After dominating the news cycle for three elections in a row and winning two of them, Donald Trump is on his way to serving a second and final term in the White House. When that term is over, Democrats want Vice President Kamala Harris to run again, according to a new poll.
Trump defeated Harris in the November election, but she still managed to get the third highest number of votes of all time, even though she also ran the shortest campaign in U.S. history. Harris was tapped to fill in for President Joe Biden when he dropped out of the race this summer.
“I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time,” Harris posted on X the day after the election. “For the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But, America, if it is: Let us fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars.”
Per the poll results released this week by Puck News and Echelon Insights, a plurality of Democrats (41%) said they would vote for Harris if the 2028 presidential primary was held now. Other contenders that poll respondents could choose from included Democratic governors, members of Congress and current cabinet members.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom came in a distant second with 8%, followed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at 7%, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg at 6%, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (Harris’ former running mate) at 6%, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) at 4%, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 3%, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at 2% Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear at 2%, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) at 2%, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis at 1%, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore at 1%. Newsom, Shapiro, Pritzker, Polis and Whitmer were identified as some of the new Democratic stars during a challenging time for the party as the nation heads into a new Trump administration backed by Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.
It’s not clear yet if Harris plans to run for the White House again in 2028. Another poll also indicated that she would have a good chance of running for governor in her home state of California in 2026.
Among all of the 1,010 people who participated in the Puck News/Echelon Insights poll from Nov. 14 through Nov. 18, Harris had one of the highest favorability ratings on a list of political figures and groups provided in the Puck News/Echelon Insights poll. Trump (49%) and the Republican party (48%) had the highest (half of the respondents said they voted for Trump in the recent election, compared to 48% for Harris). Harris came close with 47%, followed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk. Democrats had a 44% favorability rating, President Biden had a 42% favorability rating and Vice President-elect JD Vance had a 43% favorability rating.
As for who might run as the Republican presidential candidate in 2028, 37% of poll respondents who would participate in a GOP primary said they would vote for Vance if the primary was held today. Like Harris, Vance was far in the lead, followed by Vivek Ramaswamy at 9% Nikki Haley at 9% Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 8%, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at 5%, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 5%, Sarah Huckabee Sanders at 2%, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) at 1%, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) at 1%, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin at 1% and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem at 1%.
Overall, most of the poll respondents (59%) said they believe the country is on the wrong track, but around the same amount (58%) said they think it will start to head in a better direction.