Kamala Harris spent her first year out of office hinting at something resembling a triumphant return. She may be planning to return, but nothing about it looks triumphant. Officially, she says she hasn't decided whether she'll run for president again in 2028. I think it's obvious she plans to.
Consider her position.
She has near-universal name recognition and still leads early 2028 polling. And in a Democrat Party obsessed with identity, being a minority and a woman is like having the golden ticket. On top of that, signs she is positioning herself to run again have been clear as day. She released 107 Days, her campaign memoir, which was basically a book of excuses for why she lost in 2024. It gave her a platform to blame the shortened campaign she inherited from Joe Biden, a handy way of implying that a full-length run would end differently.
Bet on it — Kamala is keeping the 2028 door wide open. But here's the problem: Even her former supporters can't find a reason why voters should give her another look.
Politico talked to nearly 20 donors and strategists in California and around the country about how she spent the past year. "For Harris, according to interviews with nearly 20 Democratic Party donors and strategists in California and across the country, it was a missed opportunity to redefine herself — and ultimately a wasted year," the outlet reported.
Doug Herman, a lead mail strategist for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, was particularly brutal in his assessment. "She totally blew it," he said. "She hasn't gotten into the mix."
How exactly has she blown it?
Harris has offered voters almost nothing in the way of specifics about how she would remake a Democratic Party hungry for change after another term of Donald Trump. She hasn't spoken to how she would expand her own appeal to the voters who rejected her, and she remains as reticent of media as ever, continuing to favor appearances before friendly audiences and at times drawing fire for limiting access to news organizations altogether. She has entirely sidestepped the ideological civil war consuming the Democrats and has acted more like a party elder at a time when voters and donors are demanding a break with the past.
Jim Hodges, former governor of South Carolina, knows what early-state voters want. His state goes first on the Democrat nominating calendar.
"I don't see anything different myself," Hodges said. "It seems like more of the same to me. Right now Democratic primary voters … are very anxious about a Trump acolyte being in the White House in 2028. And they want to select someone who they think has the best chance to win, but who also meets these requisites: fresh, new. I hear a lot of talk about that — 'we don't need recycled candidates.'"
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"Recycled" is generous for a woman whose last contested primary campaign collapsed before a single vote was cast in 2019. Heck, even her home-state money people have reached the same conclusion. Several California donors are actively shopping for someone else to back, and even some who'd fall in line behind her doubt she can break through.
Laurie Black, a San Diego donor who has supported Kamala for years, is among them. "I am looking at all kinds of candidates for 2028, and she's not necessarily one of them," Black told Politico. "It's not that I don't think she's qualified … [but] I want to support a winner in 2028, and I just don't know if the vice president has the juice this time."
Another California fundraiser, who spoke anonymously, couldn't name a single person in their circle who wants her to run again. "She probably could raise grassroots money because she has fabulous lists," the fundraiser explained. "But there are no obvious big donors that have indicated they want to go down that route."
Even worse for Kamala, among other 2028 hopefuls and well-connected donors, she barely comes up at all, which tells you how few of them expect her to enter the race, much less be a viable candidate if she does.
In the end, the biggest thing working against Kamala Harris is that she's Kamala Harris.
