Kamala Harris and Salt Lake City Mayor Mendenhall walk into a bar

When Kamala Harris and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall strode into T.F. Brewing together Wednesday evening, it took a matter of seconds for the double takes to ripple across the bustling brewery.  

Shocked Salt Lakers who had come to enjoy a beer with friends were suddenly face to face with the former Democratic vice president. Many jumped at the chance to shake her hand and take selfies. To everyone but the mayor’s team, the visit was a surprise, including for most of T.F. Brewing’s staff. 

“Thanks for the heads up,” one bartender later joked sarcastically after Harris had left, to which Mendenhall laughed and apologized, saying the secrecy was necessary for the visit to be “natural.” 

Earlier this week, Harris’ team had reached out to the mayor’s office asking for help lining up a public pit stop to “plug into the community for a little bit,” Mendenhall said, before the former Democratic presidential candidate’s speaking engagement at Abravanel Hall for the Wasatch Speaker Series. Mendenhall invited Utah News Dispatch to embed with her team while she welcomed Harris to Salt Lake City and attended the event.

As Harris and Mendenhall’s security details kept close watch, a smiling Harris and Mendenhall spent about a half hour making their way through the noisy brewery to greet patrons. With Harris at her side, one woman FaceTimed her mother, who at first thought it was an AI trick. And Mendenhall beamed when Harris agreed to record a video message to the mayor’s 10-year-old daughter, Milå. 

“Hi Milå, it’s Kamala, and I just want you to know I am so proud of you,” Harris said for the camera. “I know how smart you are. I know how much of a leader you are. And I am counting on you. And I know how supportive of your mom you are, and she’s doing such incredible work.” 

The Democratic mayor had a few fleeting moments of low conversation with Harris, difficult to hear over the brewery’s hum. 

Finishing her beer after Harris had left, Mendenhall told Utah News Dispatch that the former vice president dropped a “deep message” for her about “being a leader, about having boundaries, and being able to have confidence and pride and putting my kids first. … and (to) keep showing up at the community level.” 

“It wasn’t about (showing up) as the mayor, it was about showing up as an American, connecting with other Americans,” Mendenhall said, “and how critical that is for us right now.” 

Reliably red Utah has typically been a flyover state, especially when it comes to presidential campaigns. But national Democrats’ interest in the state has sparked ahead of the midterm elections this year after a new, court-ordered congressional map created a Democratic U.S. House district concentrated around northern Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City, which is the state’s bluest stronghold. 

In 2024, Harris resoundingly lost to Trump in Republican-dominated Utah, with 37.8% to Trump’s 59.4%, according to election results. But in Salt Lake County, she got 53.7% of the vote to Trump’s 43.5%.

Harris — who lost her 107-day presidential bid to Trump in 2024 after former President Joe Biden dropped out — has been touring across the country in recent months to promote her book, “107 Days,” about her condensed and unsuccessful presidential bid. 

Even though she’s no longer in an elected position of power, Harris can still help Democrats, Mendenhall said, “because she has an incredible voice about what is happening right now and what should be and could be happening when we regain some sanity.” 

Mendenhall says she hopes Harris will run again in 2028

Speculation abounds around whether Harris is preparing to run for president again in 2028. At Abravanal Hall, Harris didn’t address whether she would be launching another campaign.

A Harris staffer declined to allow Utah News Dispatch an interview with Harris on Wednesday, saying there wasn’t time in her schedule. 

Mendenhall — who supported Harris during her 2024 bid — pointed to the abbreviated timeframe Harris had to run her presidential campaign when asked about her loss to Trump. 

“I don’t think that that’s a very good predictor of what she would do, what she could do,” Mendenhall said. 

The mayor said she “absolutely” hopes Harris runs again in 2028. 

“The Democratic Party, the American people need to have an option to support a leader like Kamala Harris,” Mendenhall said, crediting Harris for mingling with Salt Lake residents instead of “staying at the hotel and putting her feet up for the hour before she goes on stage. … That’s the kind of leader that should be on our ballot and should be in the White House.” 

When pressed about those who think Harris shouldn’t run again given her 2024 loss, Mendenhall said, “Joe Biden didn’t win the first time, either.”

According to a recent NBC News poll, half of the nation’s voters (51%) have a negative view of Harris, while 34% have positive views. That’s compared to another potential Democratic presidential candidate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is viewed positively by 27% and negatively by 45%. More Democrats, however, say they have positive views of Harris (67%), while 52% say they have positive views of Newsom. 

Though he’s seen a recent dip in job approval ratings, the Feb. 27-March 3 poll showed Trump has higher favorability than both Harris and Newsom, The Hill reported, with 41% of those in the NBC News poll expressing favorable views of him. 

That same poll also found Americans overall have a negative view of both the Democratic and Republican parties, led by independents, NBC News reported.

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But on Utah’s changing congressional political landscape under its new court-ordered map, Mendenhall said she doesn’t think “it’s the only Democrats that are fired up right now.”

Back in the brewery, 33-year-old Salt Lake resident Holden Ackerman who identified himself as an independent told Harris he didn’t vote in 2024, but he now wishes the White House had her “level of poise.” 

“I didn’t participate because I didn’t feel like I had a voice that mattered,” he told Utah News Dispatch. “You know, the Democratic Party, for me, really just turned me away after Bernie Sanders got taken out.”

Ackerman said he regrets not voting in 2024. But also, he worries that “we don’t have a clear message of what we are as a society right now.” 

“I don’t like living in this world where I feel apologetic to be an American citizen,” he said, adding that he’s been “reevaluating” his political views and now feels like he needs to be more “connected” in his community — which is a message he said Harris had for him. 

‘A lot of hard work’ ahead, Harris says

Similarly, Harris called for a “project of civic renewal” during her on-stage discussion with Gary Lauer, co-founder of the Wasatch Speaker Series, while discussing the deep “distrust” Americans have in their government. At the same time, she said leaders must address “the immediate needs of the American people.” 

On the stage at Abravanal Hall, Harris spent about 90 minutes reflecting on her concerns for the country while criticizing President Donald Trump and saying it will “take a lot of hard work” to repair what she characterized as the damage he’s doing to the U.S. and its influence and reliability when it comes to global relationships. 

She said Trump rode a wave of American “distrust” and frustration toward their government that is so acute that Americans were willing to “break things to force change.” 

“In response, Donald Trump and his loyalists in Congress took office claiming they would bring back change,” she said. “Well, change they certainly have brought. But needless to say it’s not the kind of change they promised.” 

Harris said “not only is employment up, not only are prices up across the board, but they cut funding for Medicaid, cut funding for food stamps, and cut health care for millions of Americans. All this while they have the gall to ask for $200 billion of your tax money to fund a war in Iran that nobody wants.” 

“There’s a lot of work to do,” she said, adding that Democrats or “anybody who wants to be a leader” must be “clear-eyed about the pain, the isolation, the kind of disconnect” that Americans are experiencing. 

During her speech, Harris said the issue has been “festering and metastasizing for years” largely because “the promise of America has become more myth than reality.” 

“Look, Donald Trump and his cronies in Washington are not only a source of a problem, but they are also a symptom of a failed system that has been decades in the making,” she said. “Think about it. Outsourcing. … Financial deregulation. Growing income inequality. A broken campaign finance system. And increasing political polarization. That and more, all contributing, I believe, to how we got here today.”

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