What's Driving Kamala Harris's Midterm Endorsement Strategy?

Inside Washington

Kamala Harris has been flexing her political power in the South this year, most recently with her general election endorsement of a long-shot House candidate in Arkansas, raising the question of whether the former vice president's goal is to rack up wins in 2026--or lay the groundwork for another White House bid in 2028.

Harris on Wednesday endorsed Democratic nominee Chris Jones, an MIT-trained physicist and minister running in Arkansas's 2nd congressional district, which includes parts of Little Rock. It's considered by far the most likely Arkansas district to flip blue this year, as evidenced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's decision to add the race to its "Districts in Play" program. But that's not saying a lot: The district is R+8, or "Solid Republican," according to the Cook Political Report.

The district is represented by GOP Congressman French Hill, who has held the seat since 2015. In past elections, Hill has tried to damage his Democratic opponents by linking them to women party leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. It's no far stretch of the imagination that he could seize on the Harris endorsement to tie Jones to any of her past statements or policies that don't play well in Arkansas.

Jones isn't worried. "We're not scared, we're prepared," he told me on Wednesday. Hill, he predicts, "is gonna send out mailers that darken my skin, as if people don't already realize that I'm Black."

But why is Harris wading into an under-the-radar House race where the odds are heavily stacked against the Democratic challenger? That's unclear for now, but Jones is not the first candidate she has endorsed in the 2026 cycle. She has endorsed at least seven other candidates for Congress. She has backed two former Biden White House officials in their primary campaigns: James Martin won the Democratic nomination last week in Florida's 21st congressional district, and Dan Koh is vying for it in Massachusetts's 6th next week. And last week, Harris endorsed House candidate Richard Pan in his general election campaign against Republican turned independent Representative Kevin Kiley in California's 6th congressional district. The Cook Political Report rates the district "Solid D," and Pan is a member of the DCCC's Red to Blue program.

Harris's only primary endorsement for Senate was Texas's Jasmine Crockett, who lost, but she has given general election endorsements to Abdul El-Sayed, James Talarico, Roy Cooper, and Troy Jackson. She also hit a bump earlier this month when her Fight for the People PAC encouraged voters to donate to Mary Peltola's Senate campaign in Alaska. The National Republican Senatorial Committee immediately used the endorsement to attack Peltola, whose campaign then rebuffed the endorsement (Harris lost Alaska to President Donald Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024). Rob Sand, a Democrat running for governor in Iowa, also said he wouldn't want Harris's help on the campaign trail.

A person familiar with Harris's strategy told The New Republic that more endorsements are slated to come out as early as next week.

Karen Finney, a Democratic political commentator who worked on Clinton's 2016 campaign, doesn't see this as evidence that Harris, specifically, is seen as potentially toxic. "I think that's less about her and more about a broader environment," in which ties to the Democratic establishment can harm some candidates, she said.

Jones, for his part, welcomed Harris's support, saying that it affirms the success of his campaign so far and will direct much-needed resources to his race. The endorsement, Jones told me, "says that this campaign is one of the campaigns in the South that needs attention, resources--and by resources I mean media attention and dollars. Not to change what we're doing, but to scale what we're doing."

Harris has been paying attention to the South lately, as has the Democratic Party more broadly. She swung through the region this summer, joining a back-to-school rally in New Orleans and, earlier, in Tennessee, criticizing the state's redistricting effort as "backdoored racism." Meanwhile, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee last month voted to recommend that South Carolina come first in the 2028 primary schedule, shifting power to the state's Black voters.

"The South gets overlooked, and particularly Arkansas gets overlooked," Jones said. "I'm hopeful that national Democrats have learned a lesson that you cannot ignore the South."

Black voters, particularly in the South, have lost some of their political power as a result of the Supreme Court's voting rights decision in April, which gave GOP-led states the green light to eliminate majority-Black districts. At the same time, the decision has galvanized Black voters, who are turning out in increased numbers this midterm season. The person familiar with Harris's strategy said that she has been very focused on areas impacted by the Supreme Court's decision.

Finney said Harris's endorsements in the South could further motivate voters to show up at the ballot box. "This is an area of focus for the party, and [we're] making it clear that we are not turning our back on the South," she said. "In fact, we are reengaging."

Harris is popular among Democrats in the South, and broadly; she leads some very early 2028 polls. "Whether that transfers into a 2028 campaign, who knows?" Finney said. "It's clear that she is still someone who is popular, who people want to hear from, and care what she says and care who she endorses."

--Emma Janssen