Kamala Harris returns in Michigan as 2028 questions shadow midterms

Kamala Harris, as she weighs whether to run for president again, is stepping into the US midterm campaign by appearing with fellow Democrats, starting with a trip to Michigan on Tuesday for Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed. She also has events lined up in Nevada and Georgia, putting her back in some of the states that are central both to the midterms and to the Democrats’ next presidential race.

Her return to campaigning comes as Democrats remain split on her future. Some in the party say it is time for new leadership after her loss to Donald Trump, while others insist she has earned the space to decide her next move without pressure. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently told CNN he would not seek the Democratic nomination if Harris does.

Among those urging the party to move on is Barry Goodman, a Democratic National Committee member from Michigan who raised money for Joe Biden and then Harris. “I think she’s run her course,” he said. “I just don’t think her running again would be the right thing for America moving forward.” Iowa gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand was even more direct when asked about campaigning with Harris: “No thanks. Let’s move on. We need some new leadership.”

Others have defended her right to take time. Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair, said, “Kamala isn’t under any deadline to run for anything.” She called it a “waste of time” to relitigate Harris’s shortened 2024 campaign and said any White House hopefuls “should follow Kamala’s lead and get out there” to help midterm candidates.

Michigan carries both risk and opportunity for Harris. It was one of seven battleground states she lost to Trump two years ago, and it is also one of six states that will help open the Democrats’ next presidential nominating process. The state also carries difficult recent political history for her, after many in its prominent Arab American communities were angry over Biden’s support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and disappointed that Harris did not break with him after becoming the Democratic nominee.

El-Sayed, meanwhile, has been an outspoken critic of Israel and has described the war as a genocide against Palestinians, an accusation rejected by Israel. Some Jewish voters have viewed him warily, and he has tried to address that by apologising for some past controversial comments. He said there were “some hurt feelings” in Michigan after the 2024 election, with some Black voters feeling Arab Americans had not done enough to help Harris. With Harris now visiting, he said it was a chance “to bring communities together that have often been torn apart by recent events”.

The appearance will also be watched because Harris has had a strained relationship with the party’s progressive wing, of which El-Sayed is a part, and because he is seeking to strengthen establishment support in his contest against Republican nominee Mike Rogers, a former congressman. “We can build together on the areas of agreement, and we can come to understand each other far better on the areas where we might have seen eye to eye, and I think her coming into town will help us to do that,” El-Sayed said.

Harris has not announced any trips to South Carolina, where Democrats will hold their first primary, though she did visit the state in the spring for smaller local party events. Antjuan Seawright, a political consultant in South Carolina, said she could make a strong case for herself, but any new campaign would need to “look and sound different”. “She’s going to have to admit that she was wrong about some things,” he said.

Compared with other possible presidential contenders, Harris’s travel has been relatively limited. Pete Buttigieg, who ran in 2020 before serving as Biden’s transportation secretary, has recently visited South Carolina and campaigned for other Democrats in the midterms. Harris has, however, spoken on an organising call aimed at registering and turning out 1 million more Black voters. Bre Maxwell, a Democratic National Committee member from South Carolina, said there was value in Harris doing work “behind the scenes instead of being front and centre”, especially as “she’s still a target of Donald Trump right now”. Jaime Harrison, the former national party chair, said Harris’s standing gives her time that others do not have, noting that many rivals would want “that type of name ID” and network.

Harris herself has repeatedly said she is in no hurry. “Right now – midterms, midterms, midterms,” she told Megan Rapinoe on a recent podcast. Her spokesman Eduardo Negrón declined to comment on her timeline. Her other campaign stops this autumn include events for Nevada’s Democratic candidate for governor, Aaron Ford, and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, who is seeking re-election. Seawright said, “She is certainly being strategic.” He also noted that her memoir tour for 107 Days stopped in virtually every major Southern city in states where Black voters have strong influence in early presidential primaries. Goodman said he has heard no sign that Harris is working the party’s top donor network, while Harrison said he has not heard from her since last December.

Harris’s earlier campaigns also offer lessons. She first ran for president in the 2020 cycle as a US senator from California, but dropped out before any primary votes were cast. Some progressives saw the former prosecutor as part of a criminal justice system that disproportionately imprisons Black men, while some moderates viewed her as another San Francisco liberal. Biden later chose her as his running mate, making her the first woman and first Black person to serve as vice president.

When Biden ended his re-election bid after a damaging debate performance, Harris generated visible enthusiasm, drawing crowds that matched or exceeded Trump’s, and many analysts praised her convention speech and debate performance. But she was unable to separate herself from Biden on inflation or immigration. On The View, she said she could not think of anything she would have done differently from Biden, and Trump repeatedly attacked her in advertisements over her support for transgender rights.

If Harris runs again, Seawright said she would need to stress more moderate positions and “be willing to say, you know, I’ve rethought some things”. Voters, he said, “reward that kind of authenticity and humility”. Harrison said it would be easier for her to explain her own agenda now than when “she was a sitting vice president, somebody else’s No 2”, but added that she would also need to leave behind the style of office. “You can’t act like a sitting vice president, standing up on that stage,” he said. “I’d tell her she has to run hard, just as hard as everybody else, working every rope line, taking every selfie.” He said that unlike Biden’s handoff to her in 2024, “This is going to be the wild, wild west.”

For now, Harris is focusing publicly on helping Democrats in the midterms, even as her appearances in states such as Michigan, Nevada and Georgia are likely to keep attention on what she decides to do next.