Former Vice President Kamala Harris will make a rare public appearance this week in California, addressing an annual gathering of one of the nation’s largest networks of Democratic women elected officials just one day after President Donald Trump marks his first 100 days in office, CNN has learned.
Her Wednesday keynote speech will come at Emerge, an organization that recruits, trains and provides a community to Democratic women who want to run for office. The group says it has seen a burst of interest after Trump was reelected, with nearly 1,000 women inquiring about seeking elected office.
“Vice President Harris is the original Emerge woman,” said A’shanti F. Gholar, president and CEO of Emerge, in a statement. “She continues to be a champion for Emerge and an advocate for elevating women in elected office.”
The group was born out of Harris’ race for San Francisco district attorney in the early 2000s when her advisers saw a need for a program to train women to run for office. There are now 1,200 Emerge alumnae serving at all levels of government. Other speakers at the organization’s 20th anniversary gala include program alumnae like Rep. Abigail Spanberger who is running to be the governor of Virginia and Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, running for Senate.
Harris made news earlier this month when she spoke at the Leading Women Defined Summit and suggested she did all she could to warn the country about the implications of a second Trump presidency.
“There were many things we knew would happen,” Harris said. “I’m not here to say I told you so,” she added before laughing.
The former vice president, who lost to Trump in the November election, will give her most extensive public remarks since leaving office during the keynote at the San Francisco gala, according to a person familiar with the program. While she will honor the organization’s legacy of empowering women in politics, she’ll also deliver a pointed critique of the Trump administration.
Her speech will serve as a call to action in which she will characterize Trump’s economic policies as reckless and steer attention to what she views as the crisis facing America’s institutions. Earlier this month, she told a group of women, “Courage is contagious.” Harris is expected to double down on that theme as she seeks to inspire people to take action.
This all comes as Harris is weighing her political future — deciding between a run for governor of California in 2026 or to take another stab at the White House in 2028.
CNN previously reported, after conversations with over a dozen current and former Harris advisers and other top California Democratic players, that the only consensus around the vice president is that she likely can’t do both, since that would essentially require launching a presidential campaign soon after being sworn in as governor.
CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report
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