- Writer, Courtney Subramanian
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About two months after defeating Donald Trump, the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris will lead the way to confirm her defeat.
As the President of the United States Senate, on Monday she will stand in front of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to lead the counting of the votes of the electors, which will officially confirm the victory of her running mate two weeks before his inauguration.
The situation is painful, especially for her, who has often criticized her opponent as a threat to American democracy, but her servants insist that she will carry out her duties as per the constitution of the country.
This is not the first time that a defeated candidate has led the counting of electoral votes in the House of Representatives, Al Gore did so in 2001, while Richard Nixon did so in 1961.
Harris and her team are now discussing the next step, where they are studying different proposals, including the issue of re-election in 2028, or running for governor in her state of California.
While the recently defeated Democratic candidates, Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, have decided to run again for the presidency, Harris and her close friends and campaign sponsors believe that the great support she received in the election may give her the motivation to run again.
They cite the example of Donald Trump – the old and new president of the country, who won the elections in 2016 and 2024, despite his defeat in 2020.
Harris herself said that she will not be in a hurry to take action, telling her advisers and supporters that she will study all the proposals given to her after the swearing in of the new government on January 20.
“She has a decision to make, and you can’t explain it when you’re in office, because she’s still in office until January 20,” said Donna Brazile, a close friend of Harris. who are among her advisers in her campaign.
However, the question that continues to be raised in my mind regarding the possibility of her running for office in 2028, is whether you will share the city with Joe Biden – something that she failed to do during her campaign.
Her best friends in the party said that Biden’s decision to seek re-election in the beginning despite the concerns expressed about his age, and then withdrawing from the race a few months before the election, affected her candidacy.
Despite Trump winning all seven of the swing states, and being the first Republican candidate in 20 years to win a majority of the popular vote – a margin he gave her It’s not much, after Harris received 75 million electoral votes, something her supporters say will help rebuild the party over the next four years.
On the other hand, those close to Biden say that Harris has lost in places that Biden won in 2020, something that shows the decline in the support of blacks and Latinos.
“People forget that if there was a real nomination in 2024, she would never have won. Everyone knows that,” said a former Biden adviser.
The consultant, who asked to remain anonymous because of the partisan nature of the matter, praised Harris for revitalizing the Democratic Party and helping senior members of the House of Representatives, but said the Trump campaign had succeeded in turning her on its head. important issues including the economy and the border issue.
Trump’s campaign team admits that Harris is more of a threat to them than Biden on key issues, such as the economy, among voters.
There is also no doubt that the election of the Democratic party in 2028 will be a very tough competition, especially as the party has big up-and-comers such as the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, and the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. , both of whom are vying for the nomination.
That’s why some people think that Harris can withdraw her body from the political scene completely, to focus her attention on managing her foundation or establishing a political center in the community where she graduated, which is Howard University.
A former whistleblower may become secretary of state, or attorney general in the next Democratic administration. And she has a choice if she wants to write a book.
While she has all of these options, Harris told her staff that she needs to continue to be seen in the political arena as a leader of the party.
In the last days of the administration of Biden and Harris, she is planning to start traveling to countries around the world, to many regions, according to a source familiar with the plans, which shows her desire to continue playing a role on the world stage.
For Harris and her team, the weeks after the election defeat have been patient with grief and encouragement.
After the election, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, spent a week in Hawaii with a few of her entourage to rest and discuss her political future.
Her advisers and friends said she will continue to analyze the events, and wait to see how the new government will take office in the coming months before taking the next step.
Where she will be one of the main critics of the Trump administration’s policies.
Although she has had no impact since the defeat, Harris showed her courage at a student meeting at Prince George’s University in Maryland last December.
“The movement of human rights groups, women’s rights activists and workers’ rights defenders and the United States itself will not reach the level they are, if people are patient with their rights after the court decision and defeat them with war or fall in the election.” , she said.
“We have to stay in the fight we are doing”, the words she has been repeating since winning the Senate in 2016.
However, what her words mean is not clear yet. Some of her donors and supporters who are “in the fight” may interpret her words as the California gubernatorial race in 2026, when the outgoing governor, Gavin Newsom, will step down and may pursue his desire to run for president.
Being the governor of the state of California – an economic powerhouse can throw her into direct conflict with Trump, who has repeatedly criticized the state government’s policies on its economic policies.
Governing a large state like California is not a small task, but this will hinder her ambition to run for office, because she will be sworn in as the governor of the state, at the same time that she should launch her candidacy for the presidency.
Those who have spoken to Harris say she is still undecided about a run for governor, which some friends have described as a possibility for her.
She served three terms as California’s attorney general, and then served as a member of the U.S. Senate.
However, her victory in the governor’s race will give her a place in history as the first black woman to become a governor in the United States.