Kamala Harris said on Friday that she has “not made a decision” on a potential 2028 presidential run, telling the National Urban League conference in Nashville, Tennessee, that she is fully focused on the November midterm elections.
“I am fully, sincerely, focused on these midterms,” Harris told the audience. The former vice president stressed the importance of “having an agenda that is about turning out the vote in the greatest numbers we have ever seen so that… in this environment where they are cheating, we will be too big to rig.”
“It means being ruthless. They are ruthless. We need to be ruthless, too. And by that, I do not mean cruel. That is not our nature. By that, I do not mean breaking the law. That is not what we do. But I do mean we must be uncompromising,” she added.
Without announcing a campaign, Harris signaled elements of a policy platform, saying Democrats should revisit expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices and statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC. She also said she believes the Voting Rights Act will not be revived in the current environment, urging supporters to get “creative” and “ruthless” in protecting access to the ballot.
Harris sharply condemned the Trump administration’s war with Iran. “I would have opposed it even if [Congress] had approved this war,” she said. “They’re asking for hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for this war, meanwhile, you have people in America who are losing their health care every day, cannot afford their housing, cannot afford health care, cannot afford child care. There has been no articulation of the end game.” She called the conflict “a war of choice that this president got into with Israel, with no clear national security issue.”
Harris is widely viewed as the frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic nomination, leading potential rivals such as California Governor Gavin Newsom in early polling. The Democratic National Committee selected South Carolina to lead the 2028 presidential primary calendar, a state where Harris has strong support among Black voters, the constituency at the heart of the Urban League’s civil rights mission.
The Nashville appearance comes as Harris steps up public events ahead of the midterms, where Democrats are seeking to reclaim the House and Senate. Her comments on 2028 drew the most attention, though she repeatedly steered the focus back to the fall campaign.
Sources: The Guardian, C-SPAN
Author: USA Desk
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