After bruising election loss, what next for Kamala Harris?

BBC:

Exactly two months after her election loss to Donald Trump, Vice-President Kamala Harris will preside over the certification of her own defeat.

As president of the Senate, on Monday she will stand at the House Speaker’s rostrum to lead the counting of Electoral College votes, officially cementing her rival’s triumph two weeks before he returns to the White House.

The circumstances are painful and awkward for a candidate who decried her opponent as an urgent threat to American democracy, but Harris aides insist she will conduct her constitutional and legal duty with seriousness and grace.

It is not the first time a losing candidate will lead the joint session of Congress to count their opponent’s presidential electors – Al Gore endured the indignity in 2001 and Richard Nixon in 1961.

But it’s a fitting coda to an improbable election that saw Harris elevated from a back-up to the nation’s oldest president to the Democratic standard bearer – whose fleeting campaign provided a jolt of hope to her party before a crushing loss exposed deep internal faultlines.

Harris and her team are now deliberating her second act, and weighing whether it includes another run for the White House in 2028 or pursuing a bid for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California.

While recent Democratic candidates who lost elections – Al Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton – have decided against seeking the presidency again, aides, allies and donors argue that the groundswell of support Harris captured in her unsuccessful bid and the unusual circumstances of her condensed campaign proves there’s still scope for her to seek the Oval Office.

They even point to Donald Trump’s own circuitous political path – the former and future president’s bookend wins in 2016 and 2024, despite losing as the incumbent in 2020.

But while many Democrats do not blame Harris for Trump’s win, some – stung by a bruising loss that has called the party’s strategy into question – are deeply sceptical of giving her another shot at the White House. A host of Democratic governors who coalesced behind the vice-president in 2024 but have ambitions of their own are seen by some strategists as fresher candidates with a much better chance of winning.