{"id":520804,"date":"2026-07-02T01:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/520804\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T01:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T01:07:15","slug":"report-harris-calls-mamdani-meets-pro-palestinian-activists-as-she-weighs-2028-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/520804\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Harris calls Mamdani, meets pro-Palestinian activists as she weighs 2028 bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former US vice president Kamala Harris reportedly<\/a> held a call last week with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and has been holding lengthy meetings with other prominent progressives, including pro-Palestinian activists, as she weighs another presidential run in 2028.<\/p>\n

Harris called the mayor on Thursday, two days after the candidates he backed swept three New York congressional primaries<\/a> earlier this month, holding a long conversation and discussing the future of the Democratic Party, a person familiar with the call told the Axios news outlet on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The two have also been texting over the past few months, the report said.<\/p>\n

In all three of last week\u2019s races, Israel was a central issue, and the more hardline Israel critics won. The candidates all won primaries in Democratic House districts, meaning they are nearly certain to win the general election in November and enter Congress.<\/p>\n

Harris appears determined to improve her ties with progressives, who were critical of her during the previous race for not doing more to advance the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

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The Harris campaign had rejected a demand from the \u201cUncommitted Movement,\u201d which had refused to endorse her, to have a Palestinian speaker at the 2024 Democratic Party Convention.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tUncommitted delegate to the Democratic National Convention Abbas Alawieh answers questions during an interview, August 14, 2024, in Dearborn, Michigan. (AP Photo\/Jose Juarez)<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019s recent meetings have included ones with Uncommitted co-founder Abbas Alawieh and Democratic National Committee member James Zogby, who has been a longtime advocate for Palestinian rights, Axios reported, citing sources familiar with their conversation.<\/p>\n

Alawieh told Axios he \u201creiterated my longstanding position that American tax dollars should never be used to target civilians or destroy entire communities\u201d during their talks.<\/p>\n

Zogby, as well as Harris and Mamdani spokespeople, refused Axios\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n

Since being voted out of office, Harris has expressed criticism of the previous administration\u2019s policies on Israel, charging that former US president Joe Biden failed to show enough empathy<\/a> toward Gazans, and regretting<\/a> not putting more pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Gaza war\u2019s impact on civilians.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tProtesters hold up a Palestinian flag as Democratic US presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at the PA Farm Show Complex and Expo Center, October 30, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo\/Matt Slocum)<\/p>\n

In her book, Harris blamed Biden for her election loss<\/a>, saying the president became unpopular in part because of the \u201cperceived blank check\u201d he gave Netanyahu to respond to the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019s opinions reflect an increasingly negative view of Israel among the Democratic Party at large. A poll in April showed<\/a> about 80 percent of Democrats saying they have an unfavorable view of Israel, compared to 40% of Republicans. Nearly half of Democrats under age 50 said they have a \u201cvery unfavorable\u201d view of Israel.<\/p>\n

Palestinian American and progressive strategist Rania Batrice expressed skepticism over Harris\u2019 outreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should we trust her now?\u201d she told Axios. \u201cIf this change is real, she has an opportunity to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris ally Patrick Gaspard, a longtime Democratic strategist, told Axios that as vice president, Harris \u201chad concerns about a lack of empathy for Palestinians in the way the Biden White House presented their policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe tried then, as she continues now, to hear opinions beyond Foggy Bottom and Pennsylvania Ave,\u201d Gaspard insisted.<\/p>\n

Luke Tress contributed to this report.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former US vice president Kamala Harris reportedly held a call last week with New York City Mayor Zohran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[238373,11863,238374,42,238372,11862,43,201651,40,38,41,39,14325],"class_list":["post-520804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2028-us-presidential-elections","tag-democratic-party","tag-democratic-primaries","tag-headlines","tag-james-zogby","tag-kamala-harris","tag-news","tag-pro-palestinian-activists","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}