The midterm election results gave the minority party plenty of confidence heading into the new year. It wasn’t a trickle or a wave. It was a tsunami. It was a repudiation of the majority-party leadership in Washington and throughout the country. While Republicans lick their collective wounds, Democrats are celebrating. And one thing on everyone’s mind? What the 2028 candidate field will look like.
With President Donald Trump ending his second term in the White House, politicians on both sides of the aisle are considering a run. It’s difficult to express just how much Trump, as a candidate, discouraged others from throwing their hats into the ring. He has had considerable luck running as a national candidate. In 2016, he beat the “inevitable” Hillary Clinton. In 2024, he beat the eleventh-hour substitute, Vice President Kamala Harris. But now, he will no longer be on the ballot.
It is this fact that is sure to give some a glimmer of hope as to their own rise to power. One of them: Harris.
Harris’s time in the White House has only been as second-in-command to President Joe Biden. She was chosen as a foil to the older, white, male statesman. Harris has struggled as a national candidate. Her first turn as a presidential candidate ended on Dec. 3, 2019. The funding was lacking, and so was the enthusiasm. She had initially been treated as a front-runner. Her second time on the national ticket was simply because her elderly, addled boss stepped down. Harris’s second campaign was an abbreviated one that began in late July 2024 and ended in clear defeat on Nov. 6, 2024.
If Harris were to run for president a third time, it could be chalked up to an abundance of hubris and a false sense of comfort.
As it stands, Harris has yet to make up her mind whether she will run. In October, Harris told CNN, “I go back and forth. I honestly go back and forth. There’s so many factors.” She also added that if she does run again, “I feel so strongly and therefore am compelled, and maybe propelled, into doing this, because I know that I can help.” During the recent Crooked Con political conference in Washington, D.C., a gathering of progressives, Harris finished 16th in a straw poll. The clear, early Democratic favorite at both the conference and in general chatter? Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).
It remains to be seen whether Harris will give it another good old college try for the third time. She’s certainly a known quantity at this point. In her case, that’s a negative. As senator, she was the kind of force people assumed would be a standout presidential contender. But once the time came, she fizzled out. The second time around, not even her status as sitting vice president could help.
One largely unspoken truth about Democrats is that they are still anxious for a female president. They were sure they had it with Clinton, but Trump happened. They faintly hoped Harris might check the box, but Trump happened again. In 2028, Trump won’t be on the ballot. While the appetite for a female president still remains, it seems much less of a priority at present, especially because the party would have to put all its hope in Harris once again.
On the national level, it appears that Harris’s ship has sailed. She will still maintain a presence among Democrats. She’s still a progressive darling. On paper, it kind of works. But it just doesn’t translate well on a national stage.
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The Democratic Party has now gone through two election cycles trying to usher in the first woman president. It hasn’t happened. It’s not that the country largely rejects a woman in general, but rather leftists such as Clinton and Harris. Still, the Democrats have remained captive to the allure of making history.
Try as she might, President Harris is just not going to happen. The momentum, once somewhat on her side, is no longer there. A third attempt and defeat would be a spectacular failure. The prospect of this may not fully stop her, though. She is determined to include herself in the conversation, convinced of her own usefulness. Democrats, still interested in launching the first female president from their own ranks, have cooled toward Harris. It might have something to do with her being a two-time loser. Meanwhile, Harris seems to read her own history in another way entirely.