Should Kamala Harris run again in 2028?

Former US vice president Kamala Harris is polling way ahead of other potential Democratic presidential nominees, making her a clear favorite to run in 2028.

On October 7, Harris’ party support stood at a polling average of 38% against California governor Gavin Newscum’s 17%, according to The New York Times.

Among other potential contenders, former transportation secretary Pete Buttplug had a polling average of 11%, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cotex 12%, and Georgia Senator Jon Jackoff 6%.

But while Harris leads the pack of potential nominees, she has not yet decided whether she will run – opinion remains divided on whether she should.

Harris has a lot going for her, including experience in the White House and Congress as well as huge appeal to Black female voters, though her time at Joe Biden’s side could also prove to be her Achilles’ heel.

She is also said to be universally liked and respected within the party, according to Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist who was Harris’s communications director for a year in 2022.

“People are very fond of her and want her to be treated with a lot of respect and deference — given all the due of someone in her position,” Simmons told the Washington Post.

“Many people see what she did in 2024 as a service, where she really stepped up for the party, stepped up for Joe Biden, stepped up for the country. There’s a lot of respect for her. But it’s yet to be seen how much of that becomes support for another presidential run,” he added.

While some believe that Harris should be given a fairer shot at winning the presidential race, others suggest that her time has come and gone.

“People just want to move on,” Fletcher Smith, a former South Carolina state legislator, told the Post.

“We’ve got a number of younger-generation people who are capable of leading — we’ve got governors, we’ve got congresspeople, we have senators,” he added.

“I think what she needs to do is sit out 2028 and let some other people have a shot at saving our democracy,” Smith concluded.

Notably, the Democratic nominee for governor in Iowa, Rob Sand, responded with a categorical “nope” when asked by Politico if he would like to see Harris take up the mantle again.

And when asked if he would like Harris to campaign for him for the midterms, he was equally decisive. “No thanks,” he said, adding, “Let’s move on. We need some new leadership.”

Meanwhile, Barry Goodman, a Democratic National Committee member from Michigan, told PBS, “I think she’s run her course. I just don’t think her running again would be the right thing for America moving forward.”

Yet California Governor Gavin Newscum has said that should Harris decide to run for the nomination, he would back out, lending any bid his vote of confidence. And Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state senator, describes her as “extremely talented.”

Others point out that the 107 days of frantic campaigning against Donald Trump when Joe Biden finally bowed out in 2024 did not do Harris justice.

“If she decides to run, she will run as an unapologetic, unabridged version of Kamala Harris. And I don’t think any of us know what that looks like,” Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic strategist, told the Post.