Kamala Harris, taken in Los Angeles on November 21.
Vice President Kamala Harris is suddenly thrust into the center of the 2024 presidential election.
After President Biden’s poor debate performance in late June, a growing number of Democrats are calling on him to drop out of the race for the good of the party and the country.
Our Revolution, a liberal political action committee, raised money Wednesday following a post-debate poll of its more than 17,000 members.
High-profile donors, including those in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, have begun publicly voicing their concerns about Biden as the nominee. His interview with ABC on Friday night – an attempt to correct his campaign – drew tepid reviews, and the number of members of Congress calling for Biden to withdraw grew to five on Saturday.
Discover the change-makers who are shaping every cultural corner of Los Angeles. This week we bring you the final installment of our series on Los Angeles Influence: Power Groups. They are the bosses, the elected officials, the front-line people who call the shots from their seats of power.
Biden, 81, has pledged to stay in the race, but if he steps aside, Harris – the nation’s first female, South Asian and Black vice president – will almost certainly be promoted to lead the campaign against former President Donald Trump general.
A San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator, Harris, 59, had never lost a race when she announced her 2020 presidential bid. She has long been viewed as a rising star in the Democratic Party. In addition to representing generational and racial change, her prosecutorial skills have led to sharp, surgical questioning in Senate hearings.
However, after announcing her bid for the White House in 2019, Harris’ performance was inconsistent, as she struggled to articulate what made her unique in a crowded Democratic field and inspire donors and early-state voters. The campaign infighting didn’t help either. She suspended her campaign ahead of the Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first nominating contest.
Biden’s selection of Harris as his running mate revitalized her political prospects, adding a youthful, diverse voice to the then-white septuagenarian’s presidential campaign at a time of changing demographics and growing racial unrest in the United States. perspective.
Democrats realize that abandoning Harris will alienate some black voters if Biden drops out, a decision that could be disastrous in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania. If he endorses Harris, who has lived in Los Angeles for the past decade, it would represent a new wave of national political power in Southern California, an explosion not seen in the region since the days of the late Presidents Reagan and Ronald Reagan. .
“Just as Biden has a limited amount of time to prove that he can continue to run, she has just as much time to prove that she should be the nominee if he steps aside,” said Dan Schnur, a political science professor at the University of Southern California. , University of California, Berkeley, Pepperdine University. “The good news for her is that the way she’s going to prove she’s ready to take the top spot is by saying and doing all the things she would do as a running mate.”
San Francisco has dominated Golden State politics for decades, its status cemented by speeches from statewide elected officials in the Bay Area and a political machine that has produced some of the most prominent national Democrats: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and California Governor. Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown.
But Harris — a product of Bay Area politics, which she describes as a “naked movement” — acknowledges that the center of power in the state has shifted.
“Elected leaders in Los Angeles are moving beyond Los Angeles itself and across the state and taking on a national role,” she told The Times in an interview in Los Angeles last fall. “And by the way, they’re doing a fantastic job. “
“We’re lucky to have a Californian in the White House as vice president because there’s not much else left in Washington right now.”
— Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, political analyst and podcast co-host
Harris began migrating south while dating entertainment attorney Doug Emhoff — “wearing just a few sweaters at a time,” she recalls — and by the time they married in 2014, she had moved permanently Brentwood.
The couple moved into Emhoff’s multimillion-dollar, four-bedroom house (later transferred into a trust with the couple’s initials) on a quiet street in Kent Canyon dotted with a pool ’s mansion — a community whose residents reportedly include model Gisele Bündchen, rap mogul Dr. Dre, Lakers star LeBron James and actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
After settling in, Harris took classes at SoulCycle in Brentwood and found places to buy fresh ingredients for her cherished Sunday dinners, such as Huntington Meats near The Grove and the nearby farmers market.
The year after Harris moved to Los Angeles, Boxer announced she would retire at the end of her term in 2017, creating an opportunity to catapult one of the state’s many up-and-coming Democrats onto the national stage. Harris seized the opportunity and became the second black woman elected to the Senate.
Her ambitions for higher office were evident as she campaigned for Democrats across the country during the 2018 midterm elections, shortly before she launched her bid for the White House.
“When she came into Los Angeles, a lot was asked of her,” said U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, a longtime friend of Harris who served as an adviser to her 2020 presidential campaign.
Even before Biden’s setback, Harris, like other vice presidents, was viewed as a potential heir apparent, given her profile on the national stage and support from her party. One of the most prominent and challenging tasks in her portfolio is working to improve economic, security, and political conditions in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala to stem the flow of migrants making the dangerous journey to the United States.
Harris’ approval ratings have long been no better than Biden’s, although her chances of defeating Trump have improved since last month’s debate.
She has assembled a network of state officials, local party leaders and donors who can join forces to run for the Oval Office. Some polls show she has an advantage among younger Americans and voters of color, key constituencies for Democrats.
Heading into an election year, the Biden team has tasked her with trying to galvanize those voters to support re-election. She has spent much of a year building her profile around issues that disproportionately affect these groups, becoming the administration’s leading voice on abortion protections, gun safety and climate action.
Last fall, she visited college campuses to rally students to support government efforts on abortion access, climate change, voting rights and LGBTQ+ equality. She launched another tour in January to fight against state restrictions on abortion rights and has recently held a series of events about how the government responds to gun violence.
As the campaign heats up, Harris takes to the road more and plays a major role in shaping the Biden administration’s message to voters that the president needs to win back in November. But she is also being positioned as an advocate for California at a time when its political influence in Washington is waning.
Shirley Babbage Jeff, a political analyst and co-host of the podcast “Inside Golden State Politics,” said “the shift in power, frankly, has been away from California” because of Pelosi’s retirement and loss of Senate seniority. . “We’re lucky to have a Californian in the White House as vice president because there’s not much else left in Washington right now.”
“In the future, when people think of California politics, they will increasingly think of Southern California and not the Bay Area.”
— Jack Pitney, professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College
Harris has allies in the Senate and fellow Angelenos. Alex Padilla was appointed vice president after being elected vice president, becoming the first Latino to represent California in the Senate. Newsom then selected Los Angeles-based Butler to replace Feinstein, further tilting the balance toward Southern California.
“In the future, when people think of California politics, they’re going to think more and more of Southern California and not the Bay Area,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. ” ” is no longer shorthand for Republican dismissal of more progressive figures.
