When Kamala Harris delivers her first major public address Wednesday after her bitter defeat to Donald Trump, she will step into the political spotlight in a way she has not yet done since November.
Harris has mostly stayed out of the public eye since she left office as vice president in January, and she has opted not to weigh in on Trump and his policies in the way other
prominent Democrats have.
That will change Wednesday. She is to deliver the keynote address at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, honoring the group’s role in electing more Democratic women in California politics. She is expected to call out Trump over his policies and how she believes they are failing Americans.
“There is a clamoring for her voice right now,” said a former Harris senior adviser who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “No one can better prosecute the case while inspiring a call to action than the former vice president.”
Harris shot to the top of the Democratic ticket last year, abruptly replacing President Joe Biden just 15 weeks before Election Day. The historic switch happened after Biden took part in a devastating debate against Trump in June, when he at times stared off into space and could not complete a sentence.
A firestorm of concern from the party about Biden’s cognitive abilities erupted, and eventually he bowed out of the race. Harris brought new life to the ticket, filling venues across battleground states and shattering fundraising records.
But after a whirlwind 107-day, $1.5 billion presidential campaign, Harris could not overcome discontent among voters
who wanted change and largely said they believed Trump would usher in a booming economy.
That has not happened, however. Instead, his tariff policies have triggered chaos in the markets and brought on fears of a trade war. He has been
accused of ignoring court orders and has
pushed the limits of presidential power — including, at times, intimidating independent institutions,
such as universities, saying they must capitulate on policies that support diversity, for instance, or their federal funding will be cut.
An
NBC News Stay Tuned poll, powered by SurveyMonkey, found that 55% of adults disapprove of his handling of his job. Several other national polls timed for the 100-day mark had similar results,
including Fox News, one of Trump’s favorite outlets. The Pew Research Center found that
Trump’s approval stood at 40%.
“Clearly many voters are regretting their 2024 choice, and Harris utilizing Emerge’s 20th anniversary as the vehicle to deliver pointed remarks is the right place at the right time with the right group of people,” the former adviser said.
Some of Harris’ advisers have insisted that she simply ran out of time to make her case — she had come onto the scene too late. She has not yet said whether she intends to run again or whether she would run for governor of California — a serious consideration, according to aides — and neither announcement is expected Wednesday.
Harris has taken part in lower-profile public events, one of them this month when she spoke at the
Leading Women Defined Summit.
“We’re seeing people stay quiet. We are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things we’re witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear,” Harris said then. “There were many things that we knew would happen.”
“I’m not here to tell you I told you so,” she added, laughing. “I swore I wasn’t going to say that!”
“Fear has a way of being contagious,” she said. “But I say this also, my dear friends: Courage is also contagious.”
A source familiar with Harris’ upcoming remarks said she is expected to expand upon those themes Wednesday and highlight those who have stood up against Trump.
