Iowa state Representative Josh Turek is running for a U.S. Senate seat. Kamala Harris wanted to campaign for him. Turek said no.
He's not the only one.
As the 2026 midterms barrel toward November, Democrat candidates across the country are treating the former Vice President like a contagious disease — declining joint appearances, dodging photo ops, and making sure her name doesn't appear anywhere near their campaign literature. The woman the party crowned as the future of progressivism just eighteen months ago is now persona non grata on the trail, according to a report from Breitbart.
Democrat megadonor John Morgan didn't mince words about the situation. "She is a huge liability," Morgan said, offering the kind of blunt assessment that party operatives usually save for private group chats. Morgan also pointed to the Alaska debacle as evidence, saying "Look what happened in Alaska" — a reference to Harris's PAC issuing a fundraising email on behalf of former Representative Mary Peltola that reportedly did more harm than good.
Iowa gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand, the state's auditor, is another Democrat keeping Harris at arm's length. In a cycle where Democrats need every advantage they can scrape together in swing states like Iowa and Michigan, the party's most recent presidential nominee is being treated like a liability instead of an asset.
That's because she is one.
Harris lost to President Trump in 2024. That's not ancient history — it's the most recent data point voters have. And while she's reportedly contacting progressive Democrats and pro-Palestinian activists about a potential 2028 presidential run, the candidates who actually have to face voters this November want nothing to do with that baggage.
Representative Mark Harris, a Republican from North Carolina, summarized the dynamic perfectly. Harris's visibility would "help" Republicans before midterms, he said, "because it reminds the people of what they rejected in 2024." When the opposition is openly hoping you campaign more, that's not a messaging problem. That's a candidacy problem.
The left-wing media will frame this as "candidates running localized campaigns" or "focusing on kitchen-table issues." Which is a polished way of saying they've done the polling and Kamala Harris craters their numbers. Nobody avoids a popular political figure. You avoid political figures who cost you votes.
Consider what this means for the broader party. Joe Biden was shuffled offstage because he couldn't win. Harris was elevated because she supposedly could. She didn't. And now the candidates who inherited her party can't even use her for a rally without risking their own races. The Democrats' presidential bench from the last two cycles is now a cautionary tale for their own side.
She gave them a convention speech, a billion-dollar campaign, and a clean shot at Donald Trump. They gave her a wide berth and a one-way ticket to Vienna.
