Kamala Harris takes next step in return to political stage

Former Vice President Kamala Harris headlines a top-dollar Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner on Tuesday, marking the latest step back into the political spotlight by the Democrats' 2024 presidential nominee.

The New York City gathering of top party officials, politicians and donors, where tickets range upwards of $25,000 per person, according to an invitation obtained by Fox News, comes as Harris is mulling her political future after last November's election defeat at the hands of Republican President Donald Trump.

Among her campaign options that she's weighing is a 2026 run for the open governor's seat in her home state of California and another bid in 2028 for the White House.

The event also comes as the Democratic Party, facing historically low favorable ratings in national polling, aims to leave the political wilderness after the party lost control of the White House and the Senate and fell short in its bid to regain the House majority in the 2024 elections.

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Former Vice President Kamala Harris is headlining a major Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

And it is being held as an increasingly angry and energized base of Democrats is pushing for party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against Trump's sweeping and controversial agenda during the opening months of his second administration.

"Kamala Harris understands the fight that we are in," DNC committee member and veteran Democratic strategist Maria Cardona told Fox News.

She added that "Kamala Harris is a beloved figure in the Democratic Party."

"The DNC is using every tool in their toolbox to bring people together, to get people excited about the campaigns that are coming in the next two cycles," said Cardona, a member of the DNC's influential Rules and Bylaws committee. "I think it's super smart for the DNC to use her, to use every other elected [official], to use governors, to use former administration officials. … I think this is just par for the course for what the DNC needs to do going forward."

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The fundraiser is being held the day after the president helped haul in big bucks as he headlined a gathering of major donors at one of his golf courses in Virginia for MAGA Inc., which was the top Trump-aligned super PAC during the 2024 election cycle.

Harris proved her fundraising prowess last year, hauling in over $1 billion during her three-and-a-half-month White House campaign after replacing then-President Joe Biden atop the Democrats' national ticket in late July, amid mounting questions over the then-81-year-old president's physical and mental stamina. 

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

"She raised an eye-popping record amount of money," Cardona noted. "She is still a tremendous draw for the Democratic faithful and donors and that will continue to be the case going forward."

The DNC is using much of the money brought in at its fundraisers to build its ground operations and messaging efforts ahead of next year's midterm elections.

A top progressive leader agreed that using Harris to help fundraise for the DNC makes sense. 

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But Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a major grassroots organization that promotes economic populism and democracy through electoral and issue advocacy efforts, pointed to Harris' 2024 setback as well as her flameout in the 2020 Democrat presidential primary when asked about how the left would receive a potential 2028 White House bid by Harris.

"She had her chance. Sometimes you have to know when to step away," Green told Fox News.

He argued that Harris felt more like a candidate from the party's establishment than a shake-up of the system, populist, during her two presidential campaigns, and that the more voters got to know her, the less they supported her.

Harris' appearance at Tuesday's DNC fundraiser, where she'll take part in a question-and-answer session with national party chair Ken Martin, comes a week after she made some of her first major public remarks since her 2024 defeat.

The former vice president at an event in San Francisco took aim at Trump's economic agenda. She said the president's controversial implementation of tariffs, which initially triggered a massive stock market selloff, "as I predicted, are clearly inviting a recession."

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris (Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The stepped-up appearances by Harris come as she continues to meet with advisors and friends as she considers her political future.

A source in the former vice president's political orbit confirmed to Fox News Digital two months ago that Harris had told allies she would decide by the end of summer on whether to launch a 2026 gubernatorial campaign.

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Harris served as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and represented the Golden State in the U.S. Senate before joining Biden's 2020 ticket and winning election as vice president.

And Harris would be considered the clear frontrunner for governor in heavily blue California in the race to succeed term-limited Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Leading Women Defined Summit, April 3, 2025, in Dana Point, Calif. (Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, extremely early polls in the next Democratic Party presidential nomination race, which are heavily reliant on name recognition at this point, indicate that the former vice president holds a significant lead over other potential White House contenders.

It is unlikely she could do both. Running and winning election in 2026 as governor of California, the nation's most populous state and home to the world's fifth-largest economy, would likely take a 2028 White House run off the table, allies and political analysts have indicated.

While no decisions have been made, the former vice president has vowed to remain politically involved.

Harris, in a video message to the Democratic National Committee as it huddled for its winter meeting in early February, pledged to be with the party "every step of the way."

And in an early April speech in California, Harris reiterated that she'll stay politically active, noting that "I’m not going anywhere."

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But Harris is far from the only Democrat sparking 2028 speculation.

Among those making headlines in the extremely early moves for the next Democrat presidential nomination race is two-term Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, who took aim at Trump and his own party as he headlined a state Democratic Party fundraiser a week and a half ago in New Hampshire, which traditionally has held the first primary in the White House race.

Also grabbing plenty of 2028 buzz is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the four-term, outspoken progressive from New York City.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks at a town hall gathering on May 2, 2025, in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

A viral video of her nationwide series of rallies with longtime liberal champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, drew large crowds and sparked more speculation that the lawmaker known as AOC might have presidential ambitions in 2028 or that she could potentially primary challenge longtime Democrat Senate Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York in three years.

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Green, in contrasting Harris and Ocasio-Cortez, said "this moment calls for authentic outsiders who want to shake up the broken political system and an economic status quo rigged for billionaires against working people. That's why Kamala Harris lost, and it's why a lot of people are looking at AOC."