Democrats ‘Turn on Kamala Harris’ Amid Presidential Hopes

Kamala Harris may be flirting with another White House run, but even Democrats are starting to sound like they’ve had enough.

As chatter grows over whether the former vice president will try to mount a 2028 comeback, voices inside her own party are warning that Harris carries major baggage — and that another presidential run could reopen every weakness that helped sink Democrats the last time around. Harris became the Democratic nominee in 2024 after Joe Biden stepped aside, but her rushed campaign ended in disaster as President Donald Trump swept all seven battleground states.

Now, some Democrats appear far less interested in giving Harris another shot than in finding a fresh face. Matt Bennett, co-founder and executive vice president of the center-left group Third Way, told The New York Times that while it is possible Harris could try to build a message, she still has “a lot of explaining to do,” a remark that captures the growing unease around her possible return.

What makes the situation even more striking is that many Democrats believed Harris had a much easier path available to her. Instead of chasing the presidency again, critics say she could have gone for California governor — a post many in her party believed she could have won with relative ease. But Harris has ruled that out, leaving Democrats stuck in an increasingly messy and unpredictable race in their own backyard. Reuters and the Associated Press both report that California’s governor race has turned into a crowded battle, with Democrats splintered across multiple candidates while Republicans see an opening under the state’s top-two primary system.

That race has only gotten uglier in recent weeks. After Eric Swalwell exited the contest, the field shifted again, and Democrats have shown growing concern that a divided vote could hand Republicans a real shot at advancing. Reuters reported that Steve Hilton led one recent Emerson poll with 17%, while Chad Bianco and Tom Steyer followed at 14%, with Katie Porter and Xavier Becerra at 10% and Matt Mahan at 5%, underscoring just how fractured the Democratic side has become.

That fractured picture is part of the reason Harris is now being viewed by some Democrats less as a savior and more as a burden. In interviews with NOTUS, Democratic lawmakers and insiders stopped well short of rallying behind her, with some openly saying they would have preferred to see her pursue the governor’s mansion instead. Others warned that while Harris has instant national name recognition, that does not automatically make her the right standard-bearer for a party already struggling with voter confidence.

The hesitation is telling. Harris still has prominence, money connections, media attention, and a national profile. But inside Democratic circles, there is clearly no stampede to hand her the nomination. If anything, the early mood looks more like dread than excitement.

And that may be Harris’s biggest problem of all.

For years, Democrats treated her as the future. Now, as 2028 talk starts heating up, more of them seem to be asking whether she is actually a reminder of what went wrong.