NEW YORK — Kamala Harris just gave the Democratic Party the most explicit sign yet she’ll run for president in 2028.
“Listen, I might, I might. I’m thinking about it,” Harris told the Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network convention on Friday, when he asked her whether she will run again in 2028. “I’ll keep you posted,” she said as she walked off the stage, concluding a roughly 40-minute appearance that was peppered with cheers and a standing ovation from attendees.
The former vice presidenthas toyed with the idea before, but her comments Friday took on a new meaning in front of an audience full of Black lawmakers, influential power brokers and voters at what amounted to the first major cattle-call for the potential 2028 Democratic field.
“I know what the job is and what it requires,” she told Sharpton.
Harris was the sixth possible 2028 contender to take the stage at the conference for a fireside chat with Sharpton, a tacit acknowledgement that whether the hopefuls ultimately decide to run or not, they know they can’t skip this room. Black voters make up a huge chunk of the Democratic primary base and will play a major role in determining the party’s next presidential nominee.
Harris was received with the most enthusiasm from the audience compared to any of the Democrats who spoke earlier this week, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
At one point, the crowd in the packed ballroom repeatedly chanted, “Run again! Run again!”
Later, the cheers for Harris grew to such a tenor, Sharpton jokingly admonished the crowd: “This is a convention, not a revival.”
Harris repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump — on Iran, foreign policy and voting rights, among other topics — throughout her conversation with Sharpton.
But she also nodded to the influence Trump and the GOP had on certain voters of color in 2024, when a significant number of Black and Latino men decided to move away from the Democratic Party.
Democrats, she said, shouldn’t expect support because of longstanding relationships.
“I think we need to be transactional voters,” she said to scattered cheers in the room. “Here’s what I’m suggesting in addition: get yours. Vote and say, ‘I’m voting because I expect something out of this’…. I’m saying it’s okay to also give people permission to be transactional, and to say, if you will get my vote, this is what I expect. I expect to get something out of this.”
People close to Harris say she’s genuinely undecided and they’ve been urging her to take steps that preserve her ability to mount a campaign.
But her remarks before the packed convention hall mark one of several high-profile public appearances she’s planning as she reemerges — and tries to reintroduce herself — to voters. Harris said she’ll soon be traveling to South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas.
Harris leads several very early polls of Democrats’ top picks for president heading into 2028, likely bolstered by her name recognition from her two previous runs for the White House and her four-year tenure as vice president under former President Joe Biden.
The early leg-up Harris holds in the shadow presidential primary was evident even before her remarks on Friday morning. Unlike the event’s first two days, attendees shuffled through a security checkpoint at the entrance to the ballroom, akin to Secret Service protocols usually afforded to former office holders (Trump stripped Harris of her USSS detail in 2025). And the cavernous Midtown event space reached capacity over an hour before Harris walked onstage.
In some ways, Harris’ conversation with Sharpton felt much like a 2024 campaign appearance.
“Freedom,” Beyoncé’s 2016 hit that became the soundtrack of Harris’ 2024 campaign, played over the loudspeaker as attendees filed in, and a sizzle reel of footage showing Sharpton and Harris together projected onto the two screens that frame the main stage, something no other possible 2028 presidential contender’s attendance featured.
“I just really want to hear her point of view of everything, about what’s happening now in the presidency, and maybe what she would have done if she was here instead of Trump,” said 27-year-old Justina Pena, a New Yorker.
Chris Cadelago contributed.
