Kamala Harris wants Democrats to be ‘ruthless.’ Experts say it must be on behalf of Black voters

Experts say Harris is responding to a moment when many Black voters feel overlooked, frustrated and ready for change.

Kamala Harris wants Democrats to be “ruthless.”

The former U.S. vice president and 2024 presidential candidate repeated the phrase during recent public remarks, in which she envisioned a Democratic Party that matched the unyielding political power of the Trump White House and Republicans in Congress.

“They are ruthless. We need to be ruthless, too,” Harris said at the National Urban League Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 31.

The rumored 2028 presidential candidate explained, “By that I do not mean cruel. That is not our nature. By that, I do not mean breaking the law. That is not what we do. But I do mean we must be uncompromising, and we must allow for a real conversation about revisiting certain things.”

The former vice president and U.S. Senator then proposed several progressive policy positions, such as reforming the Electoral College, expanding the U.S. Supreme Court to 13 justices to match the nation’s 13 federal district courts, and granting statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Harris, who has repeatedly called out Trump’s immigration policies and attacks on the rule of law, made similar remarks while speaking to the Louisiana Democratic Party for its Masquerade Sneaker Ball on Aug. 7.

“In this fight, I say we start by getting comfortable with some things, including having a certain kind of ruthlessness,” she urged. “Now, I don’t mean ruthlessness like the cruelty they show. I mean the kind that is uncompromising in its impatience with injustice.”

Harris called for Democrats to show “no mercy for corruption” and to fight back “hard” against threats to “the power of the people.”

“That is the kind of ruthlessness that must be the attitude of the Democratic Party,” demanded the former Democratic presidential nominee. She added, “I therefore call for us to apply that attitude to revive the promise of the American Dream for a new generation.”

Harris proposed other actions Democrats should take if they regain power in Congress in 2027 or the White House in 2028. Those actions included tackling the “inequality in America’s tax code” and redistributing taxpayer dollars to make housing, health care, and child care more affordable.

The former vice president also called for “guardrails” for AI companies that “serve the people—and not just profit.”

That Harris is calling for Democrats to be “ruthless” matters as much as who she said it to. It is likely no coincidence that Harris unveiled her policy prescriptions for the Democratic Party before an audience of Black voters, the party’s most loyal voting bloc.

Why Democrats should be “ruthless” on behalf of Black voters

Kamala Harris’ message to Democrats is especially urgent for Black voters, political experts tell theGrio.

“Black Americans have been systematically targeted, and the White House and this administration have been incredibly intentional about undermining our economic and political power,” says Ashley Etienne, a Democratic strategist who served as communications director for Harris and U.S. Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi.

Since Trump returned to office and Republicans took full control of Congress, Black Americans saw major job losses as a result of Trump’s slashing of the federal workforce, efforts to dismantle DEI, and global tariffs that have driven up costs and squeezed small businesses. Trump also led the charge to undermine the voting rights of Black communities to benefit Republicans in congressional districts, which the U.S. Supreme Court followed. The Trump administration has also reversed course on several civil rights protections for Black Americans.

“None of that is lost on the vice president,” Etienne told theGrio. “It makes perfect sense that she would call on Black voters in this particular moment to awaken to this new reality and to start demanding more radical action.”

Black voters overwhelmingly backed Harris over Trump, 83% to 15%, according to Pew Research. Experts say it’s no surprise that Black voters are suffering the most during the second Trump administration.

“There is a virus in the air called anti-Blackness, and it is infectious. The main carrier is this administration,” said U.S. Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove, a close friend of Harris and fellow California Democrat.

Referring to the Supreme Court’s Callais v. Louisiana ruling in April, which stripped away voting protections for Black Americans under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Kamlager-Dove told theGrio, “But Black Americans cannot be the only ones fighting this disease. When Black voting power is under attack, it weakens our democracy and undermines everyone’s fundamental right to vote.”

But it’s not just the Republican Party that has harmed Black Americans. Critics of the Democratic Party say they aren’t doing enough to stand up for Black voters, whom Democrats often praise as the “backbone” of the party.

“Not only are we getting hit hard economically, but I think we’re feeling abandoned politically. And so I think the vice president is actually speaking to it in a way that not just has resonance, but is empowering for Black people in this moment,” said Etienne, who has been a vocal critic of the national Democratic Party for its failure to invest its multi-billion dollars in Black communities during the 2024 presidential election cycle, which concluded in Harris’ defeat to Trump.

“If Democrats are going to continue to count on the support of Black Americans, then Democrats need to have a plan to deliver for Black Americans once back in office,” says Svante Myrick, President and CEO of People For The American Way, the progressive group that took over Harris’ campaign HQ social media accounts, transforming it into a political hub to engage Black and young voters of color.

Myrick was with Harris as she delivered remarks to PFAW’s Young Elected Officials network, where he says she advocated for the same progressive reforms she has been calling for in recent weeks. He said her call to be “ruthless” is not intended to suggest Democrats should be embrace “petty or personal ruthlessness,” such as “tearing down any one individual,” but rather “pursuing doggedly structural reforms, [and] being ruthless in pursuit of a more fair system.”

Kamala Harris continues to fuel 2028 speculation

The former vice president’s continued public rebukes of the Trump administration and the Republican Party have fueled speculation that she intends to run for president for a third time in the 2028 Democratic primary. While Democrats who spoke to theGrio were reluctant to say too much on Harris’ plans, Harris has repeatedly said she is seriously considering another run for the White House.

Harris became particularly animated on the issue of court and congressional reform after the Supreme Court’s Callais ruling on the VRA, which led a wave of Republican-led Southern states to eliminate majority-Black districts that had for years secured historic representation of Black Americans in Congress.

Etienne described Harris’ public statements as “incredibly refreshing,” telling theGrio, “I know that a lot of Black voters do, too.”

“I think to me this represents a more aggressive and clear-eyed Kamala Harris, especially as it relates to the direction of the Democratic Party,” the former Harris official explained. “She’s been consistently calling on the party and even Black voters, in particular, to enter into a transformation.”

The Democratic strategist said Harris is “distinguishing herself” from the rest of the rumored 2028 presidential field and “carving out a unique lane for herself that I think will yield some dividends.”

Harris, said Etienne, is mirroring what Black voters, and Democratic voters more broadly, want to see from national Democrats in terms of policy and their “total disgust with this administration and disappointment with the state of the economy and the state of their lives right now.”

She added, “What she is doing is seizing an opportunity to leverage and exploit the sort of anger and again, dissatisfaction that voters are feeling toward the Democratic Party.”

Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove argued that the “road to any win in 2028 will go through the South,” adding, “Black people are still in the South. When we have a Republican Party aggressively working to erase our history and power, we need to make sure candidates in our own party are not mimicking that kind of grotesque posture.”

But Etienne says the Democratic Party’s work can’t start in 2028. She called out current Democratic leadership in Congress for not taking Harris’ lead by laying out its own “affirmative agenda” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“There is no policy vision, there is no Black agenda,” she told theGrio. “We need innovation and new ideas. We need an infusion of it. And I’m not seeing that happen from the Democratic Party right now.”

That lack of direction is why several incumbent Democrats have lost primary races to Democratic-socialist challengers, says Etienne, adding, “They’re talking about what they’re going to do when they get into office.”

Rep. Kamlager-Dove conceded that her party nationally has a “hard time acknowledging” that Black voters are a reliable voting base for the Democratic Party.

“It may be en vogue to dismiss or marginalize us right now, but every candidate needs a Black platform. We need Democratic candidates who can speak to the issues Black voters face with their full chest,” she told theGrio. “If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready. When we take the majority, Democrats must be ready on day one with subpoenas and investigations, budget bills that cut costs and restore programs Americans need and deserve, and reforms that reaffirm the separation of powers.”

She added, “We need to be ruthless and unafraid to fight fire with fire — Prop 50 in California is a good example.”