Kamala Harris hints at standing for the presidency in 2028 as a crowd in New York City chants “Run again!”. Photo / Getty Images
All former US Vice-President Kamala Harris had to do was mention elections, and audience members at a civil rights conference leapt to their feet and began chanting: “Run again! Run again!”
Harris smiled and shushed the thousands packed into a hotel ballroom for the Reverend Al Sharpton’s annual National Action Network (Nan) convention in New York City, then said later what many wanted to hear: “I’m thinking about it”. It was one of her most explicit signals yet that she could mount a political comeback, in response to Sharpton asking whether she’d seek the presidency in 2028.
Some Democrats and pundits have expressed scepticism about whether Harris should mount a national comeback after her bruising loss to President Donald Trump in 2024. But the warm reception she received from a crowd of largely black voters on Saturday shows why the first black woman to serve as Vice-President could still be a formidable force as Democrats approach the next presidential contest.
Harris appeared on the third day of a four-day event in which Sharpton, the commentator and civil rights activist, paraded a host of Democratic presidential hopefuls past members of his Nan organisation from around the country. None drew as massive a crowd as Harris, with spectators filling every seat and standing several deep along the walls of a Times Square hotel ballroom.
Harris’ appearance was followed by a much quieter crowd for former transportation secretary and 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who drew polite response and then a standing ovation when he, too, ended his time on stage by hinting he was planning to run again.
Sharpton introduced Harris with a glowing tribute to their long association but in an interview was non-committal about his support for her compared with other guests, which included Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Sharpton said he is “not pushing anybody” as the Democratic favourite for 2028 but he believes Harris remains a strong potential candidate.
“To say someone that got more votes than any presidential candidate in American history other than Trump [and Joe Biden] should be, two years later, out of the conversation is crazy,” Sharpton said. “She is a proven vote-getter, and I think she has a viable following.”
Pointing out that he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004, Sharpton said that “if I was somebody thinking about running, I would not calculate her out of the race”.
High-quality polling on Democratic preferences for potential 2028 presidential candidates has been sparse, and many pollsters are reluctant to survey voters so early. Some polling has shown black voters still hold Harris in high regard, including a September Washington Post-Ipsos poll that found 72% of black Democrats and Democratic leaners have favourable views of the former Vice-President. That compares with 50% for California Governor Gavin Newsom, another potential presidential contender, but his lower rating is primarily driven by people having no opinion.
Overall, the poll found that US adults were more likely to have an unfavourable impression of Harris, at 52%, than favourable, at 36%.
Harris has teased a potential political comeback before, including in a February interview when she said, “I might”, when asked whether she was thinking about another presidential run.
At the Nan event, Harris’ lengthy remarks about her experience sounded like a job resume with an emphasis on foreign policy chops. “I served for four years being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room. I know what the job is, and I know what it requires,” she said.
Harris also touted the time she has spent travelling around the country since losing the election and drew loud cheers of support when she criticised Trump for failing to end inflation and for choosing to go to war in Iran. She has lost sleep, she said, thinking about how Trump’s belligerence towards longtime allies and cancellation of foreign assistance programmes such as USAID have altered America’s global standing.
When Sharpton asked directly whether Harris would run again, the crowd erupted before she could answer. When they finally quietened, she set them off again by saying, “Listen, I might”.
“The American people,” Harris later said, “have a right to expect that anyone who wants to run for office and be a leader, that it can’t be about themselves and what they want for themselves. It’s got to be about the American people. And that’s how I think of it.”
Afterwards, several in the audience said they were thrilled by the appearance.
“Oh, she was phenomenal,” said Sharmaine Byrd, 57, a pastor who runs a nonprofit community group in Brooklyn. She had watched all the speakers so far, she said, but Harris “is the one. I’m going all the way with her”.
Terryl Buford, 64, travelled from Memphis to the convention partly to see Harris, who he said “had a great point of view” and an impressive career. “She has a keen outlook on society and [a record of] giving back to society in a way that enriched America. And she’s a good motivator for women,” said Buford, a civil service worker.
Dorothea Caldwell-Brown of New York City, a retired lawyer, said she wasn’t sure about Harris when she jumped late into the presidential race in 2024 after President Joe Biden dropped out. “But what she was able to accomplish in a short time – I learned a whole lot about her strength and her stamina and her concern,” Caldwell-Brown said.
Harris “absolutely” should run again, she said.
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