Kamala Harris is quietly weighing another run for the White House in 2028, drawing sold-out crowds on her listening tour and keeping close counsel with a small circle of advisers. But behind closed doors, the picture looks starkly different — and the resistance is coming from people who once fought hardest to put her there.
A sweeping Vanity Fairreportpublished on 21 May 2026, based on interviews with more than two dozen former Harris campaign staffers, White House aides, elected officials, political operatives, and major donors, lays bare a near-universal unease about another Harris campaign. The verdict from those closest to her political world is blunt: she should not run.
The quotes gathered by Vanity Fair's Washington correspondent Aidan McLaughlin are striking in both their candour and their consistency. 'No,' one former Harris campaign adviser told the publication. 'It's obviously a bad idea.'
Another former adviser said: 'I have spoken to maybe one person out of a hundred who thinks she should run — whether it's former campaign colleagues, people around DC, or just people around the country who are like, "Oh God, she's not going to run again?"'
Billionaire Mark Cuban, who served as a surrogate during her 2024 campaign, was equally direct. 'No,' he told Vanity Fair, when asked whether Harris should run. A top Harris donor echoed that view: 'I don't think she should run for president.'
One veteran Democratic operative put it in starker terms, saying he had travelled extensively for the midterms and had not encountered 'anybody — anybody — who said, "Boy, I really hope Kamala runs."'
Joe Biden ‘F*CKED’ Kamala Harris — Vanity Fair citing White House aides‘He F*CKED HER’pic.twitter.com/nu0PB6KfuH
Central to the backlash is the question of who bears responsibility for Harris's 2024 defeat to Donald Trump. One former White House aide did not mince words in the Vanity Fair piece, saying: 'Joe Biden f**ked her. He f**ked her. And according to her book, he called her the morning of the debate to be like, "I heard your donors are talking shit about me." He was the f**king worst. He's a prick.'
The sentiment reflects a broader frustration among some Democratic insiders that Harris was handed an impossible situation — inheriting a flailing incumbent's campaign with just 107 days to make her case to the country. Harris herself has argued as much in her memoir, also titled '107 Days', which sold half a million copies in its first week.
Yet others are less forgiving. 'She was at her highest at the beginning of her general election candidacy,' a second former White House aide told Vanity Fair. 'As people got more exposure, support declined as she ran that supposedly great campaign.' That aide noted the same pattern emerged in 2020. 'Both times that she's run, her support has declined as people got exposure.'
Source: International Business Times UK
