President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 election on July 21, 2024, sending shockwaves through a race already upended by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in, only to be beaten by Trump. As Democrats try to recover, Biden, suffering from cancer, aims to protect what remains of his legacy. This Washington Examiner series “Dropout,” will look at what happened on that day, the aftermath for Biden, and how Harris’s future is up in the air. Part 3 looks at Harris as she teases a return to the political arena.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris came out of political isolation this week to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the start of her presidential run with a post on X. Like her campaign, it totally missed the mark.
“One year ago today, I began my campaign for President of the United States,” she said. “Over the 107 days of our race, I had the opportunity and honor to travel our nation and meet with Americans who were fighting for a better future. And today, millions of Americans continue to stand up for our values, our ideals, and our democracy. Their courage and resolve inspires me. Whether you are attending a protest, calling your representatives, or building community: I want to say: Thank you. We are in this fight together.”
Harris was criticized almost immediately for her post, with people on social media reminding her that it was not the flex she thought it was.
“Lol I’m not so sure this is something to uh, celebrate,” conservative commentator Tomi Lahren wrote.
A lot has happened to Harris over the past year.
She became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee following the midsummer coup of former President Joe Biden, the party’s own democratically elected nominee. Her campaign blew through $1.5 billion in a 15-week presidential campaign that, at times, looked like a congested Cirque du Soleil performance. Her campaign dished out large sums of money on advertising, social media influencers, staff, celebrity concerts, drone shows, and a town hall featuring Oprah Winfrey.
For all the time, money, and effort, Harris had very little to show for it. She became the first Democratic presidential candidate to lose the national popular vote in two decades, falling to President Donald Trump in every battleground state.
DROPOUT PART 2: JOE BIDEN’S MIXED ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND HIS LEGACY AGAINST AUTOPEN INVESTIGATIONS
Heading home
Harris spent the first seven months of the year settling back into her Brentwood, California, home with husband Doug Emhoff.
“Losses are hard in politics,” Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist who served as senior adviser to Harris and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), told the Washington Examiner. “People put their lives on hold to serve and to run, and she deserves the opportunity to rest, clear her head, and decide what she thinks is best — for herself, for the people of California, for the people of this country, and for her family, for that matter.”
Those close to the former vice president said she has been quietly staging a political return. Some claim that she is considering entering California’s 2026 gubernatorial contest. Others said she’s laying the groundwork for a third White House run. Harris purportedly told people at a pre-Oscars party that she would make a decision on her political future by the end of summer. A bid for statewide office would almost assuredly take a 2028 presidential run off the table, but Harris’s lack of definite answers has put the California contest on hold as other candidates in the race and deep-pocketed donors wait for her to make a move.
“Everyone has been trying to read the tea leaves,” San Francisco-based political strategist April Zaradnik told the Washington Examiner.
DROPOUT PART ONE: BIDEN’S SEISMIC DECISION FROM ONE YEAR AGO STILL HAS UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
‘Good God, get on with it already’
Monday’s X post got everyone talking about Harris again, but still, no one knows for sure what her next steps will be. For now, everything is still a mystery. And for some Californians, it is getting old.
“California is not a consolation prize for losing the presidency, and a Kamala Harris run for governor isn’t going to inspire an electorate that is fed up with the Democratic Party’s staid-and-afraid status quo,” Sacramento Bee opinion writer Robin Epley recently wrote. “That being said, if Harris is going to run for governor of California — good God, get on with it already.”
Epley added that Harris’s will-she-or-won’t-she games “belong to a homecoming queen race, not a gubernatorial race.”
Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction who launched his campaign in 2023, said the uncertainty with Harris “creates a little bit of a limbo situation.” He told the Los Angeles Times that Democrats in the race all have the same question: “Is she going to run?” The only answer, Thurmond said, is an unsatisfying “We don’t know.”
California candidates wait on Harris
The Democrats who are already running for governor lack Harris’s star power and know all too well that her entry could upend the race. The election may be a year away, but the primaries are creeping up, and the candidates need to start focusing on their ground game, courting voters, and donors.
Former Rep. Katie Porter, who declared her candidacy in March, has repeatedly said Harris would have a “powerful field-clearing effect” if she entered the race. But Porter, a liberal firebrand who harnessed the power of social media and whiteboards in Congress to gain popularity, said she is not going anywhere. She is ready for a fight.
Porter received attention nationwide for taking CEOs of big pharmaceuticals to task, but she was no match for Schiff’s Senate campaign machine. Schiff outmaneuvered her in the state’s dramatic 2024 jungle primary. He made a risky gamble of securing his position by boosting a Republican contender and edging Porter, his toughest competitor, out of the race.
Other Democratic gubernatorial contenders such as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra have said they will stay in the race regardless of what Harris decides. But others, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Konalakis, who is close friends with Harris, are likely to step aside if the former vice president enters the race.
One Democratic commentator and alumnus of the Hillary for America digital team is asking Harris to stay on the West Coast.
Kaivan Shroff told the Washington Examiner that even though Harris continues to enjoy a “deep loyalty” among women and progressives and commands “unmatched name recognition and fundraising potential,” even her “staunchest allies must acknowledge that another presidential campaign in 2028 would come too soon.”
Shroff said having Harris focus on California would allow the party to reset.
“The conditions that made 2024 such an uphill climb haven’t gone away, and trying again too quickly could compound political wounds rather than heal them,” Shroff said. “More than that, it would deny the Democratic Party the much-needed chance to have a fresh, competitive primary, as they struggle to redefine themselves in the wake of President Trump’s victory.”
Voters want answers
Should Harris decide to run in California, it may not be as easy of a win as she thinks or as cushy of a job.
Harris was known as a progressive hero in her home state of California. In 2019, the watchdog site GovTrack named her “the most liberal” member of the Senate and the senator least likely to sign on to bipartisan legislation. When she ran for president, she started to shy away from some of her more extreme positions, quietly erasing her record and turning herself into a centrist Democrat because she thought it would make her more electable. She very publicly changed her mind on fracking, border security, the Green New Deal, and taxes on tips.
The former vice president would also open herself up to questions about her 107-day sprint to the White House, what she knew about Biden’s declining health, and whether someone who has run unsuccessfully for president twice really wants to be California’s governor.
She would also inherit a difficult budget situation brought on by fiscal mismanagement and multibillion-dollar gaps due to a flurry of spending by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who is also believed to be considering a 2028 White House run. The new governor would also have to deal with California’s 1.6 million illegal immigrants, costly climate policies, homelessness, inadequate disaster relief, an insurance crisis, and near-constant fighting with the Trump administration.
Despite that, it seems that if Harris wants the job, she could get it.
“It’s telling that so many people are eager to write Vice President Harris’s next chapter for her — when the reality is, she’s one of the most popular and accomplished elected officials in the Democratic Party, with deep roots in California, a powerful fundraising network, and a policy bench that few can match,” Adin Lenchner, founder of Carroll Street Campaigns, told the Washington Examiner.
DROPOUT: JOE BIDEN’S MIXED ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND HIS LEGACY AGAINST AUTOPEN INVESTIGATIONS
Harris would lead the pack in a gubernatorial race, according to a July poll from the University of California, Irvine. The survey also found that 41% of respondents would back the former vice president over an unnamed Republican candidate — highlighting both her early advantage and the potential competitiveness of the race. About 16% of those asked said they didn’t know who they would vote for, while 14% said they would not vote.
On the national stage, a June Emerson College poll of possible 2028 Democratic presidential primary candidates found former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg surging past Harris. Sixteen percent said they would cast their ballot for Buttigieg in the primary, compared to 13% for Harris. That’s a big change from the Emerson poll in November 2024, which had Harris at 37% and Buttigieg at 4%, a few weeks after Harris’s bruising election defeat.
