Vice President Kamala Harris’s first move out of office is reportedly likely to involve a book deal as she weathers speculation that she will run for president again in 2028 or for governor of California in 2026.
“Kamala Harris is poised to land the biggest book deal of any vice president in history,” Keith Urbahn, president and co-founder of the literary agency Javelin, told NBC News. “But the real question isn’t the advance — it’s whether the book can redefine her for 2028.”
Harris has previously written three books: Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safer in 2009, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey in 2019, and children’s book Superheroes Are Everywhere, also in 2019.
She received a combined $556,000 for her most recent memoir and children’s book, while her first book was written right before her 2010 campaign for California attorney general.
If Harris were to write another book chronicling her 107-day 2024 presidential run, possibly including President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, it would prompt a book advance far larger than anything she has received before.
It could also present an opportunity for her to set the tone for a future presidential run. Urbahn said a postelection book could be an opportunity to “get personal.”
“There’s a version of this book that is full of platitudes but safe, and then there’s a version that reinvents her to lead a Democratic Party in need of rebuilding,” he said. “She gets a payday either way, but only the latter gets her a second shot at the presidency.”
The Daily Mail reported that Harris could get paid around $20 million for a book detailing her run and that she’s received several publishing offers.
Harris has been quiet about her future plans since losing the presidential race two months ago. She has used her remaining time to deal with California’s wildfire crisis and to pass the last pieces of policy during the final days of Biden’s administration. Unlike Biden, she has not welcomed Vice President-elect J.D. Vance to her official residence.
Vance and Harris had a strained relationship during the election cycle — the Republican called Harris “trash” close to the election, and the vice president labeled her eventual successor an “extremist.”
Her first book, Smart on Crime, drew plagiarism accusations from conservatives in the closing months of the campaign. But a plagiarism professional attributed the mistakes simply to “sloppy writing” rather than intentional copying.
Harris could run for either president again or California governor, but having the motivation could be another story.
Running to be the governor of her home state is a downgrade from running for president, though she is substantially more likely to win off name recognition alone than in another presidential race. She has already won three statewide elections in California: her first attorney general election in 2010, reelection in 2014, and to the Senate in 2016.
Some Democrats were left frustrated by the Harris campaign’s strategy and have complained that their donations were given under false pretenses.
Democratic National Committee finance official Lindy Li called Harris’s campaign a “billion-dollar disaster” and felt that donors were misled. Li later suggested that Democrats should avoid Harris’s “delusions” about running again in 2028.
Donations to her political committee, the Harris Victory Fund, have continued even though the fund is defunct and all of the money has been going to the Democratic National Committee.
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Democrats who are expected to announce a bid for the nomination in 2028, such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), were very vocal about supporting Harris in 2024 but could switch their tune as the party recalibrates following the electoral loss.
As it stands, Harris has confirmed nothing. She will exit office with Biden on Monday, as Trump and Vance are inaugurated.
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