Former Vice President Kamala Harris is taking steps that could position her for a third presidential campaign, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Her activity includes [1] conversations with major donors, new staff hires, and travel to battleground states.
Harris has told associates that she remains undecided about pursuing the White House again. Even so, the Journal cited multiple people familiar with the conversations who described moves that could precede a 2028 campaign.
Publicly, Harris has tied her political plans to the November midterms. At an NAACP event in Michigan last month, she told the audience that the outcome of the next election cycle depends on what happens in the current one.
“I have not decided if I’m going to run again,” Harris said, receiving a lengthy standing ovation. “I do sincerely believe ‘28 won’t matter if we don’t get through ‘26.”
Harris made those comments during a fireside chat on September 22, 2026, at Fellowship Church in Detroit, Michigan. She appeared with the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, and the Rev. Genetta Y. Hatcher.
Away from the public stage, Harris has appeared at a half dozen private fundraisers in California ahead of the midterms. She also joined a Democratic National Committee get-out-the-vote call that urged more than 2,000 volunteers to knock on doors across a dozen states.
The former Democrat nominee has also assembled a team of advisers. That group includes chief of staff Candace Bond, a former ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, and communications director Eduardo Negrón.
Her fundraising operation has continued bringing in money since the 2024 election. Federal Election Commission filings show that the Harris Victory Fund raised more than $10.3 million between January and September 2025.
Of that total, $8.5 million came from contributions under $200. The large share of smaller contributions comes as Harris continues weighing whether another national campaign is worth launching.
Not everyone around Harris is sold on another run. Some donors have directly told her that a 2028 campaign would be a long shot, according to the Journal.
Her husband, Doug Emhoff, has privately told people that he would prefer she not run. People close to Emhoff nevertheless expect that he would support her if she launched another campaign.
Skepticism also reaches into the financial network that backed Harris in 2024. The Los Angeles Times contacted more than two dozen leading donors to the largest pro-Harris super PAC in May and found little interest in backing a repeat campaign.
Many of those donors had contributed at least $1 million. One donor offered a particularly blunt assessment of Harris and the coming contest.
“I think it is too early to pick a favorite in the 2028 race, but Kamala Harris will not be my candidate,” the donor said.
Despite that resistance, Harris continues to lead most hypothetical 2028 Democrat primary polls and retains strong support among black voters. Those numbers keep her in the conversation even as major donors signal that they may look elsewhere.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another potential contender, addressed the possibility during a September CNN interview. Newsom said he would not run if Harris entered, calling a two-Californian primary a “gift from God for everybody else.”
The potential campaign follows Harris’s loss in the 2024 presidential election. She secured the Democrat nomination without an open primary after President Joe Biden abruptly left the race, then lost both the Electoral College and the popular vote to President Donald Trump.
Harris first publicly signaled openness to another presidential run in April. Speaking at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention, she said she “might” enter the 2028 race, leaving Democrats and donors to wait for a final answer.