ROOKE: Kamala Harris Kisses The Ring In Clearest Sign She’s Not Done Yet

Interesting 2028 presidential election, alexandria ocasio cortez, democratic party, democratic socialists, kamala harris, zohran mamdani admin July 4, 2026 0 Comments

ROOKE: Kamala Harris Kisses The Ring In Clearest Sign She’s Not Done Yet

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is making calculated moves to align herself with the Democratic Party’s rising power center.

After a string of incredible wins over Democratic incumbents, Harris is reportedly courting the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and its growing cohort of insurgent candidates. Harris has signaled she is “thinking about” another presidential run in 2028. As DSA candidates rise in power, the move looks like a strategic alignment with the far-left radicals intent on controlling the Democratic Party.

The former vice president held a phone call with Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani last Thursday to discuss “the party’s future and plan a longer conversation,” Axios reported. Mamdani confirmed that he and Harris “had a brief conversation” in a Wednesday interview. This is not an insignificant move, as it comes on the back of multiple Mamdani-backed candidates, two of them with the DSA, prevailing over incumbents in the Democratic primary in New York. Mamdani has become the unofficial kingmaker of the party, and it seems Harris’ move is her way of “kissing the ring” ahead of 2028.

Additionally, Harris has recently spoken with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement Abbas Alawieh, and pro-Palestinian Democratic National Committee member James Zogby, according to Axios. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

In 2024, the Uncommitted Movement refused to endorse Harris for president after her campaign reportedly denied a request to let a Palestinian American speak at the Democratic National Convention. Alawieh, a Democratic candidate for Michigan’s state Senate District 2, said he voted for Harris in 2024. He told Axios that Harris was the one who requested the meeting with him.

Alawieh said that when talking to Harris, he “reiterated my longstanding position that American tax dollars should never be used to target civilians or destroy entire communities.”

The DSA backed roughly 150 candidates in the 2026 Democratic Primary, notching several major upsets. In New York’s 13th Congressional District, DSA member Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated longtime incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat. In Colorado’s 1st District, Melat Kiros, an Ethiopian-born democratic socialist, ousted 15-term Rep. Diana DeGette.

Chevalier famously criticized Harris in 2021, after the then-vice president told potential illegal immigrants not to come to the U.S., saying, “I have no nuance to add. F*ck Kamala Harris.” When Espaillat asked Chevalier to answer for her disparaging comments about Harris during their primary debate, she apologized.

“To Vice President Kamala Harris, I sincerely apologize, because you did not deserve that language. And I would have loved to have seen a black woman president,” Chevalier said. (RELATED: Democrats Losing Critical Voting Bloc As Must-Win Senate Race Heats Up)

These victories, alongside DSA-backed successes in Los Angeles and elsewhere, sent shockwaves through the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Their campaigns often centered around issues like Palestine, immigration policy, and systemic reform agendas that directly challenged the establishment lane Harris occupied in 2024.

The problem for Harris is that these candidates are no longer living on the fringe. Their electoral success represents a formidable bloc Harris must court if she hopes to unify the party in a future presidential primary.

For anyone doubting Harris’s future ambitions, her courtship of the DSA and others on the left provides the clearest indicator yet that she hasn’t left politics behind.

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