By Deborah BaileyAFRO Contributing Editor
Former Vice President Kamala Harris is hinting at her future political plans. Whereas it’s no secret that Harris is a possible candidate for an additional run for the presidency in 2028, a marketing campaign for governor of California might also be within the playing cards in 2026.
Harris has filed a press release of intention with the California Secretary of State’s workplace. In accordance with the marketing campaign part of the web site, the assertion just isn’t an official declaration of her candidacy however is required earlier than candidates begin fundraising.
Forty-two people have filed to run for governor as of March 16. Harris advised sources that she is going to determine earlier than the tip of the summer time.
Harris’ title is also being talked about broadly in political and civil society circles because the Democratic Get together’s alternative for an additional presidential run in 2028. She is the best choice for doubtless voters, in keeping with an Echelon Insights ballot. Harris garnered 41 % of help from respondents requested to call the candidate they’d vote for if the 2028 Democratic major have been held at this time. The opinion analysis agency performed the ballot Nov. 14-18.
Harris additionally established Pioneer 49, an LLC, in her residence state of California in December 2024. “Pioneer” is Harris’ Secret Service code title, and he or she was the forty ninth vice chairman of the U.S. The group will doubtless be used to function a base for Harris’ upcoming public agenda.
Political science scholar Breanna Grey warns the Democratic Get together has work to do to regain the loyalty of Black Individuals if Harris intends to run for the White Home as a Democrat in 2028.
“Events matter. Lots of the success or failure of the candidate is tied to the celebration,” stated Grey, an assistant professor of presidency and politics on the College of Maryland, School Park. “The path of the Democratic Get together within the subsequent couple of years will definitely have an effect each on who will likely be operating and the way connected Black individuals will really feel.”
Howard College political science professor Keneshia N. Grant ties Black loyalty to the Democratic Get together to the Nice Migration of Black individuals from the agricultural South to city facilities throughout the West, Midwest, and North from the 1910s by means of the second half of the twentieth century. In her 2020 ebook “The Nice Migration and the Democratic Get together,” Grant writes, “What seems like a wholesale defection from the Republican Get together by the Black citizens will also be understood because the Democratic Get together’s mobilization of newly arrived Black migrants.”
However for Grey, these historic ties are starting to fade. “Black individuals are actually rethinking the guarantees made by the Democratic Get together,” Grey stated.
She stated Harris wasn’t all the time taken significantly by the Get together and Black individuals have been watching. “There was loads of disappointment with how Kamala Harris was handled by the Democratic Get together,” stated Grey.
Political scientist and social actions scholar Jarvis Corridor stated that Harris should proceed to be seen and communicate up on problems with significance to those that voted for her in 2024.
“Whether or not she runs for governor or president, she will’t disappear from the general public stage,” stated Corridor, who’s on the political science college at North Carolina Central College in Durham, N.C.
“She is the usual bearer for the Democratic Get together. Because the 2024 presidential candidate, she must be one of many voices talking up in regards to the insurance policies of the Trump administration which have harm most of the 74 million people who voted for her,” Corridor stated.
“Who else however Harris? Whereas she doesn’t must be the one one talking out about Trump’s insurance policies, she positively must be one in all a cadre of Democratic voices talking up and out,” he added.
Corridor sees promise within the Democratic Get together nationwide when taking a look at new management like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and U.S. Reps. Jazmine Crockett (Texas) and Maxwell Frost (Florida).
In the meantime, Grey sees Black individuals turning to various candidates sooner or later, like Cornell West who ran within the 2024 presidential elections as a candidate within the Justice for All Get together.
“With the racism and xenophobia in the remainder of America, Blacks might have gotten to that time the place we’d like options outdoors of the two-party system,” she stated.
