Harris Returns to Political Life, Warning of a Constitutional Crisis

Harris Returns to Political Life, Warning of a Constitutional Crisis

 

Kamala Harris has rarely spoken out after leaving Washington in January. In her first major address since then, she acknowledged Democratic fears and praised leaders who were speaking out.

 

Laurel Rosenhall

By Laurel Rosenhall

Reporting from San Francisco

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/kamala-harris-trump-speech.html

May 1, 2025

Updated 2:15 a.m. ET

 

For the first 100 days of President Trump’s new term, Kamala Harris drifted into the recesses of political defeat back home in Los Angeles. She mulled her thoughts and pondered whether to run for California governor but, noticeably, said little about the president.

 

It wasn’t until Wednesday night that the former vice president waded back into the conversation with an affirmation of Democratic frustrations, in a speech that her camp had billed as her most extensive remarks since leaving Washington after losing her bid for the White House.

 

The nation, she warned, was at risk of a constitutional crisis if the courts and Congress fail to stand up to the president — or if the president defies them nonetheless.

 

“That is a crisis that will eventually impact everyone,” she said. “Because it would mean that the rules that protect our fundamental rights and freedoms, that ensure each of us has a say in how our government works, will no longer matter.”

 

Ms. Harris’s 16-minute address covered the familiar ground that other Democrats have sounded the alarm about for months. She was in the friendly confines of San Francisco, where she launched her political career as district attorney more than two decades ago, speaking to an organization that lifts up Democratic women running for office.

 

“It’s wonderful to be home,” Ms. Harris said as she began her speech beneath the chandeliers of a hotel ballroom.

 

It was a calculated return, streamed on Instagram and YouTube for public consumption. Ms. Harris is expected to decide by the end of the summer whether she will run for California governor in 2026, a choice that she believes would preclude her from running in the next presidential race.

 

She acknowledged her monthslong departure from public life, at one point joking, “Everybody’s asking me, ‘Well, what’ve you been thinking about these days?’” She did not once mention her aspirations for governor or president and kept her speech focused on national matters.

 

Ms. Harris’s cautious approach has long defined her political brand, lacking the firebrand style that other Democratic leaders have increasingly used to tap into the frustration that voters are feeling after the first three months of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

 

Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois urged Democrats in New Hampshire “to fight everywhere and all at once” in a speech this week that was considered an early shot across the 2028 bow. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have attracted huge crowds to their “Fighting Oligarchy” rallies in Los Angeles and Denver, while also touring Republican districts to fire up sympathetic voters.

 

Ms. Harris saluted Mr. Sanders and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, along with other Democrats who have been speaking out against Mr. Trump in recent weeks. She said that the American people would have to serve as the ultimate check on executive power if the courts and Congress could not.

 

Elsewhere in her speech, Ms. Harris said that the nation was witnessing the “swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making” at the hands of Republicans. It wasn’t so much chaos, she suggested, as it was part of the plan all along.

 

“It’s an agenda, a narrow, self-serving vision of America where they punish truth tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power, and leave everyone else to fend for themselves,” Ms. Harris said. “All while abandoning allies and retreating from the world.”

 

While she has weighed her options, Ms. Harris has taken calls from Democrats seeking her advice as they consider running for office, said her spokeswoman, Kirsten Allen.

 

So far, Ms. Harris has kept her political deliberations very close to the vest. Not since Richard Nixon in 1962 has a former vice president come home to California to run for governor, and Ms. Harris is operating on her own timetable.

 

While leading Democratic candidates are on the roster to speak at upcoming conventions of the California Labor Federation and the California Democratic Party, Ms. Harris has made no plans to attend either one. Some longtime supporters in California said they have not heard from her in months.

 

“I don’t think she’s made up her mind because I would have heard the drumbeats,” said Mark Buell, a major donor to Democrats who lives in San Francisco and has supported Ms. Harris for decades.

 

Mr. Buell was the finance chair during her first campaign in 2003, when Ms. Harris ran against the incumbent district attorney of San Francisco to become the first woman to win that office. The race inspired Ms. Harris’s supporters to form an organization, called Emerge, to recruit and train Democratic women to enter politics. Her speech in San Francisco on Wednesday was at the group’s 20th anniversary celebration.

 

More than half of the states have had female governors, but California, a trendsetter in so many respects, is not among them. Several women are running in the 2026 race, including two who attended Ms. Harris’s speech on Wednesday: Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a longtime friend of Ms. Harris’s, and Katie Porter, the former congresswoman from Orange County.

 

“The vice president will make her decision when she’s ready, and I’m sure she’ll let us know one way or the other,” said Ms. Porter, who observed late last year that Ms. Harris could have a field-clearing effect among Democrats running for governor.

 

Still, Ms. Porter said she was on hand to run her own campaign “and just make sure I can get all the way to the finish line.”

 

Because Gov. Gavin Newsom is barred by term limits from running for re-election, the race to succeed him has attracted a large field of candidates. Among them are Democrats Xavier Becerra, the health and human services secretary under President Biden, and Antonio Villaraigosa, a former mayor of Los Angeles.

 

Two prominent Republicans so far are Steve Hilton, a former Fox News host, and Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. After Ms. Harris’s speech, Mr. Hilton issued a statement calling on her to “stop dillydallying” and get in the race.

 

“You were a disaster as a presidential candidate; you’d be defending the disaster of a Democrat rule in California,” he said. “I can’t wait to have a real policy debate with you.”

 

Ms. Harris is likely to change the shape of the race if she decides to enter it. Her candidacy could cause some Democrats to drop out, while inspiring more Republicans to jump in at the chance to go up against the Democrat who lost to Mr. Trump.

 

Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.