Exactly two months after losing the election to Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over the certification of her own defeat.
As president of the Senate, she will stand behind the speaker’s lectern of the House of Representatives on Monday to lead the Electoral College vote count, officially cementing her challenger’s triumph two weeks before he returns to the White House.
The circumstances are painful and embarrassing for a candidate who has denounced her opponent as an urgent threat to American democracy, but Harris’ aides insist she will carry out her constitutional and legal duties with seriousness and grace.
It’s not the first time a losing candidate has led a joint session of Congress in recounting his opponent’s presidential electors — Al Gore suffered the humiliation in 2001 and Richard Nixon in 1961.
But it’s a fitting coda to a stunning election that elevated Harris from reserve to the nation’s oldest female president to Democratic standard-bearer — whose short-lived campaign gave her party a jolt of hope before a crushing defeat exposed deep internal flaws.
Harris and her team are now considering her second act, weighing whether that will include another run for the White House in 2028 or a run for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California.
While recent losing Democratic candidates — Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton — have decided not to seek re-election, aides, allies and donors say the foundation of support Harris has captured is rooted in her failed bid and the unusual circumstances of her short-lived campaign. proves there is still room to claim the Oval Office.
They even point to Donald Trump’s circuitous political path — the former and future president’s bookend wins in 2016 and 2024, despite losing in 2020 as an incumbent.
But while many Democrats don’t blame Harris for Trump’s victory, some — hit by a tough loss that called the party’s strategy into question — are deeply skeptical of giving her another shot at the White House. A slew of Democratic governors who have rallied behind the vice president in 2024 but have ambitions of their own are seen by some strategists as fresher candidates with a much better chance of winning.
Harris herself is said to be in no rush to make any decisions, telling advisers and supporters that she is open to whatever possibilities await her after Inauguration Day on January 20.
She takes stock of the past few months, in which she launched a brand new campaign for the White House, vetted a vice presidential nominee, ran a party convention and won the country in just 107 days. And colleagues point out that she will remain the vice president of the USA, at least for another two weeks.
“She has to make a decision, and you can’t make it while you’re still on the treadmill. She may have slowed down — but she’s on the treadmill until Jan. 20,” said Donna Brazile, a close Harris ally who advised the campaign.
“You can’t put anybody in a box. We didn’t put Al Gore in a box, and it was obvious that the country was very divided after the 2000 election,” said Brazile, who ran Gore’s campaign against George W. Bush and pointed to his second life as environmental activist. “All options are on the table because there is a desire for change and I believe she can represent that change in the future.”
But the nagging question overshadowing any potential run in 2028 is whether the 60-year-old can separate herself from Joe Biden — something she failed to do on the campaign trail.
Her allies in the party say Biden’s choice to seek re-election despite concerns about his age, only to eventually drop out of the race after a few months, doomed her candidacy.
Although Trump swept all seven battleground states and is the first Republican in 20 years to win the election, his margin of victory was relatively small while Harris still won 75 million votes, an outcome her supporters say cannot be ignored as the currently faceless Democratic Party rebuilds itself over the next four years.
On the other hand, those close to Biden remain convinced that he could defeat Trump again, despite polls showing him losing support from key Democratic voting blocs.
They point out that Harris failed where the president did not in 2020, failing core Democratic groups like black and Latino voters. Critics continue to point to her 2019 campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee, which failed in less than a year.
“People forget that there were real primaries [in 2024]she would never have been nominated. Everyone knows that,” said one former Biden adviser.
The adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, praised Harris for reviving the Democratic base and helping key congressional races, but said the Trump campaign had successfully undermined her on critical campaign issues, including the economy and the border.
Members of Trump’s team, however, including his chief pollster, acknowledged that Harris as a candidate fared better than Biden on certain issues such as the economy among voters.
Still, there’s no escaping that any Democratic primary contest in 2028 would be an uphill battle, with rising stars like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom already weighing in on presidential races.
Some Democrats say Harris would still go ahead of the others, with national name recognition, a coveted mailing list and a large pool of volunteers.
“What state party wouldn’t want her to come help set the table for the 2026 midterms?” said Brazile. “She will have many opportunities not only to rebuild, but to strengthen the coalition that has come together to support her in 2024.”
Others suggested she might exit the political arena altogether, starting a foundation or establishing a policy institute at her alma mater, Howard University, the historically black college based in Washington where she held her election night party.
The former chief state prosecutor could also be a candidate for secretary of state or attorney general in a future democratic administration. And he will have to decide if he wants to write another book.
Despite all her options, Harris told aides, she wants to remain visible and be seen as a leader in the party. One adviser suggested she could exist outside of domestic political strife, taking a more global role on an issue important to her, but that’s a tall order without a platform as big as the vice presidency.
In the final days of the Biden-Harris administration, she plans to embark on an international trip to multiple regions, according to a source familiar with the plans, signaling her desire to maintain a role on the world stage and build a legacy beyond Biden’s number two.
For Harris and her team, the weeks since the election have been humbling, a mix of sadness and determination. Several aides described the three-month sprint that began when Biden dropped out as starting with a “dig-out-of-a-hole” campaign and ending with their candidate more popular than when she started, even if she didn’t win.
“There’s a sense of peace knowing that, given how we got it, we’ve gone through the tape,” said one senior associate.
After the election, Harris and her husband, Mr. Doug Emhoff, spent a week in Hawaii with a small group of associates to relax and discuss her future.
During a staff holiday party at her official residence before Christmas, Harris recounted election night and how she gave a pep talk to her family when the results became clear.
“We’re not having a pity party!” she told the crowd about her reaction that evening.
Advisers and allies say she is still processing what happened and wants to wait and see how the new administration plays out in January before making any position, let alone becoming the face of any so-called Trump “resistance.”
Democrats have found that the resistance movement that took off among liberals after his 2016 victory no longer resonates in today’s political climate, where the Republican has proven that his message and style appeal to a huge cross section of Americans.
They adopted a more conciliatory approach in dealing with the future president’s agenda. As several Democrats have said, “What resistance?”
While she hasn’t stood out since her loss, Harris offered some insight into her mindset at an event for students at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland in December.
“Civil rights movements, women’s rights, labor rights, the United States itself would never have come into being if people had given up their cause after a lawsuit, a battle, or an election that didn’t work out,” she said.
“We have to stay in the fight,” she added, a refrain she has repeated since her 2016 Senate victory. – Each of us.
What this means is less clear. For some donors and supporters, staying “in the running” could turn into a race for California governor in 2026, when term-limited Gavin Newsom steps down and potentially pursues his own White House ambitions. The job, leading the world’s fifth-largest economy, would also put Harris in direct conflict with Trump, who has regularly attacked the country for its left-leaning policies.
But running a large country is no small feat, and would throw off any presidential race, since she would be sworn into office around the same time she is scheduled to launch a national campaign.
Those who have spoken with Harris said she remains undecided about the governor’s race, which some allies have described as a potential “tipping point” in her career.
She won state office three times as California Attorney General and later as a US Senator. But winning the governorship would give her another historic honor — becoming the nation’s first black female governor.
Still, some allies admit it would be difficult to move from a 20-car convoy and sit across from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the governor’s mansion.
The private sector is another option.
“For women at other levels of office, when they lose an election, sometimes the options are not as available to them compared to men, who get a soft landing at a law firm or an insurance company, and that gives them a place to fight, make some money, and then make decisions about what’s next,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center on American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for Kamala Harris. I think the door will open for her if she wants to open it.”
But for Harris, who has been in elected office for two decades and previously served as a prosecutor, life after death as governor may be the most appropriate option.
“When you have one client – people – for your entire career,” said one former adviser, “where do you go from here?”
