# Kamala should run for president again in 2028 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** kamala-harris\ **Created:** [December 18, 2024, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774 "2024-12-18T02:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/341 "2025-07-31T18:13:33Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > When was the last time a President voluntarily chose to retire? Joe Biden. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/342 "2025-07-31T18:19:31Z")
Before Biden, you have to go back to LBJ and Truman. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/343 "2025-07-31T18:22:15Z")
I suppose technically Truman, but his ascension in 1945 would mean that he couldn’t get elected after 1948 today. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/344 "2025-07-31T18:22:21Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Before Biden, you have to go back to LBJ and Truman. Ford, also, but there is a special case. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/345 "2025-07-31T18:27:11Z")
Biden wasn’t really “voluntary”. Technically he could have chosen to stay in the race, but it wasn’t exactly his own idea to drop out. Likewise, LBJ didn’t run for re-election because it was obvious he couldn’t win, and might not even have been re-nominated. I think Truman is the answer, though I understand he was also pretty unpopular by the end of his second term (he was in office when the 22nd Amendment was ratified, so he was grandfathered in and could have run again). ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/346 "2025-07-31T18:27:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Ford, also, but there is a special case. Huh? Ford did run for re-election, and lost. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/347 "2025-07-31T18:31:41Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > I think Truman is the answer, though I understand he was also pretty unpopular by the end of his second term (he was in office when the 22nd Amendment was ratified, so he was grandfathered in and could have run again). Even Truman didn’t withdraw until after the New Hampshire primary in 1952; his advisors were telling him he wasn’t popular, but it took getting trounced by Estes Kefauver in New Hampshire to convince Truman to step aside. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/348 "2025-07-31T18:37:34Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Huh? Ford did run for re-election, and lost. Reluctantly. Wiki- _Ford reluctantly agreed to run for office in 1976, but first he had to counter a challenge for the Republican party nomination. Former [Governor of California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_California "Governor of California") [Ronald Reagan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan "Ronald Reagan") and the party’s [conservative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_conservatism "American conservatism") wing faulted Ford for failing to do more in [South Vietnam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam "South Vietnam"), for signing the Helsinki Accords, and for negotiating to cede the [Panama Canal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal "Panama Canal")._ But yes, you are right, he did try to run. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/349 "2025-07-31T19:19:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > > Huh? Ford did run for re-election, and lost. > > Reluctantly. Pretty much anyone who loses does so reluctantly. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/350 "2025-09-10T15:10:24Z")
Kamala Harris: 107 Days, Her Book on the Election Campaign, is to be Published Sept. 23 > Editor’s Note: The biggest surprise in Kamala Harris’s forthcoming account of her rough-and-ready, intense, and absurdly condensed campaign for president, _107 Days_, may be that it is filled with surprises. I read it last week, expecting lawyerly calibration and discretion. This careful Harris is present, but so too is another Harris: blunt, knowing, fervent, occasionally profane, slyly funny. As you will see in the following excerpt—and throughout this newsworthy book—she no longer seems particularly interested in holding back. > > _107 Days_ begins with the events of July 21, 2024, the very late date on which Joe Biden told his vice president, and the world, that he would exit the presidential race. The chapter below details the events of July 24, as well as some of Harris’s acute observations about the absurdity and unprecedented nature of that political moment. _107 Days_ will be released by Simon & Schuster on September 23. > **[The Constant Battle](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/09/kamala-harris-107-days-excerpt/684150/)** > > The first excerpt from 107 Days ---
**Author:** ![Magniankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@Magniankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magniankh)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/351 "2025-09-10T23:47:17Z")
Kamala was ok, but the Democratic party is overall extremely impotent. They can’t beat an overweight, orange, uneducated, narcissistic, entitled rich boy? It seems easy to me…offer every American household $1000 more a month with a combination of higher wages, more affordable healthcare, more affordable goods, with laws against planned obsolescence, and infrastructure bills to promote jobs. We need to move away from social issues and get the government back to talking about economy issues. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/352 "2025-09-11T02:15:55Z")
> [@Magniankh](#): > > They can’t beat an overweight, orange, uneducated, narcissistic, entitled rich boy? There’s not one of those characteristics that would AFAIK make a political candidate easy to beat. And I’m wondering whether Churchill had all the characteristics except orange. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/353 "2025-09-11T07:03:32Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > And I’m wondering whether Churchill had all the characteristics except orange. Not even his worst enemies would call the author of “A History of the English-Speaking Peoples” uneducated. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/354 "2025-09-11T08:25:35Z")
Vice presidents just don’t seem to do very well when they run for president. They find themselves in the awkward position of needing to distance themselves from the previous president yet still support him. Bush Sr. made it but, he was following an enormously popular Ronald Reagan. People wanted a third term but Bush was as close as they could get. He also had only one term. Other recent vice presidents that ran were Gore, Ford, Humphrey. They lost. Nixon lost his first attempt. Truman won but a real squeaker. The nation was still in shock from the Kennedy assassination when Johnson won in 1964. His real test came four years later and he didn’t make it. The reasons for selecting a vice president do not always have a lot to do with how good they would be as president. Balancing the ticket is important. They need to be different but then spend four or eight years being the same. After that, it’s time to appeal to the voters. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/355 "2025-09-11T10:20:53Z")
As well, while Veep, they need to sort of hide the fact they’re an ambitious politician and mostly be a competent administrator of [whatever]. Meanwhile, during the same term, all the various ambitious governors and senators & reps can do their damnedest to create and maintain a high profile in public as one of, if not the, heir apparent of their party. Obviously we’re not in normal times, but contrast the current public profile of Vance, DeSantis, and Rubio or Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/356 "2025-09-11T11:44:02Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > Vice presidents just don’t seem to do very well when they run for president. > {…} > Other recent vice presidents that ran were Gore, Ford, Humphrey. So not very well that folks don’t even remember us. ~ Walter Mondale ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/357 "2025-09-11T16:00:16Z")
So no comments on that extract? My impression is that she is going to follow Hilary Clinton and blame lots of other people (but not herself) for defeat. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/358 "2025-09-11T16:23:03Z")
Eh, that was obvious several months ago when news of her book first came out. I’m still convinced that had Biden announced in 2023 that he wasn’t running there would be no way she would have done any better than she did in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/359 "2025-09-11T16:25:01Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > My impression is that she is going to follow Hilary Clinton and blame lots of other people (but not herself) for defeat. I don’t see much to blame her for. She did a good job. Blame the voters. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774/360 "2025-09-11T16:40:07Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So no comments on that extract? My impression is that she is going to follow Hilary Clinton and blame lots of other people (but not herself) for defeat. Well, overall, I think she realizes that her political career is effectively over. I read through the extract: what she seems to be blaming others in the Biden administration for is: (a) not defining her vice-presidential role well, possibly for fear of her overshadowing Biden (b) not coming to her defense when she was attacked by the right (b) is, IMO, spurious, because MAGAs wouldn’t listen to anything that the Biden White House said anyway. She may well have a point with (a). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kamala-should-run-for-president-again-in-2028/1011774.md?page=19)