ormer presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris this week presented a number of what she considers top Democratic Party goals, should the party retake Congress, that appear more far-left than those being pitched to potential voters during the midterm cycle.
She expressed her views on the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast posted Tuesday on what a Democrat-controlled Congress should try to advance including expanding the Supreme Court, changing the Electoral College and statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.
“I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices,” she said, while also mentioning more affordable housing and healthcare and the high cost of “groceries and gas.”
She also said, “If the folks [in Congress] want it, we should push for statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.”
Such comments appear divergent from what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries outlined as 2026 Democratic candidates’ unifying message.
“Fighting for an affordable America – that’s what unites Democrats all across the country,” Jeffries said recently at the party campaign headquarters in Washington.
Still, Harris is far from alone.
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville told party members that if they win both chambers, then the White House in 2028 should “make Puerto Rico [and] D.C. a state, and they should expand the Supreme Court to 13” on day one, advising them to “Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., endorsed the same court expansion on Meet the Press, calling 13 justices, compared to nine now, “a pretty good number” and a “baker’s dozen.”
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, in May introduced legislation to increase the number of high court seats to 13. Green lost his reelection bid in a party primary, and it’s unclear whether another Democrat House member will champion the issue.
Washington, D.C., statehood remains a standing Democratic priority through the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would create two new senators and a House member for a district that votes overwhelmingly Democratic. These proposals, which would add Senate seats and reshape the high court, have circulated among party figures for years and would become far more viable with control of Congress.
