While Govs. Wes Moore and Josh Shapiro, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Ruben Gallego were among the gaggle of potential 2028 presidential contenders to attend this year’s National Action Network Convention in New York City, it was former Vice President Kamala Harris who seems to maintain the support of the organization’s members as she eyes another presidential run.
The former vice president appeared on Thursday and participated in a conversation with NAN founder and president, the Rev. Al Sharpton. Her appearance received some of the loudest applause of the convention thus far. At one point during her remarks, one attendee shouted “run again!” which led to the greater audience repeatedly chanting the same.
When asked by Sharpton if she plans to run again, Harris said, “Listen, I might. I’m thinking about it.”
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“I served for four years, being a heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States. I spent countless hours in my West Wing office, footsteps away from the Oval Office. I spent countless hours in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room. I know what the job is. And I know what it requires,” Harris said.
Many attendees told CBS News they would support her if she chooses to do so, including Adolphus Lacey, the pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, where Sharpton worships.
“I would support her because I still think that we could use her voice. Her voice is needed for such a time as this, and it shouldn’t be a one-and-done,” Lacey said. “I mean, some of these people have been running for president all their life. I mean, Donald Trump ran for president three times. I think she did a good job for, what, 101 days running, but if you give her a full time to be able to articulate and earn people’s votes, I think she’ll do well.”
Patricia Felder, an attendee from Philadelphia, told CBS News, “I supported her before and I will support her again. I think those who haven’t supported her initially regret it.”
Should Harris run again, Felder said she hopes Harris is “bolder” this time around.
“I would hope that she comes with a lot more audacity – staying intentional and bold in her messaging, especially, should be easier because a lot of naysayers are now feeling the effects of the Trump presidency,” she said.
President Trump was, in a way, the focal point of this year’s conference, as the speakers and attendees alike repeatedly expressed their concern about the current administration’s actions and policies.
“There has been a breach in every area you could think of: breaching laws, breaching human rights, breaching voting rights. Everything has been broken. Everything’s been smashed,” Dr. Elaine Duvall, an attendee from New York, said about the current state of the country. “I think that we need a time of reparation. A time of repair. A time of rebuilding.”
Mr. Trump’s handling of the conflict in Iran was a particularly prominent subject. “Trump’s war of choice” was the phrase frequently used to describe the war with Iran by these Democratic leaders, from Shapiro to Harris.
“I think we have to acknowledge this was a war of choice by the president of the United States, a war I did not support, and a war where the president never came to the American people and said, ‘this is our objective,'” Shapiro said on Wednesday.
In her remarks, Harris touted her foreign policy experience and the insight she gained while serving as vice president.
“I met with over 150 world leaders, presidents, prime ministers, chancellors and kings, many of them multiple times, and formed relationships. I have traveled the globe many times over,” Harris said. “One thing that I realized is that the relationship that we have with allied nations, yes, can be forged and reinforced by the leaders, but I will tell you, the true strength of those relationships is the people of those nations. feeling some level of identity and connection with the people of our country and that includes the people in this room.”
Duvall told CBS News that of all the potential ’28 contenders that spoke at this year’s convention, she thinks Harris has the most experience to be president.
“I think more than any other presidential candidate, she was prepared,” Duvall reasoned. “She was a senator, she was an attorney general of a very large state, she was vice president and as she said here today, she knows the job, she knows what to do. It wouldn’t be on-the-job training.”
Other attendees said that while they believed the former vice president deserved consideration, they wanted to meet and hear from other potential presidential contenders.
“It is still early,” a gentleman from Ohio said in the hallway of the Sheraton Hotel when asked about a possible third Harris presidential bid.
A former senior Harris campaign official who spoke to CBS News on Friday said that while many Democrats were grateful for her historic run in 2024 under a contracted timeframe, many in the party were now ready to move on.
“People don’t like looking in the rearview mirror,” the former Harris official said. “She has a steep uphill climb.”
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When asked by Politico if she thinks the nominee in 2028 should be a Democrat who didn’t serve in the Biden administration, mentioning Buttigieg and Harris, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, said, “I think there’s a lot of baggage there.”
Slotkin, who has also raised speculation that she is considering running in 2028 after a recent trip to Iowa, added, “I don’t know if it’s insurmountable, but I know that the strongest feeling I get from a room like this, from being in Columbus, being in Iowa, being in Wisconsin, Idaho, Kansas, is that people want something new.”
Harris is set to hold events in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia this coming week, bolstering support from the Democratic Party’s base of Black voters in the South and fueling further speculation that she’s committed to running in 2028.
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