Former Vice President Kamala Harris called for expanding the Supreme Court and making the popular vote decisive, structural shifts Democrats could pursue if they regain Congress.
On the Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast, Harris said the country needs more justices and that the popular vote “has to matter” in presidential elections. She also backed statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico if residents want it, and left open a 2028 White House run while stressing the 2026 midterms.
Newsweek reported the remarks after the episode dropped on a Tuesday, framing them as part of a broader push for institutional change once Democrats control Congress again.
Harris tied the court plan to her view of the Constitution itself.
She told Palmer:
"I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court."
She added:
"We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States."
The Constitution does not lock in the number of justices. Congress has altered the court’s size before. The bench has held nine seats since 1869. Newly created seats would be filled by presidential nomination and Senate confirmation.
Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority after President Donald Trump’s first-term confirmations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. That majority has issued major rulings on abortion, voting rights, presidential power, and other issues. Harris did not name a target number of new seats.
Fox News reported Harris also pressed Electoral College changes and linked them to Democratic power if the party retakes Congress. She said:
"I believe that we should be pushing for what is possible around changing the Electoral College.... It's about, the popular vote has to matter."
She offered no detailed blueprint. A constitutional amendment would need two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states. Another route discussed in coverage is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would bind participating states’ electors to the national popular-vote winner once those states total at least 270 electoral votes.
Democrats won the national popular vote in seven of the eight presidential elections from 1992 through 2020. Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2024. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 63 percent of Americans preferred a system in which the candidate with the most votes nationally wins, while 35 percent favored keeping the Electoral College. Support split sharply by party.
Harris also said Democrats should push statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico when residents want it. Statehood would add senators, House seats, and electoral votes.
In July, Trump posted on Truth Social warning that Democrats planned to expand the court, writing that "The Dumocrats are openly stating that they plan to...EXPAND THE SUPREME COURT," and linking to a Politico piece on a resolution from Black, Hispanic, and progressive caucus chairs that included “enacting structural changes” to the court.
A September Marquette Law School poll found 53 percent of adults favored increasing the number of justices and 47 percent opposed. Democrats backed expansion at 68 percent, Republicans at 35 percent, and independents at 56 percent.
Critics of court expansion and Electoral College overhauls have long argued the moves would set a lasting precedent and weaken checks that protect smaller states and minority viewpoints. Harris’s comments revive that fight without a concrete legislative map.
Newsweek reached out to the Office of Kamala Harris outside regular office hours for comment on the podcast remarks.
Asked about another presidential bid, Harris kept her options open and pointed to the midterms.
She said:
"I haven’t decided. I haven’t decided yet. I will, I promise."
And:
"’28 don’t matter if we don’t do ’26 right."
Early Democratic primary numbers still put her near the front of some surveys even as prediction markets tell a different story. A RealClearPolling average through October 6 showed Harris at 26.4 percent and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 14.4 percent. A Financial Times/Focaldata poll conducted October 3, 6 had Harris at 30 percent and Newsom at 15 percent.
Polymarket figures as of early Friday morning listed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York at 17 percent, Newsom at 15 percent, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia at 14 percent, and Harris at 7 percent to win the Democratic nomination.
Those 2028 currents already shape quiet conversations inside Democratic circles, including private family preferences about another White House bid and public positioning by rivals.
Newsom has previously signaled he would clear the field under certain conditions, a dynamic covered when Newsom pledged to stand aside if Harris enters the race.
Harris’s latest podcast turn fits a longer pattern of Democrats testing structural remedies after losses at the court and in the Electoral College. Similar arguments surfaced when Harris earlier embraced Electoral College and court changes while eyeing 2028.
The practical path remains steep. Court expansion needs only legislation and a willing Senate. Rewriting presidential elections or adding states runs into higher constitutional and political barriers. Harris put the ideas on the table anyway and told Democrats to win 2026 first.
When the rules stop delivering the preferred outcomes, the left’s answer is to revise the rules, voters should remember who started that bidding.
