Kamala Harris’ comeback tour: Former vice president re-enters the campaign and flirts with running again

Former vice president Kamala Harris landed in the state of Mississippi on Thursday at the start of a tour to help Democratic candidates in the final stretch of the midterm campaign. The series of campaign events, which began the previous day in Nevada and will continue in the coming days in Georgia, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, also serves as a thermometer for measuring the enthusiasm of potential voters for the notion of Harris running again for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028. That would be four years after her defeat by Donald Trump following a brief and disappointing 107-day surprise run for the White House.

Harris took part in a rally at a high school in the small town of Columbus to back Scott Colom’s campaign. The 43-year-old lawyer — currently the district attorney — is running for the Senate in a race that, 12 days before voters head to the polls and against all expectations, has suddenly become competitive because of a mix of factors making these elections an uphill battle for Republicans: Trump’s unpopularity, the high cost of living, fuel prices and the war in Iran. All seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are being contested; polls show Democrats hope to retake both chambers to block the second half of the next legislative term.

Colom is running against Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has been Mississippi’s senator since 2018. She has Trump’s endorsement, and his visit is scheduled here next Monday. It is unclear whether that presence will help the Republican hopeful.

It also does not seem wise to bet everything on Harris’ presence being what Democratic candidates need right now. The wound from the traumatic defeat two years ago that prevented her from becoming the first woman in the White House remains raw, and some Democratic politicians such as Mary Peltola, who is running for Senate in Alaska, and Josh Turek of Iowa, have declined that help. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, however, welcomed her to his state, Michigan.

On Thursday in Mississippi — a state where Trump defeated her by 22 points — Harris displayed the same energy and abundance of smiles as in her short 2024 campaign. In a brief appearance of about 10 minutes, she urged those present, 12 days before the vote, to “turn that anger into action” after a year and a half spent “looking at the TV saying words we don’t say in church, sometimes throwing things.” She described Trump’s government as “the most callous, corrupt and incompetent presidential administration we have ever experienced.”

The line for the rally began forming four hours before the scheduled start with the arrival of Richard Morgan, a Columbus resident. African American women predominated, people like Sharon, who ran inside to claim a spot and said of Harris: “I would love for her to use today to announce she’s running again. It would be historic!”

In a poll of about 15 attendees, the idea of a second chance for the former vice president won by a landslide. John Klosterman described her as “a woman who is always on the right side of important issues.” Charles Hunner warned: “She was my candidate and, hopefully, she will be in 2028.” Valerie Jackson did not doubt her ability to win “as long as Elon Musk doesn’t get in her way.”

Around 1,000 people had registered for the event, according to the Colom’s campaign, which was playing at home. The young politician is not only from Columbus; he also attended the local high school where, on Thursday, he presented himself to his community as Mississippi’s hope of electing a Democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in 44 years. An electronic sign welcomed him with a vintage photo (“class of 2001”) on the Falcons’ basketball court, a local sporting pride after two consecutive state championships.

If he defeats Hyde-Smith — whose campaign this week received Republican injections of cash given the turn the race has taken in its final days — Colom would be only the third Black senator in the history of the nation’s poorest state and the one with the highest proportion of Black residents (almost 39%). In his platform he promises to raise wages, lower the cost of living and improve healthcare in Mississippi. In his remarks on Thursday he repeated those themes, but especially the slogan he kept returning to: “Mississippi matters.”

“It’s now or never,” said Joanna Collins, a student at Mississippi State University voting for the first time in these elections. “Everything is lined up for Colom, although the problem, as always in Mississippi, may be that people don’t get out and vote, no matter how badly things are going with Trump.” At the start of the event, a reverend led the crowd in a shared prayer asking people to vote so the state could “prosper” with their decision on November 3.

Harris’s and Colom’s day began with a roundtable on health care in the rural communities of Clarksdale, the Delta town that is the cradle of the blues. It is the place where Bessie Smith died and where legend says Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil, and it was also a setting for the Oscar-winning film The Sinners. With just under 14,000 inhabitants, it is a Democratic stronghold — a blue dot in the vast red ocean of this Southern state.

Harris’ comeback tour will make its next stop on Saturday in New Hampshire, alongside Chris Pappas, a Senate candidate. Whether this tour will hold together through 2028 and, above all, whether its final performance will be at the White House remains to be seen.

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