ANAHEIM, California — In South Carolina, influential Democrats this weekend were hardly talking about Kamala Harris anymore. In California, they greeted the thought of her political future with impatience and weary sighs.
The former vice president has kept campaign junkies guessing as she contemplates running for California governor or taking another shot at the White House in 2028. But party members on opposite coasts, who gathered for simultaneous confabs this weekend, did not express much clamor for either iteration of a Harris candidacy.
Some Democrats in South Carolina, girding for battle to retain their favored status on the presidential primary calendar, went so far as to suggest that a run for California governor could offer a graceful exit from the national stage.
“I think she should run for governor and be the best governor California has ever had,” said Amanda Loveday, a Democratic strategist and former executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
And in her home state, some Democrats openly fretted that California was simply a fallback option for Harris after her presidential ambitions were thwarted last year.
“We haven't really heard from her on California issues since Trump’s inauguration,” said Madison Zimmerman, a state party delegate from rural Shasta County. “I feel like California isn't a consolation prize.”
The gatherings in Anaheim and Columbia were separated by nearly 2,500 miles but could both be enormously significant to Harris’ future — California as the state she may seek to govern and South Carolina as the early primary state that would loom large in any 2028 presidential campaign.
Harris, one of the Democratic Party’s best-known national figures after her whirlwind presidential run last year, remains a formidable figure in the party. She leads in polls for California governor and sits at or near the top of contenders in recent surveys of the nascent 2028 field. Even as she keeps a low-profile after her bruising loss to President Donald Trump, she has commanded attention for her sporadic speeches and cameos at cultural soirees like the Met Gala.
That star power far outshines the declared candidates for California governor, and Harris, should she get into the race, would immediately catapult to frontrunner status, given her stature and fundraising chops.
“If you’re doing the sports-betting analogy, the odds are in her favor, she’s got the big point spread,” said Roger Salazar, a Democratic strategist who is unaffiliated with any gubernatorial campaign. “The name ID, the fact she’s won [multiple] times in California already — that track record is one that’s hard to duplicate for others jumping into the race.”
“It really depends on — what is it she wants to do? Does she want to be governor?” he added.
That was the immediate question that came to mind for Carol Weiss, a delegate from Sunnyvale, when assessing the potential governor’s race field at this weekend’s California Democratic Party convention.
“My concern about Harris is that she would be using the position, if she won, as a placeholder for a second run at the presidency,” she said. “And that would make me feel like I’m wasting my vote. I want a strong governor for at least four years.”
Harris, who was in Australia last week to speak at a real estate conference, did not appear at the convention. She sent in a brief video address which was greeted with warm, but not protracted, applause from the audience. A spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Harris’ shadow nevertheless loomed over the Anaheim convention center as gubernatorial hopefuls hoofed to various caucus meetings and grip-and-grins with 4,000 or so of the party’s most dedicated activists and officials. Most attendees acknowledged that the contours of the governor’s race will remain undefined until Harris makes up her mind: Major donors have stayed on the sidelines, most labor unions and interest groups are holding off endorsements and some candidates are quietly gaming out back-up plans to run for other offices if Harris decides to run.
Amid that uncertainty, Democrats were perceptibly antsy for Harris to declare her intentions one way or another.
“You see the other candidates — they’re here, they're talking, they're doing their thing. And I think that people are receptive to that because they realize that you really need someone who can jump in and is really interested in doing this,” said David Campos, vice chair of the state party and former chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party.
Campos, who has known Harris for years from the rough-and-tumble San Francisco political scene, predicted that Harris would be a “formidable” contender. But among party faithful, he said, there was not a desire for any candidate to have a coronation.
“People want to have a campaign, an election,” he said.
Lorena Gonzalez, who leads the powerful California Labor Federation, said she has also not heard much desire for Harris to clear the field, and she’s detected a perceptible change among candidates the longer the vice president takes to declare her intentions. (Harris has given herself a deadline of late summer to make up her mind.)
“There's some frustration from both the candidates and activists: What's gonna happen? Is Kamala going to get in? Should I pick a favored candidate? Who's gonna stay in if Kamala gets in, who's not?” Gonzalez said. “And I think that’s shifting. More candidates are looking at staying in, and the longer that this waits, you'll see more candidates actually stay in the race.”
There were still dedicated Harris supporters to be found in Anaheim, such as Ingrid Hutt, an entrepreneur and sister of Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt, who declared herself “10 toes down and ready to go” to support the former vice president.
Hutt said she was eager for Harris, as a gubernatorial candidate, “to have the respect that she should have had in the presidential race. [I’m ready] for her to come home and lead our state.”
She added, “Other Democrats in the state of California should get out of the way.”
Still, others who professed fondness for the former vice president appeared queasy about the prospect of her having a glide-path to the governor’s mansion.
“I’m really on the fence,” said Minola Clark Manson, a delegate from eastern San Diego County. “I probably would vote for Kamala Harris but there would be an underlying discomfort.”
The gatherings in Anaheim and Columbia featured at least one thing in common: appearances by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who appeared on the Democratic ticket with Harris last year and is widely seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028.
Hitting both conventions in one marathon travel day on Saturday, Walz spoke glowingly in both states of his time campaigning with Harris, praising her as “talented” and “accomplished.”
But in South Carolina, aside from a glancing reference from former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison about the accomplishments of the previous administration, there was no mention of Harris among the Democrats in attendance without prompting.
“Does she want it?” Wayne Borders, a progressive activist based in Columbia, asked pointedly in response to a question about her 2028 prospects. A serious candidate, he said, would “come tell me why” they were seeking the job.
Sam Skardon, the former Charleston County Democratic Party chair, said he did not think voters in his party would hold Harris’ loss last year against her.
“I think people understand that this was not a full and fair shot of hers at the White House, and if she wanted to take another one, I don't think we'd be mad at her for it,” he said.
Skardon added that anyone who served in the Biden administration may be hampered by the former president’s tarnished legacy.
He said, “I don't think anyone expects the party to clear the field for her in 2028. I don't think there's any thought that she has a right to the nomination above anyone else.”
Some Democrats in the crowd said that if Harris did run, they would welcome it. Michelle Brandt, the former third vice chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said that a Harris presidential bid would be “exciting.”
But she said she was more concerned that Harris take time to regroup after her last campaign.
“I’m sure that it was extremely stressful,” Brandt said. “So I just think of her well-being, not that she can’t do it. I just want her to rest.”
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