In O.C., ex-Vice President Harris says she’ll stay politically active

In a rare appearance after her loss in November’s presidential election, former Vice President and potential gubernatorial candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday decried the rollback of fundamental rights under President Trump, urged people to prioritize self-care and pledged to remain active in the fight to safeguard constitutional protection.

“We can’t go out there and do battle if we don’t take care of ourselves and each other,” she said at a national conference of Black women, including business owners and politicians, at an oceanfront resort in Dana Point. “I’ll see you out there. I’m not going anywhere.”

Harris is expected to decide by the end of the summer whether to enter the 2026 race for California governor to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. If she proceeds, it would jolt a contest that already has prominent Democratic candidates.

While she did not address the gubernatorial race during her eight-minute remarks, Harris suggested that she planned to remain politically active in the aftermath of her loss to Trump in November.

She has largely avoided political appearances since losing the 2024 election. She met with firefighters and volunteers in Altadena hours after attending Trump’s inauguration, and touched upon the Trump administration’s policies when she accepted an award from the NAACP in February.

Harris’ Thursday appearance was a surprise to the roughly 100 women attending the Leading Women Defined gathering. When she entered the room, they leaped to their feet, whooped, cheered and waved napkins in the air. Among the attendees was former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has reportedly been mulling a run for governor of Georgia and had been vetted to be Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.

Shorty before Harris appeared at the gathering, the group’s leader had women speak about meaningful moments during their lunchtime conversations. A woman seated next to Lance Bottoms said that the Georgian is running for governor and urged fellow attendees to hold fundraisers for her. As the crowd rose in a standing ovation, Lance Bottoms appeared overcome by emotion, placing her head in her hands.

Moments later, Harris noted that she first attended one of the group’s events in 2016, and that the nation is now in a far different place. Before she became vice president, Harris served as the San Francisco district attorney and California’s attorney general, and also in 2016 was elected to the U.S. Senate.

“Our commitment to lifting each other up, lifting up our community, lifting up our country has not changed,” Harris said. “Now what has changed since 2016: We are in the midst of seeing progress being rolled back. Policies that we birthed being rolled back.”

While Harris didn’t mention Trump by name, she was clearly referring to rollbacks of protections for minorities, women, the LGBTQ+ community among others in her remarks. She also mentioned that people and organizations are remaining silent and “capitulating” to the administration, notable language because her husband’s law firm earlier this week was the latest to strike a deal with the Trump administration and agree to conform with the president’s policies.

“There is a sense of fear that is taking hold in our country, and I understand it,” Harris said. “These are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country, and it understandably creates a great sense of fear. Because, you know, there were many things that we knew would happen, many things.”

In her most pointed public remarks since the election, she alluded to such concerns being the foundation of her 2024 presidential campaign.

“I’m not here to say, ‘I told you so,’” she said, smiling broadly, and the crowd roared. “I swore I wasn’t going to say that.”