“Keep fighting.” This is how Kamala Harris insisted on remobilizing her camp on Wednesday, the day after her crushing defeat against Donald Trump. If these words were addressed in particular to her voters, motivating them to continue their commitment, the Democratic candidate herself seems to want to set an example: “I am not giving up the fight.”
It must be said that until now, Kamala Harris’ career had mainly been one of constant ascension and glass ceilings exploded in turn. The first black district attorney of San Francisco in 2003, she was also the first woman to become attorney general of a state, California, in 2010. When she entered politics, the success was similar, establishing herself in her camp from her first bid to become a senator from California – in 2017, she was only the second black woman to reach this position. Then by becoming the first vice-president of the United States in 2021, after a defeat in the Democratic primary. But this time, the coin bounced to the other side. Kamala Harris failed against Donald Trump, which raises questions about her future.
A candidacy in 2028?
Aged 60, Kamala Harris is still far from the 78 years of Donald Trump or Joe Biden at his inauguration in 2021. She could thus be tempted to run again, while her inauguration in August was recorded in the emergency of withdrawal of President Biden. This option nevertheless seems unlikely: the United States is not a country that is hardly sympathetic to losers.
While it is common in France to see candidates defeated several times and yet continue to run in the presidential election, second chances do not in principle exist across the Atlantic, making Donald Trump’s victory all the more more historical. Thus, none of the major defeats in the 21st century on the Democratic side – Hillary Clinton in 2016, John Kerry in 2004, Al Gore in 2000 – as on the Republican side – John McCain in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012 – have chosen to try their luck again four years later. And not all of them had been as widely defeated as Kamala Harris in terms of both the electorate and the popular vote.
If the future of the current vice-president does not seem to be written at the White House, it could be done at other levels. Some are already talking about her for the post of governor of California, the state where she forged her entire judicial and then political career. But will she have the motivation? Above all, nothing assures him that a new generation of democrats will not come and lay the groundwork in the run-up to 2028.
Thus, some of those close to him predict the probable end of his political career. “Did she come all this way only to lose at the most important moment in American history? Unfortunately, the answer turned out to be yes,” he said. Times Gil Duran, former communications director for Kamala Harris when she was California attorney general. “It seems to me to be the end, and not the beginning of a political career. It looks like a ‘game over’. It’s tragic, for her and for the country,” he adds.
Other modes of action?
But the end of a political career does not necessarily mean a total disappearance. Kamala Harris could notably draw inspiration from her predecessors and fight her battles in other ways. Hillary Clinton had bet on writing a book, It happened like this (What Happened, in the original language), to tell in a very personal way his presidential campaign lost to Donald Trump in 2016. The work was a great success – 300,000 sales in the first week – and allowed him to partly redeem an image largely deteriorated by his defeat.
The one who will soon be ex-vice-president of the United States could also choose to get involved and weigh in on the public debate via foundations or think tanks. Institutions or places outside the political sphere, but where one’s words could be freer and count even more, even in the Democratic camp. “She brings immense value to the party. Her background, understanding of intersectional policymaking, and ability to build coalitions are her greatest assets. She is a fighter for the people. She has contributed, and will continue to to do it, to improve the lives of everyone, whatever their background, whatever she does next, I know that she will continue to be a source of inspiration”, thus affirmed to the. New York Times California State Representative Barbara Lee.
The former unsuccessful Democratic candidate Al Gore was fully invested in the ecological cause after his defeat in 2000, notably being the embodiment of the documentary An inconvenient truth, double Oscar winner in 2007. Activism which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, alongside the IPCC, for “their efforts to establish and disseminate a better understanding of climate change caused by man”. Although it probably does not make us forget the indelible wound of a defeat in the presidential election, receiving such a distinction should still help us understand that life does not end on the evening of an electoral defeat.