Some days, it's just got to be hard to be a failed Democrat presidential candidate. Politics is a harsh business, and if you lose a presidential election by as wide a margin as Kamala Harris did in 2024, the national party isn't likely to let you try again. When you lose to Donald Trump, as Kamala Harris did in 2024, they are even less likely, due to spillage from the party's Stage V Trump Derangement Syndrome.
So, when a new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, asking California Democratic voters who they want to see as the candidate in the 2028 election, has Kamala Harris in single digits - well, that has to sting.
Governor Gavin Newsom holds a large early lead over other possible Democratic contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination among rank-and-file Democrats in his home state.
According to the latest Berkeley IGS Poll, 28% of the state’s Democratic voters now select Newsom as their first choice to be their party’s nominee should he launch a bid for president in 2028. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez places a distant second at 14%, followed by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg at 11%.
Former Vice President and California Senator Kamala Harris trails, receiving just 9% support among Democratic voters in her home state, while Arizona Senator Mark Kelly places fifth at 7%. None of nine other possible Democratic contenders listed in the poll received more than 3% of California Democratic voter preferences, while 19% were undecided.
What's really amazing is that the former vice president broke, well, zero. But then, here on the other side of the aisle, we hold our candidates to a higher standard - like insisting they can speak in public. A candidate who can't string together a coherent sentence if you spot her two verbs and a participle won't get very far in the Republican Party, but Democrats? Well, look at recent history: Every Kamala Harris Q&A session, the few that she did, even though they were asking pre-approved questions... Well, she did her best to do a credible impression of a word salad shooter, and that's about all.
Look, for most of my adult life, I've had a few criteria that I use to judge someone's intelligence. They aren't infallible, but they broadly apply. One of those is this: Intelligent people are generally pretty good at speaking extemporaneously. Ronald Reagan was good at that. Bill Clinton was good at that. Barack Obama, lauded by Democrats as a speechifier, was terrible without a teleprompter, and Joe Biden wasn't any good even with one. Democrats don't seem to set very high standards for rhetoric in their candidates.
Kamala Harris took those low expectations and smashed them into miles into the earth's crust, probably breaking through into the mantle. It's no wonder that California Democrats are looking at a potential second Harris campaign and saying, "Yeah, no thanks."
Read More: New Poll Drops Bomb: Democrat Voters Want Centrism, Not Freak Shows
Kamala Harris Cheers Anti-ICE Mobs As Incendiary Democrat Rhetoric Continues
Of course, the 2028 election is a long way off. There was a fair amount of time in the 2008 election cycle when everyone just knew that the race would end up being between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani - and we all know how that worked out. But clearly, the pollsters are all thinking ahead already, and if you're on Team Harris, it looks like it's time to be polishing up the old resume.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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