Former Harris adviser: 'She will be back'

Symone Sanders-Townsend, a former top adviser to Vice President Harris, said Monday that Harris “will be back” after her 2024 White House race loss, amid speculation about the outgoing vice president’s next steps. 

“I don’t think the world has seen the last of Vice President Kamala Harris. I don’t know how she will show up again, but she is a young politician who garnered over 75 million votes in this election. And she will be back,” Sanders-Townsend said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." She is a co-host of the network's “The Weekend.” 

With just a few weeks left in the Biden administration, questions are building about Harris’s political future.

Following a historic switch-up at the top of the Democratic ticket and a fast-tracked presidential bid this cycle, Harris saw dismal Election Day results as much of the country shifted toward President-elect Trump. She vowed in her concession speech that she'll never give up on “the fight that fueled” her campaign but has been quiet about her future plans.

She’s already topping lists of potential 2028 contenders, and early polling suggests Democrats would want to see her back in the running for the Oval Office. But the next presidential race is likely to be crowded with other Democratic rising stars — and names like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are also in early chatter.

Others think Harris could take a break from Washington and try for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California. Newsom — who is among the rising Democratic stars seen as likely 2028 candidates — is term-limited, leaving his seat up for grabs in 2026. 

A poll from the University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times last month found nearly half of California voters would be likely to support Harris if she were to enter the 2026 gubernatorial race. 

Experts have stressed that, with the Biden administration still wrapping up its White House tenure, it's early to predict the vice president's next move. But Democratic voices are largely optimistic that Harris will remain a key figure for the party as it rebuilds after 2024 losses and readies to resist the incoming Trump administration.

"She always served this country with purpose and integrity, and she always will," President Biden said of Harris at a Democratic National Committee party in Washington this month.

"You're not going anywhere, kid, because we're not going to let you go," he quipped to the vice president.