Kamala’s coda: What’s next for defeated US Vice-President Harris?

WASHINGTON - For months, US Vice-President Kamala Harris was laser-focused on one potentially career-defining, history-making goal – becoming the first woman entrusted with the keys to the White House.

But

defeat by Donald Trump in the recent election

stripped the Democrat of a place in the pantheon of US presidents, and left America wondering what is next for a politician whose meteoric rise has come crashing to an abrupt halt.

After spending a few days in Hawaii following the disappointment of Nov 5, the 60-year-old former prosecutor has begun lifting the veil on her future ambitions.

“I am staying in the fight,” she declared during a call with party donors, without elaborating on how that might look.

Washington is abuzz with speculation over Ms Harris’ next move, with some commentators predicting a bid for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California when Mr Gavin Newsom vacates the premises in 2026.

In the US, governorships are prestigious positions, since many states are the size of countries – California’s economy would be the world’s fifth-largest – and the men and women who run them act as quasi-presidents.

A full term or two governing California – which has only ever been led by white men – would be a fitting culmination to a trailblazing career in which Ms Harris has shattered multiple glass ceilings.

She has longstanding relationships with local officialdom and much of the infrastructure already in place, as it was only seven years ago that she left the California attorney-general’s office to become a US senator.

But leading the country’s most populous state would also give her “an enormous platform” to reassert herself as a political heavyweight on the national stage, noted Professor Julian Zelizer, a political scientist at Princeton University.

‘Lost faith’

If Ms Harris used statewide office as a springboard back to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, she would be embarking on a well-worn route.

Sixteen presidents have been governors before entering the White House, including Republican Ronald Reagan, one of the most popular, who ran California in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But Democrats were faced with a painful reckoning after Ms Harris lost every swing state and

Trump made advances with practically every section of the electorate

– and she is far from an automatic choice to lead her party into the next election.

“The challenge is that once you lose, and are part of a loss this big, many in the party (lose) faith that you can win again in a big match-up,” Prof Zelizer told AFP.

Two years as California governor would be considered an unusually short tenure in any case and some analysts believe that if Ms Harris intends to run in the Golden State, she would have to put off her presidential ambitions until at least 2032.

Mr Newsom, who has been California’s governor since 2019, has been identified as a potential Harris rival in four years, along with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Another possible option for Ms Harris would be to continue in politics without necessarily holding office. Democrat Bill Clinton’s vice-president Al Gore provides the exemplar, after losing to Mr George W. Bush but remaining in public life anyway as an environmental crusader.

In 2006, Mr Gore’s documentary film An Inconvenient Truth played a major role in raising awareness of the rapid pace of global warming.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, the veteran Democrat is now training climate ambassadors around the world. AFP