The California senator’s pumped-up demeanor was bolstered by a powerful new endorsement from the iconic United Farmworkers Union. Still, much of the buzz this weekend among the activist delegates and guests gathered in Long Beach to hear from eight presidential candidates centered on her political future — and whether it may be time for her to withdraw from the race rather than face potential humiliation in her home state primary.

After a spectacular campaign launch in January before 22,000 in her hometown of Oakland, Harris — once lauded as a top tier contender — has been mired in low single digits in the polls and dogged by reports of a campaign marked by flailing strategy, muddled messaging and a team in disarray.

Harris’ loyal activist base, who call themselves the K-Hive, have lost none of the passion and intensity from those early days. They chanted her name this weekend, waved “Kamala Harris for the People” signs, and expressed anger and frustration at growing media reports of her political demise.

And early endorsers like Gov. Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis insisted that Harris remains a contender whose fortunes are far from determined in a volatile race.

But in the halls and meeting rooms of the Long Beach Convention Center, many of the battle-scarred Democratic insiders — strategists, elected officials, campaign operatives — had a far more caustic view of her chances, suggesting that Harris’ team has already let slip away her shot at the White House.

With California polls strongly suggesting she might not win, place — or even show — in her home state, many privately expressed the view that Harris should begin seriously considering leaving the race to avoid total embarrassment in the state’s early March primary. Her continued weakness in the presidential contest could even have a more damaging effect, several said — encouraging a primary challenger in 2022, when Harris is up for reelection.

“I don’t think she can last until California,’’ says Garry South, a veteran strategist who has advised Newsom and former presidential candidate Joe Lieberman. “I don’t wish her ill, but she’s got a decision to make: you limp in here and get killed in your home state, and it damages your reputation nationally. Or you pull out before the primary like Jerry Brown did in 1980 … and you at least avoid the spectacle of being decisively rejected.”

Candidates have until late December to formally pull their names off the March 3 primary ballot in California. But some suggest Harris can withdraw from the presidential contest after Iowa if she fares poorly there — which would leave her on the California ballot, but enable her to justify the acute embarrassment of a distant finish in California by having left the race weeks beforehand.

A battering in California “would bespeak of weakness..and could embolden some billionaire with visions,’’ said South, perhaps a monied business executive — or even a wealthy activist like Tom Steyer, whose own presidential candidacy is viewed as a longshot and who has toyed in the past with a run for US Senate.

Interviews with a half-dozen veteran Democratic campaign insiders at the convention who spoke on condition of anonymity — many out of fear of angering a sitting senator — echoed South’s view.

“It's not happening,’’ said one leading grassroots organizer working the campaign floor, speaking not for attribution. “She has her chance [to leave the race]...she should take it.”

“Of course she should get out..but who’s gonna tell her?’’ agreed one leading Democratic strategist, who declined to speak on the record. Harris has told California insiders she is determined to stay in the race through Iowa, said the strategist, who added the real concern was reports of team members who are apparently beginning to snipe at each other and lay blame anonymously in various media outlets.

Labor organizer Erin Lehane said Harris, who has been effective in recent days with her impassioned reaction in the wake of the Santa Clarita mass shooting, "needs to ride it back to DC and say — I’m not leaving until comprehensive gun laws area a reality...she should be saying that now that this has happened in my home state, this is where I’m going to be.’’

Newsom waved off headlines about Harris’ collapse, and said he’s headed off on the campaign trail to assess the situation — and is determined to help her.

“I’m going to Iowa, I’m going to check it out first-hand,’’ he said. “And I’ll say this: Polls don’t vote, people vote...and the only poll that matters is Election Day.”

Reminded that those well-worn campaign tropes are embraced mostly by candidates facing defeat, Newsom gamely insisted that the field remains fluid — but he also acknowledged the uncertainty of Harris’ path.

“Honestly... I don’t really have a sense of what it’s like on the ground and the momentum,’’ he said. “I live in a bubble with her, because she’s my friend...and we’ve been running around with all the volunteers and the [campaign] shirts, and we feel good,’’ he says. He recalled appearing at a recent fundraiser for Harris and said, “she was relaxed, i thought she did great, she felt good.’’

“She’s too talented to be dismissed — she’s too capable,'' he said. While pundits are hyper-focused on the race, voters are not "as focused as we believe they are... so I see a lot of movement and potential.”

As Harris stood in the convention hall on Friday wearing a cape fastened with a “Kamala Harris for the People” button, parole officer Denise Alvarez, a Southern California military veteran, said she was undeterred by media reports and wanted Harris to fight until the very end.

“I like that she wants to give everyone health care, but she respects our unions,’’ Alvarez said. “She has the best plan...she cares about people.” Alvarez dismissed the polls in key early states like Iowa, saying they’d been blown out of proportion. “The [campaign volunteers] say it’s going great.’’

Kounalakis, an impassioned Harris supporter, also blamed what she said has been negative coverage of Harris’ campaign.

“I don’t think the press reports have been very fair,’’ she said. “She has an incredible leadership style. We love her. We support her...presidential politics are tough, but she’s tough enough to handle it.”

She added, hopefully: “At the least, she’s going to be our state senator for California for a long time.”

“Her problem is now there are probably a lot of people out there who thought she would be a rocket — like me.”

David Doak, a veteran Democratic pollster who has directed presidential campaigns for Richard Gephardt and Joe Biden, says that despite her talent, Harris has been diminished by missteps and failed to effectively deliver a rationale for her run.

“Presidential politics are a combination of how much people like you and like what you’re saying — measured against viability,’’ Doak says. “And her problem is now there are probably a lot of people out there who thought she would be a rocket — like me.”

“But as you get these stories about your campaign not doing well, and you don’t show up in the polls, the people who don’t have a pick tend to line up with other people,’’ he says. “It’s a chicken and egg thing...if you don’t have viability you don’t get votes.’’

Doak, who advised Sen. Alan Cranston's unsuccessful 1984 presidential run, doesn’t believe Harris is entirely out of the picture — now or in the future.

“Is she a longshot now? Yeah,’’ says Doak. “I don’t think staying through Iowa will hurt her. And frankly, she will be forced to get out if she doesn’t do well in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

But as far as her future in the Senate, he said, “that stuff is forgotten pretty quickly."