Kamala Harris had a blunt word for how Democrats have felt since she lost the White House, and she delivered it to a room full of volunteers with a long laugh and a big grin.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris returned to New Hampshire on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, headlining a get-out-the-vote phone bank at a Democratic field office in Portsmouth for U.S. Senate nominee Rep. Chris Pappas, with her husband, Doug Emhoff, the nation’s first second gentleman, beside her.
“So for the last year and a half, we have been pissed,” Harris told the volunteers. “We’ve been depressed and angry.”
“We’ve been frustrated,” she added, growing more serious. Many in the party had spent the stretch yelling at their televisions, she said. “Some of us have been throwing things.”
Harris never used President Donald Trump’s name in the stump speech. She said the founders had imagined a moment when a tyrant would hold office and supposed leaders would bend a knee to him, and she branded the current administration the “most callous, corrupt and incompetent presidential administration we have ever witnessed.”
From a Phone Bank to a Brewery
Portsmouth was the first leg of a three-city swing, her first return to the state since the 2024 presidential campaign, with 10 days to go before the Nov. 3 election. Harris poured beers at Feathered Friend Brewing in Concord, then headed to Manchester for a taping of the “My Body. My Pod.” podcast with Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. Democratic operatives turned away a reporter, Leonard Robinson, from the taping.
Also campaigning with her were Democratic gubernatorial nominee Cinde Warmington and congressional candidates Rep. Maggie Goodlander and Stefany Shaheen, the former Portsmouth city councilor running for Pappas’ House seat.
On the podcast, Harris laid out what she called structural change, and she put expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices at the top of the list. “Let’s expand it to 13 because we have 13 district courts,” she said. She misspoke: there are 13 federal circuit courts and 94 district courts. She named a hard look at the Electoral College, statehood for Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and overturning Citizens United as first priorities. “We have to be ruthless,” she said. The court has had nine justices since 1869, and Congress sets its size through legislation.
Where Pappas Breaks With Harris
Pappas does not share that goal. He said in a radio interview earlier this month that he opposes enlarging the court, warning that it would touch off an endless tug-of-war between the parties, and he floated term limits or age limits for justices instead. He also voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have fixed the number of justices at nine. In a 2020 debate, he said he believed in “one person, one vote,” though he has since opposed abolishing the Electoral College.
Republican former Sen. John E. Sununu’s campaign seized on the day. “If Chris Pappas is this partisan during an election, just imagine what he’d be like during a six-year term,” spokesman Mike Schrimpf said.
Pappas and Sununu are chasing the open seat of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a three-term Democrat. Sununu served in the Senate from 2003 to 2009 before Shaheen defeated him, and he beat former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in the Sept. 8 Republican primary. Pappas has worked to bind Sununu to Trump’s policies, arguing he would be a sure vote for the president; Sununu counters that a Republican can better pull federal money home with Trump in the White House.
A Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll shows Pappas ahead 50% to 43%, with 2% of likely voters undecided. Forecasters are split: one rates the contest a toss-up, while another says the seat is likely to stay in Democratic hands. Republicans hold a 53-45 edge in the Senate, with two independents caucusing with the minority, and New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is entirely Democratic.
Leading Nationally, Trailing in New Hampshire
Harris lost the 2024 race after a roughly three-month campaign that spent more than $1 billion. Trump carried every swing state and 50% of the popular vote to her 48%, though New Hampshire went her way by 2.8 percentage points.
She sits atop national polling for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, with a double-digit lead over California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the polling averages. Newsom campaigned in New Hampshire the week before her stop. A poll of the 2028 field from the same New Hampshire survey center told a different story, putting Harris at 5% and Pete Buttigieg first at 28%. Harris has said she has not decided whether to run. She campaigned in Nevada and Mississippi earlier that week and was scheduled to stop in Wisconsin on Oct. 26 and in Georgia from Oct. 28 to 30.
