This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
LOS ANGELES: Kamala Harris has not announced another presidential campaign. Still, a fight over her political future is already taking shape in California, where some of the donors and power brokers who helped fuel her rise are questioning whether they would support her again.
The latest warning came from former Democratic National Committee fundraiser Lindy Li, who told Fox News that major donors are unlikely to back Harris in another White House campaign. Li argued that political contributors increasingly view donations as a “business proposition” and may hesitate to reinvest in candidates they believe failed to deliver.
Li has become an outspoken critic of Harris and the Democratic Party, meaning her assessment should not be treated as proof that Democratic donors as a group have abandoned the former vice president. But her criticism comes alongside separate reporting showing real hesitation among some former Harris donors, fundraisers and political allies.
For California Democrats, that debate carries an added complication: Harris may eventually find herself competing for money and loyalty with another nationally known politician from her own political backyard.
California Could Become Harris’ First 2028 Battleground
But many of those relationships could be tested if California Gov. Gavin Newsom also moves toward 2028.
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a longtime California political power broker with connections to both Harris and Newsom, also told ABC News that he currently considered Newsom the more viable candidate, reasoning that Harris would enter another campaign carrying the political baggage of her 2024 defeat.
That does not mean Harris has lost her fundraising base.
Tom Nides, a former Biden administration official who helped raise money for Harris in 2024, told ABC News that she could still generate substantial grassroots support. He argued that wealthy donors become less decisive when a candidate can attract large numbers of smaller contributions. He said major donors could return if they became convinced Harris could win.
The emerging California divide therefore looks less like a total donor revolt and more like an early competition for political confidence.
The $1 Billion Question From 2024 Has Not Disappeared.
Money is at the center of the conversation because Harris’ 2024 presidential operation was enormous.
Fox News reported that Li pointed to roughly $2.5 billion in spending involving Harris’ campaign operation and Future Forward, the major super PAC supporting her candidacy. Federal filings cited by the outlet showed Harris’ principal campaign committee reported about $1.18 billion in disbursements during the 2023-24 election cycle.
Those figures require an important distinction. A presidential campaign and an outside super PAC are legally separate organizations, meaning Harris did not personally control all money spent by outside groups supporting her.
Still, the amount of financial firepower surrounding the Democratic ticket was extraordinary.
Harris’ campaign spent more than $1 billion during the roughly 15 weeks between her emergence as the Democratic nominee and the 2024 election. Some former fundraisers said the experience made them less enthusiastic about committing large amounts to another Harris campaign.
That changes the central fundraising question.
Harris has already demonstrated an ability to raise enormous sums of money. If she runs again, the challenge may be convincing donors that another investment would produce a different electoral result after she lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump. Trump won both the popular vote and Electoral College in that contest.
Harris, meanwhile, has made clear that another campaign remains possible.
Asked about 2028 during an April appearance at the National Action Network convention in New York, she responded, “I might, I might. I’m thinking about it.” Harris said her decision would ultimately involve determining who could best serve the American people.
This Is Becoming a Bigger Fight Over the Democratic Party
The Harris donor debate is unfolding during a wider argument over what Democrats should look like heading toward 2028.
Li blames some of the party’s problems on what she considers a move too far toward progressive and socialist politics. That is Li’s political judgment, not an established explanation for Democratic fundraising or election results, and the party remains deeply divided over its ideological direction.
Recent elections have made that debate harder to ignore.
Progressive candidates in Michigan and Wisconsin are being watched as important tests of whether populist, Bernie Sanders-style politics can succeed in competitive states. Abdul El-Sayed’s Michigan Democratic Senate primary victory, in particular, was viewed as a significant win for the party’s progressive wing and a setback for establishment figures and major donors who supported his opponent.
That puts Harris in an unusual position.
She remains one of the most recognizable Democrats in the country, with experience as vice president, a national fundraising network and firsthand knowledge of running a presidential campaign. But she would enter 2028 as a former nominee facing demands inside her own party for something different.
And nowhere could that tension become more visible than California.
If Harris and Newsom both pursue the presidency, the state that helped launch Harris onto the national stage could become one of the first battlegrounds of the 2028 race, long before voters cast a ballot.
The opening contest would be over donors, endorsements and political loyalty.
Li’s warning does not prove major Democratic donors have collectively rejected Harris. But combined with the concerns voiced by other former supporters, it exposes a genuine challenge.
If Harris decides to run again, she will have to convince Democrats that 2024 should be viewed as experience rather than disqualification.
And before she can ask America for another vote, she may have to persuade some of California’s most influential donors to write another check.
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