that it had been a “gut decision” for her not to run for governor before a self-imposed August 1 deadline and that her heart was not in a statewide campaign.
She has told colleagues recently that after holding public office continuously for two decades she was ready to take a break and instead seek to make changes from outside the political system next.
“I will remain in that fight,” she said in the last line in her statement announcing that she would not run for governor.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Shane Goldmacher and Reid J. Epstein
Photograph by: Mike Kai Chen
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
