WASHINGTON - For months, US Vice-President Kamala Harris was laser-focused on one potentially career-defining, history-making goal – becoming the first woman entrusted with the keys to the White House.

But defeat by Donald Trump in the recent election stripped the Democrat of a place in the pantheon of US presidents, and left America wondering what is next for a politician whose meteoric rise has come crashing to an abrupt halt.

After spending a few days in Hawaii following the disappointment of Nov 5, the 60-year-old former prosecutor has begun lifting the veil on her future ambitions.

“I am staying in the fight,” she declared during a call with party donors, without elaborating on how that might look.

Washington is abuzz with speculation over Ms Harris’ next move, with some commentators predicting a bid for the governor’s mansion in her home state of California when Gavin Newsom vacates the premises in 2026.

In the United States, governorships are prestigious positions, since many states are the size of countries – California’s economy would be the world’s fifth-largest – and the men and women who run them act as quasi-presidents.

A full term or two governing California – which has only ever been led by white men – would be a fitting culmination to a trailblazing career in which Ms Harris has shattered multiple glass ceilings.

She has longstanding relationships with local officialdom and much of the infrastructure already in place, as it was only seven years ago that she left the California attorney-general’s office to become a US senator.

But leading the country’s most populous state would also give her “an enormous platform” to reassert herself as a political heavyweight on the national stage, notes political scientist Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University.

‘Lost faith’

If Ms Harris used statewide office as a springboard back to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, she would be embarking on a well-worn route.

Sixteen presidents have been governors before entering the White House, including Republican Ronald Reagan, one of the most popular, who ran California in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

But Democrats were f...