As she departed government on Monday, ex-Vice President Kamala Harris found herself staring at a grim political future.

Too young to retire, too big to take the Democratic National Committee chair’s job, too damaged to clear the party’s field for the 2028 presidential race.

Now she finds herself facing a return to California and pondering a bid for governor in 2026.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for a woman who emerged from her “joy”-filled convention with a small but persistent lead in the polls, then proceeded to run a cautious campaign that cratered at the end against Donald Trump, the man whom she deemed a threat to democracy.

“They had a moment and they weren’t able to capture or hold onto that moment,” said David McCuan, a political scientist at Sonoma State University who has tracked Ms. Harris’s career.

Ms. Harris spent her morning in the usual pomp of a transfer of power, riding from the White House to the Capitol with her successor, Vice President J.D. Vance.

“This is democracy in action,” she told reporters as she waited for Mr. Vance.

Last week, discussing her political future with reporters, Ms. Harris, 60, made clear she sees another act for herself.

“As you all know me because we have spent long hours, long days and months and years together, it is not my nature to go quietly into the night, so don’t worry about that,” she said.

But what that non-quiet next step is, isn’t exactly clear.

Mr. McCuan said her options to remain relevant aren’t great, at least at the national level. Chair of the Democratic National Committee, for example, would have been too big of a step-down. 

There’s been talk of her going for the California governorship, which comes open in 2026, where experts believe she would chase away most other competitors. But an aide told NPR last week that they see the governorship as too much of a step-down.

The 2028 presidential race may beckon, but Ms. Harris would have an uphill climb. Kalshi, a predictions market that allows betting on election outcomes, puts her eighth on its odds chart to win the Democratic primary. And Ms. Harris has not, so far, been outspoken on the identity crisis facing the Democratic Party.

“She’s kind of in a national political purgatory,” Mr. McCuan told The Times.

Those in Ms. Harris’s orbit say not to underestimate her, whatever she does. She’s proved to be a powerhouse fundraiser and has established a political name recognition shared only by former presidents and their spouses.

She forged a groundbreaking career as a prosecutor in San Francisco and California’s attorney general before winning the state’s Senate seat in 2016.

Since coming to Washington, though, she’s largely become a bystander in her own political career.

She flamed out in her 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, then was rescued by Joe Biden, who’d vowed to pick a Black woman as his vice presidential nominee.

Her time in the White House was largely undistinguished. She ran away from big assignments, such as border security, and instead embraced standard crowd-pleasing Democratic issues of abortion and voting rights.

Mr. Biden’s mental acuity gave her another opportunity last year, chasing him from the race late enough that Democrats had little choice but to turn to her. She quickly emerged with a lead in the polls against Mr. Trump, then squandered it.

Her approval rating tells much that same story.

Her numbers turned negative in the summer of 2021, when her border stumbles began, and remained underwater until last summer, when she saw a massive boost once it was clear she was going to be Mr. Trump’s opponent.

She got her head above water in September, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, an analysis website. By October, however, she’d squandered that goodwill. And as of late last week, she had a net unfavorable rating of 7 points.

A recent TIPP poll asked Harris voters if they would cast a ballot for her if she runs again. Nearly 20% of her backers wouldn’t commit.

Still, that’s fairly strong support from fellow Democrats. And early polling in the 2028 Democratic primary gives her the edge over the rest of the potential field.

That’s the same position as Al Gore, who was the last sitting vice president to lose his bid for the White House. He pondered another race in 2004 but nixed those plans in 2002.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.