NEW YORK — Vice President Kamala Harris publicly acknowledged at a National Action Network event in New York last month that she is thinking about another presidential bid. Harris has since toured the country giving speeches to state parties, developing the framework for a policy platform, and sounding out fellow Democrats about her next chapter.

Harris has also privately sought counsel from allies about her future. According to a person familiar with their conversation, she recently asked Reverend Al Sharpton for advice on her next steps.

"She is being encouraged to run by a lot of people around her and by a lot of people around the country. She is definitely getting a lot of push, and I think it will ultimately impact her decision," Sharpton said in a telephone interview.

According to a person familiar with their conversation, Sharpton told Harris that she has nothing to prove, given she was the first woman and the first woman of color elected to the vice presidency. He also told her that she should consider the possibility that her legacy might be diminished if she were to run and lose again.

Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to Donald Trump by 312 to 226 in the Electoral College and by 1.5 percentage points in the popular vote. She collected 75 million votes in that bid, the most ever by a runner-up. Her 2024 campaign was launched after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Her earlier campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination ended before the first votes were cast.

Harris has kept her national fundraising network active to help the Democratic National Committee pay off debt from her 2024 campaign. She has not discussed the committee's 2024 postmortem report with Chairman Ken Martin, and she did not know about Martin's decision to keep the report secret until after it was made.

Early polls of potential 2028 presidential candidates have shown Harris consistently leading the field for months, though some of her lead may be based on her name recognition. She is currently the leading Democrat for the 2028 presidential nomination in RealClearPolitics's latest polling aggregate, with a 9.3 percentage point edge over California Governor Gavin Newsom.