Should There Be a Second Act for Kamala Harris?

Since her defeat by Donald Trump, there has been quiet talk about Kamala Harris’ political future. The putative options are two: run again for President, or run for California Governor as an obvious comeback trail.

It probably won’t work, no matter which path she chooses, if any. History and political reality are against her.

(Real Clear Politics ran a piece on this very subject. It’s worth reading, and is in general agreement with this post. (I view RCP as Republican-leaning, but not part of MAGA, though a Democrat should take anything they say with a grain of salt. I’ve put a link to that article at the end of this post.) It’s absurd to be thinking about 2028 when we haven’t yet fully analyzed what went wrong in 2024, and we do have the 2026 midterm, in case anyone has forgotten. Let’s focus more on reconnecting with voters who became estranged from us, and let’s start recruiting good candidates for all races, especially the down ballot races which will develop our future Dem leaders.

These guys ran again after losing by landslides…and again lost by landslides! Top: William Jennings Bryan who ran in 1896, 1900 and 1908( Image courtesy GetArchives); Bottom is Adlai Stevenson, who ran twice against Ike in 1952 and 1956.(Image courtesy picyrl)

Having said this, we can still look at history to decide what kind of a future role VP Harris will play. First, the Democratic Party is not forgiving of losing Presidential candidates; we tried it with William…