Former Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has teased the prospect she could return to the campaign trail for the 2028 presidential election, following her loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 race.

Harris, a former vice president, faced the possibility on Friday while on stage with the civil rights leader Al Sharpton at the National Action Network’s annual convention.

Sharpton, Harris’s interviewer at the event, put the question to her bluntly: “So are you going to run again ’28?”

Her presence at the civil rights conference had met raucous chants of “Run again!” But Harris avoided committing to a new run for public office, though she did hint at a 2028 bid.

“Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” she said in answer to Sharpton’s question.

Harris proceeded to underscore her previous experience in the White House, working as second-in-command to President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2025.

“Look, I served for four years, being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office, footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room,” she said. “I know what the job is, and I know what it requires.”

Harris was the first Black and South Asian woman to receive a major party nomination in US history, when she took over for Biden as the Democratic frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.

Her nomination, however, came under unusual circumstances.

During the first major presidential debate that year, then 81-year-old Biden, the incumbent, struggled to answer questions, prompting a Democratic push for him to exit the race.

Biden ultimately did step down in late July 2024, endorsing Harris, his vice president, to be his successor.

She received the Democratic Party nomination in a subsequent roll-call vote, despite not having participated in the primaries as a presidential contender. By that time, there were fewer than four months until the general election.

Trump, who was seeking a second, non-consecutive term, ultimately won the race in a landslide. He picked up 312 Electoral College votes over Harris’s 226.

The popular vote — which does not count in US elections — showed a narrower race. Trump got 49.8 percent of the overall vote, compared with Harris’s 48.3 percent.

In introducing Harris at Friday’s event, Sharpton referenced that history, describing her as an underdog facing uphill circumstances throughout her career.

He also issued a veiled warning about the current Trump administration, suggesting that voters should have supported Harris in greater numbers in 2024.

“She was so used to people doubting, she took it with ease. We got angry. She was calming us down, and she had to calm me down now because we are in trouble,” Sharpton said. “We should have listened and come out in the numbers that we should have come out with.”

Sharpton also highlighted Harris’s vote total in 2024, which surpassed 75 million.

“She’s the first Black woman to have the nomination of a major party, and she is the second largest vote-getter,” Sharpton told the crowd in his introduction. “She got more votes than Barack Obama, than Bill Clinton.”

Harris was just one of the possible 2028 contenders who attended the National Action Network conference.

Democrats Illinois Governor JD Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Biden’s former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were present, all likely future presidential candidates.

So, too, was House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, alongside other members of Congress like progressive Representative Ayanna Pressley.

While the presidency is not on the ballot this year, Trump’s Republican Party is seeking to maintain its control over Congress in November’s closely fought midterm elections, while Democrats are seeking to flip one or both of its chambers.

The midterm races are expected to be an informal referendum on Trump’s second presidency, and Harris took shots at his track record so far in her remarks on Thursday.

She repeatedly called the US and Israeli war against Iran a “war of choice” and blamed Trump for alienating long-standing US allies with his aggressive postures.

“ America has increasingly, under Donald Trump, become more unreliable as a partner to our friends, and America has increasingly — second point — lost influence,” she said.

“My concern is not only just the fact of it, but it’s going to take a while and some serious work, way beyond the end of this man’s term, to regain whatever we had.”

Though she openly mused about a possible 2028 run for the presidency, Harris ultimately left the subject on an ambiguous note.

“I am thinking about it in the context of then: Who and where and how can the best job be done for the American people?” she said. “That’s how I’m thinking about it. I’ll keep you posted.” (Al Jazeera)

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