After declining to sit down with Vice President J.D. Vance following last year’s election or invite him to Number One Observatory Circle, his new residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff greeted him and his wife, Usha, at the White House on inauguration day.

INAUGURATION DAY 2025: EVERYTHING TO KNOW AHEAD OF TRUMP TAKING OFFICE

“This is democracy in action,” Harris told reporters who were waiting with her for them at the White House’s North Portico before she was overheard extending her “congratulations” to Vance.

Harris and Emhoff later left for Los Angeles, on the first Boeing C-33 operated by an all-female U.S. Air Force crew, where they are expected to stop at a local fire station to thank firefighters amid California‘s ongoing fires and distribute food with World Central Kitchen. After that, she has plans to pen another book.

“Madam Vice President, what’s next?” one reporter asked her last week after Harris signed her ceremonial desk.

“We’re going to continue getting work done until Monday, and then I’ll keep you posted,” she replied.

Harris later tweeted, “It has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your Vice President. Stay connected with me at http://KamalaHarris.com.”

Harris’s future political “intentions” remain unclear, “but if she wants to stay active in elective politics, running for governor is just about her only option,” according to California Democratic strategist Garry South. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who she has known since they both rose up the ranks in San Francisco‘s political circles, is term-limited for the 2026 election and will likely run for president in 2028 instead.

“She can’t run for the Senate again, because both of our seats — with no term limits — are filled probably until [Alex] Padilla and [Adam] Schiff are in their ’80s,” South told the Washington Examiner. “If she did announce she was running for governor, she would no doubt be the immediate front runner and would probably amass a large war chest pretty easily.”

South contended that remained the case despite Harris’s historic Electoral College and popular vote loss to Trump last November, which the president reminded her of during his inaugural address.

“Young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural,” Trump said in the Capitol Rotunda. “We had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote, we won by millions of people.” 

For South, even California Democrats who would have preferred another presidential nominee last election cycle “would be tempted to support her just as a middle finger to Trump,” with the possibility of overlapping terms.

“Plus, we in California have another example of a sitting vice president who lost the presidential race coming home and running for governor: Richard Nixon in 1962,” he said. “He lost, but was running against an incumbent governor, whereas the 2026 race will be open.”

Although she has been caricatured for her inability to directly answer questions, Harris does have a future in “party politics and government service, if she wants it,” per University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center director Barry Burden, based in an important blue wall state that she lost.

Burden argued the California governor election “might be a less risky option” for Harris, but it would require “pivoting relatively quickly to begin mounting a gubernatorial campaign.”

INAUGURATION DAY LIVE UPDATES: DONALD TRUMP RETURNS TO THE WHITE HOUSE

While other Democrats the Washington Examiner has spoken to regarding Harris’s political future have indirectly advised her against another presidential campaign, Burden was adamant the former vice president would “be taken seriously” compared to her predecessor, ex-Vice President Mike Pence.

“A model for that path would be Walter Mondale who became the party nominee four years after finishing a single term as a VP under Jimmy Carter,” Burden told the Washington Examiner. “Mondale performed poorly as a candidate, but he was running against an incumbent seeking reelection, whereas 2028 will be an open seat.”

But Harris is not the only Democratic considering their presidential hopes and their prospects. Other potential candidates include Govs. Andy Beshar (D-KY), Wes Moore (D-MD), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Josh Shapiro (D-PA), and Gretchen Whitmer, in addition to Newsom. Other contenders include former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

Iowa Democratic official Charlie Comfort’s preferred candidate is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, though the Hawkeye State may not return to being the first-in-the-nation nominating state after former President Joe Biden reformed the calendar to promote South Carolina to be first.

“Kamala Harris is intriguing, I don’t think the door is completely closed on a political future for her,” the at-large Oskaloosa City Council member and vice president of the city’s school board told the Washington Examiner. “However, I’m not sure that that political future is a future White House bid.”

But in a previous conversation with the Washington Examiner, Democratic strategist Jim Manley encouraged Harris to first learn from her past political mistakes, including her first presidential campaign in 2020.

“If she decides to run again I hope she and her team go back and study how poorly she handled the 2020 Democratic primary,” Manley said. “From beginning to end, it was poorly run and executed — plagued by leaks and decisions on policy that really didn’t age well.”

Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos added that nobody would “blame” Harris “if she decides to do something else,” from working for a law firm, serving on a corporate board, or doing media commentary.

“She will always occupy an historic spot in American politics, and she has a wide range of options available to her both within and outside of politics,” Panagopoulos told the Washington Examiner.