Former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff were spotted exiting a grocery store Thursday with plastic bags to carry their goods.
Harris, 60 — who had talked about banning plastic straws during her 2019 presidential campaign — was seen smiling in the 99 Ranch Market Asian Grocery store in Westwood, Calif., as she and her husband make the transition back into civilian life.
At one point, Emhoff, 60, appeared to wave after being noticed in the store with the 49th veep, who is known for being a prolific cook.
During her 2019 White House bid, Harris excited progressives by supporting a ban on plastic straws as part of her environmentalist agenda.
“I think we should,” she said during a CNN town hall back in 2019, conceding that she felt paper straws needed to improve. “We do need to ban the plastic.”
Numerous studies have warned about the environmental impact of plastic, including in straws and bags.
Some research has indicated that single-use plastic bags can take decades or even centuries to fully break down. California, along with other states, has imposed a minimum of a 10-cent fine on single-use plastic bags to discourage their use.
Harris later abandoned her position on banning plastic straws during her 107-day stint as the 2024 Democratic presidential standard bearer.
It was one of many instances in which she tacked to the center from some of the hardcore progressives she had taken during her unsuccessful 2020 bid. Harris ultimately dropped her 2020 bid before the Iowa caucuses as she fell in the polls and money dried up.
Harris and Emhoff had flown back to California on Monday after President Trump was sworn back into office.
Some of her neighbors in her ritzy Brentwood district in northern Los Angeles previously complained to The Post about the traffic snarls that her return has brought about.
Since her defeat against Trump last November, Harris has been tight-lipped about her next steps.
Harris has underscored that she intends to “stay in the fight” and won’t “go quietly into the night.”
Many observers believe that she has three main options in front of her: running to be governor of California, waiting it out until 2028 to vie for president again and refraining from seeking office again.
Prior to the vice presidency, Harris was a Golden State senator, but both seats are currently taken, meaning that she’d face a tough battle to return to the upper chamber.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited, and his perch is up for grabs in the 2026 election.
If Harris jockeys for governor in 2026 or president in 2028, she will have to overcome lingering concerns about her 2024 defeat.
Richard Nixon was infamously defeated in his 1962 bid for California governor after having been a VP–turned-unsuccessful presidential hopeful thanks to John F. Kennedy.
Nixon later went on to win the White House in 1968.
Recent filings from Harris’ 2024 campaign showed that she set up Pioneer49 LLC in California. The LLC is named after her Secret Service codename “Pioneer” and her ranking as the 49th vice president.
In the time since her 2024 loss, Harris has consulted with family members, friends, allies and prominent luminaries — such as Hillary Clinton — to figure out her future, New York Magazine reported.
One thing she’s reportedly impressed upon her allies is that she doesn’t want to take any steps that could shut the door on a 2028 bid altogether.
