Kamala Har­ris escapes to Hawaii as Democ­rats reel from 2024 loss­es

As Democ­rats reel from a Repub­li­can takeover of Wash­ing­ton, Har­ris trav­eled to Kalaoa, Hawaii, on Tues­day evening, cap­ping a post­elec­tion peri­od in which she has shift­ed back into the back­ground of the Biden admin­is­tra­tion.

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, who ced­ed the spot­light after he was pres­sured into end­ing his 2024 reelec­tion bid, has resumed his role on the world stage with inter­na­tion­al meet­ings at the G20 and Asia-Pacif­ic Eco­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion this past week. He will cel­e­brate his 82nd birth­day on Wednes­day, and some of his allies say Har­ris may be all but for­got­ten.

“She’s nev­er been the par­ty leader,” one Demo­c­ra­t­ic strate­gist close to the White House said. “She couldn’t get through a pri­ma­ry on her own, so it’s fit­ting that she’d slink off to Hawaii while the par­ty falls apart.”

Har­ris has appeared in pub­lic just a hand­ful of times fol­low­ing her 2024 elec­toral loss to Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump, includ­ing her Nov. 6 con­ces­sion speech at Howard Uni­ver­si­ty.

“The out­come is not what we want­ed, not what we fought for, not what we hoped for, but hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always turn bright as long as we nev­er give up and as long as we keep fight­ing,” she said.

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“It’s OK to be sad or dis­ap­point­ed, but please know it’s going to be OK,” Har­ris con­tin­ued. “Some­times the fight takes a while. Don’t ever give up.”

Har­ris also joined Biden for a pair of Vet­er­ans Day memo­r­i­al ser­vices at Arling­ton Nation­al Ceme­tery, where First Lady Jill Biden appeared to give her the cold shoul­der and reignit­ed nar­ra­tives of ten­sions between the Biden and Har­ris teams in the process.

The vice pres­i­dent was next seen at the White House the fol­low­ing Tues­day, where she was greet­ed by admin­is­tra­tion staffers in between the West Wing and Eisen­how­er Exec­u­tive Office Build­ing ahead of a lunch with Biden.

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Harris’s sched­ule also gives lit­tle insight into what offi­cial duties the vice pres­i­dent has done over the past two weeks, read­ing sim­ply, “The Vice Pres­i­dent will be in Wash­ing­ton, DC where she will receive brief­in­gs and con­duct inter­nal meet­ings with staff. These meet­ings will be closed press.”

Harris’s office declined to answer ques­tions about her trip to Hawaii, what she and Sec­ond Gen­tle­man Doug Emhoff would be doing there, and when they would be return­ing.

Democ­rats are cur­rent­ly work­ing to approve as many of Biden’s judi­cial nom­i­nees as pos­si­ble before sur­ren­der­ing con­trol of the Sen­ate, and the vice pres­i­dent would be need­ed in Wash­ing­ton to cast her tiebreak­ing votes if nec­es­sary.

“She will def­i­nite­ly be avail­able for any tie votes,” a Har­ris senior aide told NBC News. Anoth­er aide said those votes would wait until Decem­ber when Har­ris returns from Hawaii.

The break out of the pub­lic eye comes after an untra­di­tion­al 100-day cam­paign for the pres­i­den­cy that end­ed in total defeat.

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Nation­al pun­dits have thor­ough­ly dis­sect­ed her cam­paign, and crit­ics on both sides of the aisle have open­ly ques­tioned her campaign’s mis­man­age­ment of a his­toric war chest. Har­ris report­ed­ly spent more than $1.5 bil­lion in just 15 weeks on the cam­paign trail.

The Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er pre­vi­ous­ly report­ed that Harris’s spend­ing bonan­za, an aver­age in excess of $100 mil­lion per week, includ­ed upwards of $654 mil­lion on adver­tis­ing. Backed by celebri­ties who showed up at her events, Harris’s cam­paign paid $1 mil­lion for Oprah Winfrey’s Har­po Pro­duc­tions as the talk show mogul cam­paigned for her.

None of Harris’s cam­paign short­falls, how­ev­er, have quelled spec­u­la­tion about her polit­i­cal future.

A poll pub­lished by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia Berkeley’s Insti­tute of Gov­ern­men­tal Stud­ies found Har­ris atop a list of pos­si­ble 2026 Cal­i­for­nia guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­dates. Out­go­ing Gov. Gavin New­som (D‑CA) has been float­ed as a Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial can­di­date for 2028.

Har­ris, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as California’s junior U.S. sen­a­tor and the dis­trict attor­ney of San Fran­cis­co, earned 33% sup­port in the UCB poll, far out­pac­ing the sec­ond-place 13% post­ed by Rep. Katie Porter (D‑CA).

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A poll pub­lished by Ech­e­lon Insights on Mon­day found Har­ris to be Democ­rats’ over­whelm­ing favorite to be nom­i­nee again in 2028.

The vice pres­i­dent earned 41% in Echelon’s poll, com­pared to 8% for New­som, 7% for Gov. Josh Shapiro (D‑PA), 6% for Trans­porta­tion Sec­re­tary Pete Buttigieg, and 6% for Harris’s own run­ning mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D‑MN).