Big donors backed Harris in 2024. For 2028, they’re not so sure

WASHINGTON— As Kamala Harris considers a possible 2028 presidential run, there is little enthusiasm among her top supporters in 2024 to bankroll a repeat performance, raising uncertainty about the former vice president’s future in a crowded primary field.

The Times reached out to more than two dozen donors to the largest pro-Harris super PAC in 2024. Many of them said they did not plan to support him if he chose to run or refused to talk about him. The others did not respond.

“I don’t think this is a useful narrative [for 2028] “There’s a tremendous appetite for new blood, something fresh, something that truly represents the future, not the past,” said one person who is fundraising for Harris’s 2024 campaign and was willing to speak candidly.

This narrative is poised to present Harris’ biggest problem if she decides to run, especially if it jeopardizes her ability to raise significant funds. Although few in the party want to criticize Harris, few seem inclined to support her, and conversations about her prospects often come down to one thing: Democrats’ anxiety to win.

“He lost, so the question will be: Is there anyone who can give Democratic voters more of a sense that they can win?” said Dick Harpootlian, a longtime South Carolina Democratic strategist. “That’s what we’re all looking for. We want to win in the 28th.”

Conversations among party elites appear to contradict recent polls in Harris’ favor; this includes the Harvard Center for American Political Studies/Harris Poll in April. Leading the democratic field With the support of 50 percent of Democrats.

The former vice president also received enthusiastic greetings from audiences during a series of recent speeches, including telling a friendly crowd at a New York conference in April that he might run for president.

Harris is undecided on whether to run, according to one person who said she is focused on supporting Democrats, meeting with voters and delivering messages about the economy and affordability ahead of the midterm elections Friday.

This person said that if she becomes the nominee, Harris would expect a crowded primary field to divide donors and be aware that skepticism must be overcome, but noted that 2028 will present a very different dynamic from the circumstances under which she received the nomination in 2024.

“There’s a bit of a ‘he’s protesting too much’ quality to some of the complaints about his idea of ​​running,” said one person close to him. “It might be an indirect way of acknowledging that it would be quite a challenge if he decided to go in.”

Speculation about whether Harris will run again and whether she will run has swirled since the shortened 2024 campaign ended in defeat against Donald Trump. Harris’s decision not to run for governor of California in an open race was widely seen as a sign of her presidential ambitions, and Harris returned to the public eye with the publication of the following article: A book about the 2024 campaign and a related speaking tour.

Last month, Harris gave her strongest signal that she might seek the party’s nomination again, telling the Rev. Al Sharpton at a meeting of her civil rights organization in New York that she was “thinking about it.”

“I know what the job is and I know what it takes,” Harris said at the time.

Harris’ loss to Trump in 2024 and her failure to capture any battleground states after entering the race late following President Biden’s departure was hurtful for Democrats. A Democratic political consultant said the defeat lasted longer for some top donors than it did after Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, making them more cautious.

“Everyone feels burned, especially in the donor class,” he said. “People just want to turn the page.”

The Times contacted top donors to Future Forward, the Democratic super PAC that spent the most to support Harris in the 2024 election. All donors contacted gave at least $1 million, and some acted as bundlers for the campaign, soliciting large checks from other donors in addition to their own contributions.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who donated $1 million to Future Forward in 2024, said he hopes to support a different kind of Californian.

“Gavin is a candidate who can motivate both the left and the center,” Hastings told The Times, referring to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Both Harris and Biden’s bundler said it comes down to who can give Democrats the best chance to succeed.

“I think it’s too early to pick a favorite in the 2028 race, but Kamala Harris will not be my candidate,” this person said. “I don’t think it will appeal to an undecided voter, and we need undecided voters to win.”

Others, including several party leaders, deflected the questions, citing the focus on this year’s midterm elections. Last year Rep. James E. Clyburn (D.C.) Praises Newsom’s presidential hopes Democrats should focus on 2026, he said Tuesday during the governor’s visit.

“I’m not thinking about 2028, and I wouldn’t talk to her about it if she called me,” Clyburn told The Times when asked about Harris’ chances.

The former Harris fundraiser said enthusiasm for Harris and doubts about her viability in 2028 are not mutually exclusive.

“A lot of people love him and at the same time don’t think he’s the answer to 2028,” he said at the fundraiser.

The Democratic political consultant said the attitudes of the donor class and political elites may conflict with those of ordinary Americans, especially black and working-class voters. He said few potential candidates have the potential to excite Black voters the way Harris does.

Howard University political scientist Keneshia Grant said Black voters would be “strategic and optimistic enough” to rally around that candidate if she makes a successful case that she can win, whether it’s Harris or someone else.

But he said: “I don’t think it would go down well with the elites or the donor class working to keep Harris on the sidelines unless there is a clear, reasonable, exciting, Obama-level, yes-we-can candidate to replace her.”

In recent weeks, Harris has spoken at a fundraiser in South Carolina, a party luncheon in Michigan and a dinner in Arkansas. He was in Nevada on Thursday to rally Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

She also joined other potential 2028 contenders at the Colorado Speaker Series and Sharpton conference in Denver, accepted an award from the nonprofit Public Counsel at the Los Angeles premiere, and addressed a warm reception at the National Women’s Law Center gala in Washington, as did Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

“She was inspiring, she was hopeful, she pushed back against Trump,” said Jay Parmley, the Democratic Party chairman in South Carolina, where Harris spoke at a party-hosted fundraiser in Greenville on April 15.

South Carolina, a key primary state, could help pave Harris’ path to the nomination. He could gain early momentum if Black voters there spurred him to victory.

But Parmley said he believes he must “overcome” the hurdle of convincing voters he can beat the GOP.

“I don’t think he’s guaranteed to win without working here,” Parmley said. “He’s really going to have to visit the voters and work like everyone else.”

Times writer Ana Ceballos in Washington contributed to this report.