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Former Vice President Kamala Harris is revving up her involvement in the midterms. While some Democrats are eager to embrace her, others want her to steer clear.

Harris is planning to attend a canvass launch with Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford for his gubernatorial bid next month in Las Vegas, his campaign told POLITICO.

“As anyone who is interested in 2028 should do, Kamala Harris will be coming through. We are a pivotal state in the presidential election,” Ford said in an interview in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “2028 starts right now in 2026.”

Harris’ plans to visit Nevada signal yet another step into the fray of the midterms — and the national political stage. On Tuesday, she publicly backed Rep. Chris Pappas in his Senate bid in New Hampshire, a must-hold seat for the party in a state that Harris narrowly won in 2024. And she waded into three House races, two Democratic-leaning districts in her home state and a solidly Republican one in Tennessee.

Harris had kept a relatively low profile so far on the campaign trail. Some Democrats prefer it that way.

Iowa’s two most prominent Democratic candidates have said they do not want Harris to campaign for them. Alaska’s Democratic Senate nominee rejected a fundraising solicitation Harris sent on her behalf. And a swing-district Democrat in Wisconsin and a long-shot Senate hopeful in Kansas both told POLITICO they would prefer Harris keep her distance.

“I received 9,000 more votes than Harris in 2024,” Rebecca Cooke, the Democratic challenger to Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden in western Wisconsin, said in a statement when asked by POLITICO. “I don’t need anyone to come and campaign with me in my district. I do the work of building relationships — including across the aisle — on my own.”

The arm’s-length treatment isn’t necessarily surprising: red-state and rural Democrats have long been hesitant to tie themselves to national Democratic figures. They are increasingly distancing themselves now as polls show the Democratic brand remains underwater even as President Donald Trump’s own standing with voters continues to drop. Trump’s approval hit a weak 36 percent in a recent poll conducted by The Economic and YouGov, while a separate survey from the pollster showed over 56 percent of registered voters disapproved of the Democratic Party.

Harris’ favorability numbers at the end of last year only stood at 42 percent. As the party’s most recent presidential nominee, she is one of its most prominent avatars.

A Cooke campaign aide, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said Cooke’s team has turned down campaign offers from other national Democrats as she focuses on making a personal case to voters in one of the party’s top target districts this fall.

Cooke hasn’t warded off everyone, however: During her primary she leaned heavily into support from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), featuring him in campaign ads; his team also sent texts to help turn out voters. She also has accepted endorsements from potential 2028 candidates like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.).

Other high-profile Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, have similarly stayed relatively low-key with their own endorsements so far. He’s faced some Democratic distancing himself: Stefany Shaheen, who is running for a House seat in New Hampshire, emphasized her support from Granite Staters when asked about a fundraising email the governor sent on her behalf last month.

Harris, like other potential presidential candidates, needs to build a network of friends and favors — much of which she has already developed from her own runs for Senate, the White House and her four years as vice president — while staying relevant. She retains a powerful fundraising network that can help down-ticket Democrats, too.

But in many parts of the country where she lost, her involvement could be a drag for Democrats otherwise facing strong political tailwinds in the midterms.

“It’s all good,” Eduardo Negrón, a spokesperson for Harris, said in a statement. “Vice President Harris will continue to raise money and travel on behalf of candidates in races where she can help make a difference. With Trump so unpopular and our deep bench of strong candidates, we are now seeing deeply red states in play this cycle. The Vice President believes we should be ruthless about competing everywhere and that means giving candidates in tough races the space to do whatever it takes to win.”

Harris’ recent ramp-up marks a shift from what had been an otherwise quiet midterms strategy that has focused primarily on standing by close preexisting relationships. It’s strikingly different from other potential 2028 presidential candidates who’ve endorsed more widely and been more prominent on the campaign trail.

One of the few times she did weigh into a contested primary was for Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) — a co-chair of her 2024 presidential campaign — in her bid for Texas Senate. The vice president’s support came in the form of a robo-call released just days before the primary rather than an in-person appearance, and she quickly backed James Talarico shortly after he won the nomination. She also threw her support behind Michigan Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed after a bruising primary that has left Democrats scrambling to project unity heading into the general election.

Red-state Democrats have been particularly pointed in their calls to keep Harris out of their races.

“In Kansas, you’re trying to reach 45 percent of the state who are Republicans and a lot of really good people who are Republicans, but their vantage point or their worldview may be a bit different than Kamala Harris’,” Kansas Democratic Senate nominee Adam Hamilton told POLITICO. “What I’m looking at is I’m really mounting a very Kansas-centered campaign, and I’m out speaking, I tell people I’m running as an independent-minded Democrat.”

Hamilton is running an uphill battle in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. The state is seen as potentially somewhat in play amid the ongoing war in Iran, trade wars with close allies and a persistent cost of living crisis that have cut especially deep in agricultural territory.

But that doesn’t mean a coastal Democrat like Harris would play well in the conservative heartland.

“Having somebody from California come in and try to tell Kansans who they should vote for is a pretty bad idea,” Hamilton said. Harris has not endorsed in the race.

Other Democrats have taken similar tones toward Harris in recent days. In an interview with POLITICO, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand said he would not want the former vice president to appear with him as he runs for governor, adding that the country needed “new leadership.”

State Rep. Josh Turek, speaking with reporters after an event for his Senate campaign in Cedar Rapids, broadcasted an even more blunt answer to the same question: “No,” he said flatly, letting out a laugh.

A similar scenario played out in Alaska last month. After Harris’ team sent a fundraising email for Senate candidate and former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) on the eve of the state’s primary election, a spokesperson for Peltola’s campaign told a local Alaska television station that she “isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48.” Peltola’s campaign did not respond to POLITICO’s questions on the matter.

Campaign spokespeople for several battleground Senate Democrats locked in high-profile races, including El-Sayed in Michigan, Troy Jackson in Maine and Roy Cooper in North Carolina — who have all received her support — declined to respond to requests for comment about how involved they would like the former vice president to be in their races.

Harris’ support isn’t an albatross for all Democrats, however. For some, her endorsement is welcome — and they want her out on the trail.

One key battleground Democrat (and a potential 2028 rival), Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, embraced Harris’ support with open arms. “Senator Ossoff is grateful for Vice President Harris’ help and support in his re-election campaign,” campaign spokesperson Ellie Dougherty said in a statement, adding that he would welcome her to Georgia to campaign alongside him or on his behalf.

Harris lost Georgia, but the rightward swing in the state was the smallest of any battleground — in large part because of a population boom in metro Atlanta and the large share of Black voters.

And in deep-blue Massachusetts, former Biden White House aide Dan Koh won an open House primary on Tuesday after running aggressively on support from Harris and President Joe Biden. Koh sought their support and featured them prominently in a campaign ad and in social media videos. He said scheduling didn’t work out for them to hit the trail, though.

“I will never run away from two people I admire greatly, who I believe did a lot of good for this country,” Koh said last week.

Jessica Piper contributed to this report.

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Sports broadcaster Stephen A. Smith has been bouncing around cable TV but insists he’s staying out of one arena: the political one.

The outspoken ESPN personality isn’t staying away from talking politics — far from it. But Smith told POLITICO in an interview airing Thursday that he’s not running for president in 2028 in his firmest rejection yet of speculation that has surrounded him for the past year.

“The minute I announce that I’m running, I would be taken off the air,” Smith said in an interview on The Conversation with Dasha Burns. “I wouldn’t be able to work, and I would lose a contract that I worked my entire career for, you know, and I’m not giving that up.”

He left no wiggle room: “As long as the rules are what they are and they can’t be circumvented, it’s not something that I’m going to think about.”

That didn’t mean Smith, who is famous for his brash takes, didn’t have a few about Democrats and Republicans.

Smith, who has repeatedly doled out criticism of both parties, offered blunt advice for Democrats seeking a path back to power: Purge the Democratic Socialists of America and restrain the party’s progressive flank.

The Democrats, he said, should only welcome people who “march lockstep” with the party. “We should never want to hear anything about the Democratic Party being a ‘big tent,’” he said.

Asked how Democrats should handle the progressives, Smith said: “Tell them to sit their ass down and get with the program.”

He also warned that Democrats’ association with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker would “come back to haunt” the party. Smith said he would have Piker on his show “if necessary,” and then “grill him about the things that he said and why.”

Smith’s remarks come as Democrats have been distancing themselves from Piker, who played an active role in supporting Abdul El-Sayed for Senate in Michigan and has come under fire for commentary that has included suggesting that American Jewish support for Israel could lead someone to “take action” against Jews in the U.S.

The ESPN star also had some praise for President Donald Trump, crediting him for recognizing “that most voters believe our politics and our politicians are full of shit” in a way that Democrats have been unable to articulate as well.

“He speaks a language that the electorate, no matter who they are or what side of the aisle they are on, can relate to, even if they despise him,” Smith said, adding that there are millions of voters out there who “want chaos” and “the evisceration of rules and decorum and regulations.”

Looking ahead to 2028, Smith named Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as his top prospect for Democrats, calling him “big time,” and saying “[his] record is head and shoulders above anybody right now.”

Smith also praised Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, but thinks electing him could be a challenge following Barack Obama’s presidency.

On the Republican side, Smith dismissed a potential run by media personality Tucker Carlson, noting he doesn’t think the former Fox host could secure enough support from independents.

On the other hand, Smith argued that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be a stronger candidate than Vice President JD Vance.

Vance is “an individual that tries to be too like Trump,” Smith told POLITICO. “And I don’t think there’s — the level of authenticity that you’re wishing to see from candidates; I don’t think he’s that guy. I think that Marco Rubio is an authentic individual.”

Smith even noted he would consider voting for Rubio himself, saying it depends “on the candidate on the left.”

Watch the whole interview on the latest episode of “The Conversation.”

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