* Following the 2024 election, Kamala and Doug returned to California, with Kamala thinking over what she wanted to do next, and writing a memoir of the presidential campaign. She kept a low profile early on, but became more publicly active later in 2025, connecting with the public and working to find a direction.
* The Trump Administration took office on 20 January 2025, with Kamala and Doug returning to California. A wildfire had begun in the Santa Monica Mountains on 7 January and was still in progress, having burned major parts of the Los Angeles metro area, including Pacific Palisades, Topanga, and Malibu. Their home in Brentwood was at risk, but was spared. The fires were not put out until the end of the month. Kamala, in the company of local official, visited the fire-damaged areas on 6 February to help provide reassurances.
Back home, Doug returned to law practice, becoming a partner in the international law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He also became a "Distinguished Visiting Professor" at the USC Gould School of Law, teaching classes there.
In the meantime, things were going as badly in Washington DC as had been predicted. It was certain that a second Trump term was going to be troublesome, and it proved to be so right from the outset -- with Trump conducting a purge of the US government; performing mass deportations of people of color snatched off the streets; asserting white supremacy while suppressing diversity efforts; pulling in vast sums of corrupt money for himself; while threatening the media, the educational establishment, and the science community.
The Republican-controlled Congress proved slavishly obedient to Trump, while the conservative Supreme Court seemed strongly inclined to let him do what he wanted. Resistance to Trump's attacks on organizations outside the government was weak, with the organizations inclined to fold under when attacked by Trump; Willkie Farr & Gallagher was one of the organizations that settled financially with Trump rather than fight him. Doug protested the settlement, but did not resign.
It was one nightmare after another. It can be added that Trump's popularity went into steady decline, with the GOP also suffering in public polls. There was much public unhappiness with the Democrats as well, with a perception they weren't doing enough to fight back. Kamala kept a low profile, with her supporters wondering where she was. It turned out she had been working on a memoir of the 2024 election titled 107 DAYS, to be released in the fall, and resurfaced at the end of July to promote the book. That led to a memorable talk with late-night TV host Stephen Colbert on 31 July, with an edited transcript here:
QUOTE:
SC: This is the first time you've been here as just a citizen, not as a government official. This is your eighth visit to the show. I want to get into the details of you leaving office, and I want to talk about the your your coming book, 107 DAYS. But before we do that -- I'm just curious ... once you left office, how long before you turned on the news again?
KH: Months -- months. I'm just not into self mutilation. I watched lots of cooking shows.
SC: You announced yesterday that you're not running for the governor of California.
KH: Correct.
SC: Even though in early polling you beat every other candidate by double digits. You said you're going to sit this one out. Why? Are you saving yourself for a different office?
KH: No, no. I am a devout public servant; I have spent my entire career in service of the people. I thought a lot about running for governor. I love my state, I love California. I've served as elected district attorney, attorney general, and senator.
But to be very candid with you, when I was young, in my career I had to defend my decision to become a prosecutor with my family. One of the points that I made is: why is it then when we think we want to improve a system or change it that, we're always on the outside on bended knee or trying to break down the door? Shouldn't we also be inside the system? And that has been my career.
Recently, however, I made the decision that I just for now I don't want to go back in the system. I think it's broken. I think there are so many good people who are public servants who do such good work -- teachers and firefighters and police officers and nurses and scientists -- scientists! It's not about them. What it's about is that I have always believed that as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles -- and I think right now that they're not as strong as they need to be. For now, I don't want to go back in the system. I want to I want to travel the country. I want to listen to people, I want to talk with people, and I don't want it to be transactional where I'm asking for their vote,
SC: I want to talk about the book, but just to go back to what you just said, I have to say as someone who is very qualified for the presidency, a senator, attorney general of California, a Vice President of the United States, and then and then a very hopeful and dynamic presidential candidate for the 107 days that you had to run -- and to hear you say that it's broken, to hear you say that our systems aren't strong enough is harrowing.
KH: Well, but it's also evident, isn't it?
SC: It is -- but what I'm hearing is that you don't want to be part of the fight anymore.
KH: No, absolutely not. I am always going to be part of the fight. That is not going to change. But I think that we have to acknowledge and agree that the strength of America that we believe fundamentally the power is with the people -- we the people.
I believe that it is important to do what I can do from what I have seen about the world to get out there and remind everyone who needs reminding right now of their power. It is our government. It is our country. And it is important I think that in in this moment where people have become so deflated and despondent and afraid. Those of us who have the ability -- which I do right now, not being in an office or campaigning -- to be out there and to talk with folks, and remind them of their power and their importance in making a difference. You can never let anybody take your power from you.
SC: You say people don't know what it's like to run for president, so we'll get surprises. What surprised you about those 107 days? What did you not know about running for president, when you'd already run for a nomination and you'd already run alongside Joe Biden?
KH: My prayer every night was to ask God I hope I have done everything could do today. I was so aware of the short time that we had. It sometimes drove incredible team bananas -- because wherever I showed up in whatever town or city, the first thing I would do would be to ask the local leaders, elected community leaders: "What more can we do?"
SC: It's hard for us to remember now. It's so easy to forget now because the national mood is so grim in many ways; people are shocked by the abuses, the abhorrent corruption, the violence against neighbors happening in the United States by our government -- and the free reign being given by Congress and the Supreme Court to this president. We forget that just less than a year ago things were very joyful. There was actually a lot of hope associated with your campaign, there was a lot of promise that we might actually keep this absolute barbarian out of the White House ...
... but that we also might actually make progress as a country with the type of people that we wanted to see in office, a younger and more revived political consciousness in America. What do you think of when you look back at that that time and that feeling?
KH: What I look back at is, as I said, how people realized the commonality, the collective strength, and our collective love of our country -- we love our country. And that experience is exactly what propels me to think about this moment and the future and not look back too much. Those same people are still here.
They still know joy in their hearts. They still know how to have a sense of optimism, and faith in the future, to believe and fight for that. That hasn't gone away. I just think it's really important that we never let a circumstance, situation, or person defeat our spirit -- you can't let that happen. You can't give up your belief in what can be, what can be better.
SC: I will always treasure your debate with Trump. That was one of the greatest one of the greatest rhetorical performances I've ever seen. You smoked him like a ham. You warned everyone about the future under him. He said he would prosecute his political enemies; he would cut Medicaid, Medicare; he would ignore court orders; he would alienate our allies; he would give massive tax cuts to the rich. I know you're not here to say: "I told you so." -- but would you like to?
KH: Let me just say this: you are correct that I did predict a lot of it. But Stephen, what I did not predict was the capitulation. I didn't predict that people would roll over for this president. I didn't see that coming. Perhaps it's naive of me -- someone who has seen a lot that most people haven't seen -- but I believed that on some level, many who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy who just capitulated.
SC: You're not running for office right now, you're stepping away from that life right now. Who's leading the Democratic Party? I'm just curious.
KH: There are lots of leaders.
SC: Who comes to mind?
KDH: I think there are a lot, I'm not going to go through names because then I'm going to leave somebody out, and then I'm going to hear about it. But let me just let me say this -- I think it is a mistake for us who want to figure out how to get through this to put it on the shoulders of any one person. It's really on all of our shoulders. It really is.
END_QUOTE
From 24 September to 20 November Kamala conducted a book tour, visiting major cities in the USA, as well as Britain and Canada. 107 DAYS proved a best-seller, with hundreds of thousands of copies sold, making it one of the most popular memoirs of 2025.
Kamala's political life was on the back burner for the time being -- but she resurfaced in the odd-year general election in early November. In California, a "Referendum 50" was on the ballot. The Trump Administration, fearing with good reason major losses in the 2026 mid-term elections, chose to push Red states to gerrymander away Democratic House seats, with Texas doing so. California Governor Gavin Newsom decided to retaliate, with Proposition 50 devised to gerrymander away Republican House seats. On 1 November, Kamala appeared at a rally conducted by Newsom to pump up enthusiasm for the vote on 4 November. Kamala gave a brief but, for her, unusually energetic speech:
QUOTE [EXCERPTS]:
What's up, California?! Are we going to do this? We going to win? Do we know how to fight? Do we stand for our democracy? Do we stand for what is right? Do we believe in the power of the people? All RIGHT, then!
I wanted to just come by to in particular thank everyone here, all the folks who have been canvassing, knocking on doors, talking with your friends, talking with your neighbors, talking with your cousins, talking with your play cousins -- talking with all the folks about the power of the people, because that's what this is about.
It is about reminding folks that we refuse to kneel at the foot of a tyrant. That's not what we do!
And what we are doing, what you are doing today, I will tell you, is impacting people around the country. As you know ... I've been traveling our country. I've met with millions of Americans around our country. Whether it be the teacher in North Carolina, whether it be the person who is working on child care in Georgia, whether it be the police officer in Michigan or the high school student in California.
California is taking a stand to say we understand the difference between right and wrong and we will step up when necessary to make sure the voices of the people are heard. So let's get this done. I dropped my ballot already. Let's get this done! And we will win on Tuesday.
YES ON 50! YES ON 50! YES ON 50!
END_QUOTE
Proposition 50 passed handily, by over 64% of the vote. In fact, although odd-year general elections don't usually attract much attention, the 2025 election electrified Democrats, the vote being powerfully in their favor. It finally felt like resistance to Trump had rallied, and as the end of the year approached, things didn't seem quite so dismal any more. What would happen in 2026 remained impossible to predict.
BACK_TO_TOP* A biographer can't insert himself into a biography, since it's not about him, but I can talk about why I wrote this book. I was working on a biography of Joe Biden when he dropped out of the presidential race, with Kamala then jumping in instead; I shrugged, and decided to write a biography of her instead, and I got enthusiastic about the job. I have very little in common with her, and it's fun to see the world from another perspective.
Her loss in the election was a major disappointment, but I didn't think of giving up the writing project. I was trying to finish up the book in July 2025 when Kamala went public and announced the publication of 107 DAYS. Her announcement that she had no plans to run for office seemed another disappointment, if only for a moment.
Anyway, I couldn't release my book before 107 DAYS was released in September; it would seem pathetic when she was introducing her own book -- and more importantly, I would have to update the book after the publication of 107 DAYS anyway. I shrugged again and decided: As long as it takes. I could wait until Kamala's book promotion was over and her sales were stable, and then maybe get some follow-on readers.
So where does this story go from here? Like I said, I was disappointed when Kamala made it clear she had no particular interest in running for office, at least for the time being, and she didn't rule it out. However, it didn't take much thought to realize that wasn't an issue. Running for president is not a worthwhile end in itself, instead being a means to worthwhile ends. If somebody else could achieve those ends as president, there's no particular reason to run for president. Other politicians, notably Gavin Newsom and Tim Walz, were clearly lining themselves up for the White House from early in the second Trump Administration, while Kamala was keeping a low profile.
What opportunities does Kamala have now? The old America has collapsed into crisis, all bets are off; we don't know what can or will happen next. Kamala stepped back to ask herself the question: What do I do next? One way or another, that question will get an answer. I don't believe her story is over, and I will be truly disappointed if it is.
One idea did cross my own mind: it's obvious that once the Trump Administration falls -- as it certainly will, sooner or later -- it will leave behind a dysfunctional Department of Justice and a massive trail of corruption. What if Kamala become US Attorney General? The cleanup job would be the pinnacle of her government service. However, any such speculations are getting way too far ahead: yes, we will get out of the woods, but not soon.
By the way, I have to apologize for writing about "Kamala" and "Joe" -- I would not normally assume any such familiarity, but the interests of readability demanded it.
* Sources:
* Illustration credits:
Finally, I need to thank readers for their interest in my work, and welcome any sensible feedback.
BACK_TO_TOP
