In latest weeks, President Joe Biden has ceded the highlight to President-elect Donald Trump. However Biden has been a vivid public presence in contrast with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Since shedding to Trump, Harris has appeared solely sporadically in public, accompanying Biden to Arlington Cemetery on Veterans Day, swearing in three new senators, attending White Home occasions and vacation events.
Subsequent month, Harris will grow to be the third defeated presidential candidate in 64 years to preside over the joint congressional session certifying their defeat, like Republican Richard Nixon in 1961 and Democrat Al Gore in 2001. (A fourth, Democrat Hubert Humphrey, stayed away in 1969.)
Two weeks later, she’s going to grow to be a personal citizen for the primary time since changing into San Francisco’s district lawyer 24 years in the past, quickly to confront the choice going through each defeated candidate: Ought to I attempt once more?
Nixon, after all, received the presidency eight years after his 1960 defeat to John F. Kennedy. However the monitor report for shedding presidential nominees shouldn’t be good. For the reason that Eighteen Nineties, solely Nixon and Trump have received the White Home after shedding a previous election.
Moreover these two, solely Democrats Adlai Stevenson and William Jennings Bryan and Republican Thomas Dewey had been even renominated after they misplaced the presidency. All misplaced once more, Bryan two extra occasions.
Again to California?
Already, a number of prime Democrats have introduced their candidacies, together with Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who has been an in depth pal and ally of Harris, and two different statewide officeholders. Others are mulling races.
However a ballot taken proper earlier than Harris misplaced the presidency confirmed she would have robust help if she sought the submit, particularly amongst her fellow Democrats. The ballot, taken by College of California’s Institute of Governmental Research, confirmed practically half of the seemingly voters sampled mentioned they had been very or considerably prone to help her, however three in 4 Democrats mentioned they had been.
Sarcastically, looking for California’s governorship was how Nixon determined to revive his presidential potentialities after he narrowly misplaced the 1960 election. He misplaced in 1962 to Democratic Gov. Pat Brown, and angrily declared he was holding his final press convention. However he restored his nationwide standing by serving to the GOP rebound nationally after its 1964 defeat and, 4 years later, received the White Home.
When Nixon ran in 1968, he was helped by having robust occasion help at a time that mattered way over it does immediately and by the selections of two probably robust rivals, Govs. Nelson Rockefeller of New York and Ronald Reagan of California, to remain out of the race till the very finish. And his important early foe, Michigan Gov. George Romney, broken his personal candidacy with an ill-considered assertion a couple of go to to Vietnam.
Run for president?
For Harris, nevertheless, operating for governor appears extra like an alternate possibility for future public service than a path to profitable the presidency. If elected, it could be onerous for her to run for president simply two years later and, by 2032, Democrats would nearly actually need somebody youthful. And if she misplaced a governors’ race, it could underscore considerations about her electability.
Within the latest marketing campaign, Harris ran a spirited race underneath troublesome odds following Biden’s pressured withdrawal. However her defeat, simply eight years after Hillary Clinton misplaced to Trump, renewed considerations that the nation shouldn’t be but able to elect a feminine president
Moreover, Democrats haven’t appeared kindly lately on defeated presidential nominees looking for second probabilities. Each Gore and Clinton had been extensively blamed for his or her defeats in 2000 and 2016, respectively.
And in contrast to 2024, when she inherited the nomination kind of by default, Harris would confront a crowded panorama if she determined to run in 2028. The Democratic subject is prone to embrace a number of distinguished youthful Democrats, equivalent to Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Wes Moore of Maryland, and Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
No less than considered one of them appears prone to profit from the occasion’s want for a contemporary face after the two-decade Obama-Biden-Harris period.
When Harris conceded the 2024 election to Trump, she made a common vow to stay energetic politically, declaring: “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign — the fight: the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness, and the dignity of all people.
“That is a fight I will never give up,” she mentioned.
In line with Politico, she has been giving associates and allies an analogous message in non-public conversations, urging them to maintain their choices open and declaring, “I am staying in the fight.”
However simply how and when she plans to do this stays unclear. And it’s not possible for anybody exterior her inside circle to know what the long-term influence of shedding might be on her.
When former Vice President Walter Mondale misplaced the presidency in 1984, he later informed Politico, he requested defeated 1972 nominee George McGovern how lengthy it took him to recover from his defeat.
“I’ll let you know when it happens,” McGovern informed him.
Initially Printed: December 26, 2024 at 5:00 AM PST
