On July 31, Kamala Harris announced she was publishing a memoir, titled 107 Days, to discuss her "intense, high-stakes" and ultimately failed presidential campaign.
Now The Atlantic has some excerpts from the book.
A first look at Kamala Harris's surprising account of her campaign for president, via @theatlantic: https://t.co/cyF5Fi6beX
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) September 10, 2025
Here are some of the highlights:
Throughout my career I’ve maintained that people in positions of power must be required to ask of themselves: Who am I not hearing from? Then make it their business to seek those folks out. I came to the White House knowing that the people in that building needed to hear from a wider range of voices.
As vice president I’d been given several roles by Joe Biden. But one role I created for myself was building up the diverse coalition that our party encompassed. I made it my business to get out there and make sure that no community was overlooked, especially those that had been taken for granted in the past. Black women, the Democrats’ staunchest, most reliable voting bloc, was one such community. The boulé in Indianapolis was one of a dozen Divine Nine gatherings I’d addressed since taking office.
On this day there was a new energy in the room as I walked onto the stage. A Black woman was slated to be the Democratic nominee for president. It was us. And everyone there understood what it meant: that this would be a journey of both joy and pain. I was in a room full of people with whom, because of our shared experience, certain words did not need to be said. There is an emotion that comes from being in a place where people see you, support you, know you. The kindness and the love in that room penetrated the armor I usually wore, armor I’d need to put back on as soon as I left that room.
The biggest applause came when I started to say what I would do to restore the rights of Roe v. Wade.
“When I am president—”
A roar erupted that drowned out the rest of that sentence.
That roar told me they could see it. Clearly, for the first time. This could be, and it should be. It was not because of gender or because of race, but despite those things.
She also discussed the elephant in the room, President Joe Biden's clear cognitive issues:
Many people want to spin up a narrative of some big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity. Here is the truth as I lived it. Joe Biden was a smart guy with long experience and deep conviction, able to discharge the duties of president. On his worst day, he was more deeply knowledgeable, more capable of exercising judgment, and far more compassionate than Donald Trump on his best. But at 81, Joe got tired. That’s when his age showed in physical and verbal stumbles. I don’t think it’s any surprise that the debate debacle happened right after two back-to-back trips to Europe and a flight to the West Coast for a Hollywood fundraiser. I don’t believe it was incapacity. If I believed that, I would have said so. As loyal as I am to President Biden, I am more loyal to my country.
Kamala Harris bristled at the notion she was a "DEI hire:"
I was well aware of my delicate status. Lore has it that every outgoing chief of staff always tells the incoming president’s chief of staff Rule No. 1: Watch the VP. Because I’d gone after him over busing in the 2019 primary debate, I came into the White House with what we lawyers call a “rebuttable presumption.” I had to prove my loyalty, time and time again.
When Fox News attacked me on everything from my laugh, to my tone of voice, to whom I’d dated in my 20s, or claimed I was a “DEI hire,” the White House rarely pushed back with my actual résumé: two terms elected D.A., top cop in the second-largest department of justice in the United States, senator representing one in eight Americans.
Lorraine Voles, my chief of staff, constantly had to advocate for my role at events: “She’s not going to stand there like a potted plant. Give her two minutes of remarks. Have her introduce the president.”
She also said she witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina while she was the district attorney of San Francisco:
These kinds of briefings are sadly familiar to me. As district attorney, I’d witnessed the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As senator, I’d been to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and I’d toured the communities in my home state that had been ravaged by wildfires. It was heartbreaking to see the scale of these losses and the exhausted faces of individuals standing in the ruins of a lifetime’s work, a lifetime’s dreams. It was infuriating to see how predators swarmed like cockroaches, price gouging, spreading misinformation.
The same day she announced the memoir, Harris sat down for a conversation with "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert, and she explained why she was "sitting out" the California gubernatorial race, saying, "I am a devout public servant, I have spent my entire career in the service of people ... but to be very candid with you ... recently I made the decision I don't want to go back in the system. I think it's broken."
With her memoir releasing on September 23, Kamala Harris is planning a 15-city book tour that kicks off in New York City on September 24. She will also make stops in cities including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, and Toronto.