Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 right
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What Happened
Former Vice President Kamala Harris used an appearance at the National Urban League Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday to embrace a set of progressive structural reforms she did not campaign on during her 2024 presidential run. Speaking to the audience, Harris said the country needs “a real conversation about revisiting certain things,” specifically calling for a reexamination of the Electoral College — the system under which she lost to President Donald Trump in 2024, having also lost the popular vote. “I know this is gonna be controversial coming from me, in particular. We need to revisit the Electoral College,” she said.
Harris also voiced support for expanding the Supreme Court from nine justices to 13, aligning the number with the 13 federal judicial circuits: “We need to revisit the point of expanding the court to 13 justices like we have 13 district courts.” She had previously backed term limits for justices, but expanding the court’s membership was not part of her prior platform. In addition, she said the U.S. should revisit the question of statehood for Puerto Rico, a step beyond her earlier support for Washington, D.C. statehood.
Despite laying out this expanded policy agenda, Harris said she has not decided whether to run for president in 2028, telling the crowd, “I have not made a decision. I am fully, sincerely, focused on these midterms.” Her comments follow earlier remarks in April at the National Action Network’s 35th anniversary convention, where, when asked by Rev. Al Sharpton about a future run, she said, “I might. I might. I’m thinking about it… I’ll keep you posted.”
During the same Nashville appearance, NUL President Marc Morial asked Harris to name the most effective presidents in American history. After an initial reluctance (“Oh Marc, don’t make me do that”), she named Franklin D. Roosevelt first, praising his three terms, Social Security, his emphasis on government’s role in public health, safety and education, and noting he faced backlash for his own court-expansion effort. She then named John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, crediting Kennedy with laying groundwork that Johnson built upon, and finally added Barack Obama, citing the Affordable Care Act. Notably, she did not mention Joe Biden, her own running mate and the president she served under for four years.
How the Coverage Differs
Fox News frames the story primarily around Harris’s policy shift, presenting it as evidence of a 2028 campaign taking shape and an attempt to appeal to the party’s progressive wing. The Fox account situates the Nashville remarks within a broader narrative of Harris reportedly reaching out to figures like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and pro-Palestinian activist groups, and cites Democratic strategists who reportedly view her as the “fairly obvious” frontrunner for 2028. Fox also references Hillary Clinton’s recent comments in a Netflix series calling the Electoral College an “abomination,” using that as context for a broader Democratic reconsideration of the institution.
The New York Post, by contrast, focuses almost entirely on the moment Harris was asked to name the most effective U.S. presidents and conspicuously left Biden off her list. The Post frames this as an “awkward snub” and situates it within the known rift between Harris and Biden following her 2024 loss, recalling her past criticism that the White House communications team failed to defend her against attacks over her “border czar” role. The Post’s account is more pointed in tone, treating the presidential-rankings answer as the news hook rather than the policy proposals themselves, though it does reference her comments on FDR’s push to expand the Supreme Court in passing.
Both outlets agree on the core facts: the event was the National Urban League Conference in Nashville, Harris discussed both policy and history, and she has not committed to a 2028 run. Where they diverge is emphasis — Fox foregrounds the ideological repositioning and 2028 speculation with broader outreach context, while the Post foregrounds the personal dynamics between Harris and Biden, treating the presidential rankings answer as the more newsworthy moment.
Why It Matters
Harris’s willingness to now endorse structural changes — eliminating the Electoral College, expanding the Supreme Court to 13 seats, and broadening statehood advocacy to include Puerto Rico — marks a notable departure from her more cautious 2024 platform, when such proposals were largely avoided as politically risky. Her acknowledgment of the controversy inherent in her own position, given her loss under the current system, underscores how she is recalibrating her political identity as speculation builds around a possible second presidential campaign. Meanwhile, her omission of Biden from a list of historically effective presidents — paired with reported past criticism of his administration’s support for her — signals that tensions between the two remain unresolved, a dynamic that could shape both her standing within the party and any future campaign narrative heading into the 2028 primary contest.
Sources
Featured photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)