Kamala Harris backed expanding the Supreme Court and statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico if Democrats control Congress, changes that would tilt national power for years.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris told a podcast audience that Democrats should enlarge the Supreme Court and push statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. if lawmakers want it, laying out structural goals that go far beyond grocery prices and gas.
Just the News reported that Harris, the former presidential nominee, presented those aims on the “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” podcast, which posted Tuesday, as Democrats eye a possible House majority and the 2028 White House fight.
She also discussed changing the Electoral College, the outlet reported, while naming affordable housing, health care, and the cost of groceries and gas. The court and statehood pieces are the ones that would revise the balance of federal power.
Harris did not hedge on the bench.
She put the goal in plain terms.
"I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court. We need more justices,"
Harris said on the podcast.
The court now has nine justices. Expanding it would let a future Democratic president and Senate add seats and shift the majority without waiting for retirements or deaths.
That is not a fringe trial balloon inside the party. It has already drawn open support from senior Democrats and a formal bill.
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville went further. He told party members that if Democrats win both chambers of Congress and then the White House in 2028, they should act immediately on statehood and the court.
Carville’s counsel was blunt.
"Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it."
He said they should “make Puerto Rico [and] D.C. a state, and they should expand the Supreme Court to 13” on day one.
That is a strategy of silence before the election and speed after it. Voters would hear about affordability on the trail. The structural overhaul would come later.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., has also backed a larger court. On “Meet the Press,” he called 13 justices “a pretty good number” and a “baker’s dozen,” compared with nine now.
In May, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, introduced legislation to raise the number of high court seats to 13. Green later lost his reelection bid in a party primary.
Harris tied the next step to Congress.
"If the folks [in Congress] want it, we should push for statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C."
she said.
The Washington, D.C. Admission Act is already a standing Democratic priority. Just the News noted it would create two new senators and a House member for a district that votes overwhelmingly Democratic.
Puerto Rico statehood would add still more seats in both chambers. Together, the moves would lock in a larger Democratic caucus for a generation, independent of the next presidential popular vote.
That is why the pairing of court expansion and new states matters. One reshapes the judiciary. The other reshapes the Senate map. Both reward the party that holds the pen when the rules change.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries struck a different public note at party campaign headquarters in Washington.
"Fighting for an affordable America, that’s what unites Democrats all across the country,"
Jeffries said.
Affordability is the message Democratic candidates are carrying into the 2026 midterms, with Nov. 3 marked as the date they could reclaim the House. Harris herself mentioned housing, health care, groceries, and gas.
The legislative record shows a broader agenda already moving through discharge petitions and floor votes in the current Congress.
Democrats forced a House vote on a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits. The measure passed 230-196.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the three-year extension would add $80.6 billion to the deficit between 2026 and 2035. A permanent extension has been projected at roughly $350 billion over a decade. Earlier similar legislation was estimated by the CBO to add more than $30 billion in deficit spending.
Separately, the American Dream and Promise Act, H.R. 1589, nearly reached the floor after a discharge petition gathered roughly 210 signatures. The bill would grant a pathway to permanent status for certain Dreamers and Temporary Protected Status holders.
A congressional stock-trading ban also drew substantial bipartisan discharge-petition signatures but fell short of forcing a vote under the current majority.
None of those measures required packing the court or minting new states. They show what the party is willing to push through procedural pressure even before full control. Harris’s podcast remarks, Carville’s day-one plan, and Clyburn’s “baker’s dozen” point to what would come next if the map flips.
Harris framed court expansion as a belief and statehood as something to pursue if Congress wants it. Carville framed both as actions to take without running on them. Jeffries framed the midterm message as affordability.
Those are not the same speech. One is the sales pitch. The other is the operating plan for the first day after a trifecta.
Expanding the Supreme Court from nine to 13 seats would let politicians dilute a majority they dislike. Statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico would add senators and a House member from heavily Democratic electorates. Changing the Electoral College would alter how presidents are chosen.
Harris put her name on the court and statehood goals in public. Senior Democrats have echoed the court math. A House Democrat already filed the 13-seat bill. The affordability line is what voters are meant to hear before November.
When leaders say enlarge the court, add states, and keep quiet until after the swearing-in, the public is entitled to take them seriously, and to vote with the full list in view, not just the cost-of-living slogan.
