Kamala Harris has been lying low since her defeat in the presidential race, unwinding with family and senior aides in Hawaii before heading back to the nation’s capital.

But privately, the vice president has been instructing advisers and allies to keep her options open — whether for a possible 2028 presidential run, or even to run for governor in her home state of California in two years. As Harris has repeated in phone calls, “I am staying in the fight.”

She is expected to explore those and other possible paths forward with family members over the winter holiday season, according to five people in the Harris inner circle, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. Her deliberations follow an extraordinary four months in which Harris went from President Joe Biden’s running mate to the top of the ticket, reenergizing Democrats before ultimately crashing on election night.

“She doesn’t have to decide if she wants to run for something again in the next six months,” said one former Harris campaign aide. “The natural thing to do would be to set up some type of entity that would give her the opportunity to travel and give speeches and preserve her political relationships.”

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    4 hours ago

    Harris’ political options are closed.

    Harris managed to convince the DNC to forgo a primary and annoint them and then they lost the fucking election.

    End.

    • aramis87@fedia.io
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      2 hours ago

      Tbf, when Biden dropped out, there really wasn’t a lot of time to organize 50 primaries according to each state’s election rules and then get the result onto the general ballot in time for those deadlines.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        There absolutely was - primaries have relatively lax laws and aren’t legally binding, so even an improvised approach wouldn’t have been illegal.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      You got any sources for that? When Biden stepped down initially they were looking for who would replace him. His vice president / running mate was an obvious choice. I don’t think I ever read anything about her trying to convince them. More then trying to convince her.

      • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        General observations of the universe. There were discussions about having a snap primary and then suddenly Harris was the nominee.

        I can’t say for certain if she pursued that end herself but even if she wasn’t the primary architect she consented to forgo a primary.

        Edit: We’re all observers to what happened - the outcome was predictable given how the DNC has operated… how is this surprising?

    • Loduz_247@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      -Former VPs

      -From California

      -Lost an election < You are here

      -Ran for California Governor

      -Ran for the presidency again