Former Vice President and failed 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris suggested on Thursday that she is sticking around the political scene.
In one of her few public appearances since losing in an electoral landslide to President Donald Trump in November, Harris spoke at the Leading Women Defined Summit in Dana Point, California, and left the door open for a future political campaign.
“We can’t go out there and do battle if we don’t take care of ourselves and each other. I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere,” Harris said, according to The Los Angeles Times.
During her speech, Harris didn’t mention any specific position she’s gunning for, but the former California attorney general and senator has reportedly been seriously considering a run for governor of the Golden State. According to POLITICO, Harris set a deadline for the end of summer to officially make a decision.
Current California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is term-limited in 2026 and is being floated as a potential leading candidate for the Democrats in the 2028 presidential election. A handful of Democrats have already jumped into the governor’s race in California, including former California Attorney General and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who announced his campaign for governor earlier this week.
Becerra joins former Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former State Controller Betty Yee, former state legislator Toni Atkins, and state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond in what is already becoming a crowded Democratic primary.
Harris didn’t mention Trump by name during her speech on Thursday, but she did allude to the president’s administration and lamented that organizations are “capitulating” to Trump’s orders.
“There is a sense of fear that is taking hold in our country, and I understand it,” she said. “These are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear. Because, you know, there were many things that we knew would happen, many things.”
She also suggested that the concerns she discussed about another Trump presidency on the campaign trail are becoming a reality. “I’m not here to say, ‘I told you so.’ I swore I wasn’t going to say that,” she remarked.
