Kamala Harris is sticking to her own timeline on a 2028 decision

By Edward-Isaac Dovere, CNN

(CNN) — Kamala Harris knows other potential 2028 Democratic candidates are waiting on her decision about running for president again. She’s going to keep them waiting.

The former vice president is running her own Malibu-based version of a Rose Garden strategy, keeping to occasional social media videos boosting Democrats generally or taking shots at President Donald Trump. Staying mostly in her recently purchased Southern California home, Harris is making calls to supporters and planning fall campaign stops but not giving a clear indication as to whether she will make a third presidential run.

Harris tends to stick closely to her public line that she’s “thinking about it.” Her allies think she has the authority among Democrats — and the right — to decide on her own timeline, even as other contenders and many voters are convinced that Democrats need a contested primary whether or not she runs.

“She is likely to keep her focus on the midterms and then analyze next steps after that. She is not in the same kind of hurry as other folks who seem to want to announce before 2027 even hits,” one person who has spoken to Harris in recent weeks told CNN. “She is not going to rush her deliberation to fit anyone else’s schedule.”

Harris spokesperson Eduardo Negrón declined comment when asked about her decision-making process. But in a podcast interview with Megan Rapinoe posted last week, Harris said, “I don’t know how to live and not serve. I just don’t know a life without figuring out how I can help move the needle.”

“Right now, midterms, midterms, midterms, full-time occupying my thoughts, my mind and my work,” she added.

Aides are finalizing a campaign schedule that will include at least two early state stops: first next week in Michigan for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, and then in Nevada for an appearance with Aaron Ford, the attorney general running for governor, who is a longtime supporter. And she’ll end her midterm push in general-election presidential battleground Georgia on the last weekend before the midterms, including an appearance with Sen. Jon Ossoff.

But Harris has not made, nor are there plans for her to make, any major policy speeches. Former campaign aides haven’t been given any hint, including whether to hold off on talking about positions with others who are starting to think about campaign teams. Several major Democrats also looking at running haven’t heard from her, either.

Meanwhile, at an event earlier this month featuring California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the first presidential primary state, South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain answered a question from the crowd about wanting to see Harris by saying she hasn’t heard from the 2024 nominee in some time. And Harris hasn’t been making the kinds of introductory stops with major donors that others are.

“Nobody’s who a serious donor looking for their presidential candidate is waiting to get a phone call from Kamala saying ‘I’m running.’ She’s just not in the conversation at all,” said one major donor who met with several potential candidates this summer.

Harris’s last big public appearance was keynoting the Louisiana Democratic Party’s inaugural Masquerade Sneaker Ball in August, though she has popped up at points since, including Monday night on a video organizing call convened by 1 Million Black Voters Rising to mark National Voter Registration Day Rally, though her brief remarks were audio only, without a camera on.

What Harris has been doing is working the phones, including calls to a wide array of activists and candidates, according to several familiar with the conversations. Some she calls just for chats. Some she calls to go over decisions from 2024, saying she’s trying to keep up with where the politics are moving. Some she offers advice.

Each call sets off more chattering, more insisting from those on the other end who then insist at dinners and cocktail parties that she must be running, because why else would she call?

Others who’ve talked to her who tell CNN that the undirected nature of her conversations and fall plans makes them doubt she’s on a trajectory to be launching another presidential campaign.

The reality: She hasn’t landed on either yes or no.

So when Newsom, who has been taking more definitive steps toward a presidential campaign, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he wouldn’t run if Harris did, the only real effect was among Newsom backers who worried that he’s now talked himself into needing to wait to launch until whenever she does decide, even if that drags into the spring.

In other camps, the idea of waiting on Harris, or deferring to her at all even if she does get into the race, prompted chuckles and laughing-to-tears emojis from several people close to a range of potential presidential candidates.

“That’s not a consideration whatsoever,” a person working with one potential candidate told CNN.

Asked if he would wait on Harris or defer to her if she decides to run, Rep. Ro Khanna — a fellow Californian who’s made no secret of being eager to launch his 2028 run — avoided answering directly rather than saying no.

“I believe I have a vision for how to build the future economy to work not just for the AI billionaires, but for the people I grew up with in PA. We need the biggest economic mission in generations and the question for me will be whether my vision meets the moment,” Khanna told CNN in a text message.

Asked whether he will defer to Harris either in waiting for her to decide or not running if she does, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said his answer about running is mostly bound up in thinking about what’s good for his three children.

“Everyone’s going to make their own decisions for their own personal reasons,” Gallego told CNN.

Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee chair and an informal adviser, said she’s fine to keep waiting.

“With no immediate filing deadlines, what’s the rush in deciding if she will run in 2028?” Brazile told CNN in an email. “For now, the former vice president is spending her time helping candidates on the 2026 ballot by raising money and helping to motivate voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote. There’s plenty of time to talk about 2028. Let’s try the week after the Nov 3rd general election.”

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