As President Joe Biden Sunday bowed to the growing chorus of and calling for him to exit the 2024 race, everyone is taking another good hard look at .
鈥淭oday I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala Harris to be the nominee of our party this year, 鈥� Biden wrote in a , calling his selection of Harris to be his vice president 鈥渢he best decision I鈥檝e made.鈥�
Vice presidents rarely get much attention. What attention Harris has gotten on the job hasn鈥檛 been particularly positive. Counter to the reputation she cultivated early on in her career as a pragmatic politician and sharp-minded prosecutor, public opinion on Harris soured in the and had mostly stayed sour.
That was in part thanks to the White House saddling her with a series of . Beyond that her role, like that of most vice presidents, has been high on profile, but low on actual responsibility. It鈥檚 a job perhaps best described by fictional as the political equivalent of being 鈥渄eclawed, defanged, neutered, ball-gagged, and sealed in an abandoned coal mine.鈥�
Nor was Harris faring much better with voters in her home state. Last year 59% of California voters in a Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll said they would not welcome her on the top of the ticket.
But as Harris emerged as the favored substitute for Biden, more voters seem to be warming to her. A Washington Post poll found that the vast majority of with Harris at the top of the ticket. The same poll found her narrowly beating Trump in a head-to-head election among registered voters.
Sunday she issued a statement saying she was honored to have Biden鈥檚 endorsement and 鈥渕y intention is to earn and win this nomination鈥�.We have 107 days until Election Day. Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.鈥�
And so the nation is catching itself back up to speed on all things Harris 鈥� and that means catching up on a life of accomplishment and controversy here. More than any other vice president in generations, Kamala Harris鈥� biography is singularly Californian.
Born in Oakland, bussed to school in Berkeley, tested by San Francisco鈥檚 cutthroat municipal politics and propelled onto the national stage as the state鈥檚 top law enforcement officer and then its first female senator of color, Harris鈥� approach to politics and policymaking were honed here.
Now that voters are reconsidering whether Harris has what it takes to be president of the United States 鈥� and as and train their upon her 鈥� we鈥檙e resurrecting this look at her California years and career. Here are nine ways that California shaped Kamala Harris, and that Harris shaped California.
1. A child of Berkeley
In a state full of transplants, Harris is a lifelong Californian.
She was was born in 1964 in Oakland 鈥� the hospital a little over a mile from the city hall where, more than half a century later, she would announce her short-lived 2020 bid for the presidency. Born to immigrant parents who met while getting their PhDs and protesting for civil rights at UC Berkeley, she spent her childhood in Berkeley. Harris鈥� father, Donald Harris, is from Jamaica and her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is from India. The couple split when Harris was 7, and Harris and her sister Maya were raised mostly by her mother, who died in 2009.
In the first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Harris 鈥� then her campaign rival 鈥� for his past opposition to federally mandated busing to desegregate public schools. For Harris, she said, the issue was 鈥減ersonal.鈥�
Specifically, Harris from Berkeley鈥檚 working-class flatlands to Thousand Oaks Elementary School at the base of the affluent north Berkeley hills. This was 1969, just one year after Berkeley Unified its 鈥渢wo-way鈥� busing program across its elementary schools. Berkeley being Berkeley, unlike local integration plans across the country, the city had undertaken this one on its own accord.
After the debate dust-up, Harris clarified that she , a policy stance not so dissimilar from the one she needled Biden over.
Traversing back and forth between different strata of society 鈥� black, white and Asian; well-off and working-class 鈥� is a familiar trope in Harris鈥� biography.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 a homogenous life,鈥� said Debbie Mesloh, a friend who has also worked for Harris as a communication director and a consultant. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a very resourceful person in that she can move in between these worlds.鈥�
Harris spent her teenage years in Montreal, moving there with her sister and mother when Gopalan accepted a university research position there. She earned a political science and economics degree at Howard University in Washington D.C. but returned to California to get her law degree in 1989 at the University of California, Hastings in San Francisco.
Until her most recent move to Washington, she called California home.
Fresh out of law school, she joined the Alameda County district attorney鈥檚 office in 1990, serving there eight years before crossing the bay to San Francisco. In 2003, she unexpectedly won election as San Francisco district attorney, where she served two terms before her narrow election as state attorney general in 2010. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.
2. The influence of king/queen-maker Willie Brown
Former state Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has helped accelerate many a successful political career in California (including that of Gov. ). Harris got a boost from Brown, too.
In March 1994, San Francisco Chronicle鈥檚 legendary columnist Herb Caen described the scene at Brown鈥檚 surprise 60th birthday party. Clint Eastwood was there, wrote Caen, and he 鈥渟pilled champagne on the Speaker鈥檚 new steady, Kamala Harris.鈥� Brown had a reputation for dating much younger women. In his column, Caen described Harris, then a deputy district attorney of Alameda County, as 鈥渟omething new in Willie鈥檚 love life. She鈥檚 a woman, not a girl.鈥�
The relationship ended after two years, but her connection to Brown, three decades her senior, did have an outsized effect on her career.
鈥淚 would think it鈥檚 fair to say that most of the people in San Francisco met her through Willie,鈥� John Burton, who used to be president pro tem of the state Senate, former chair of the California Democratic Party and a San Francisco political powerhouse in his own right, told .
The speaker gave Harris a couple plum positions on two state regulatory boards 鈥� the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and the California Medical Assistance Commission. 鈥淚f you were asked to be on a board that regulated medical care, would you say no?鈥� Harris told a few years later.
Harris鈥� connection to Brown also helped her make connections across San Francisco high-society and California political elite. In 1996, a year after Brown became mayor and Harris broke off the relationship, she joined the board of trustees at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
When Harris ran for San Francisco district attorney nearly a decade later, came from Elaine McKeon, . More 鈥� much more 鈥� poured in from donors with last names like Fisher, Getty, Buell, Haas and other noble houses of the Bay Area.
But from the beginning of her political career, Harris has seen her connection with Brown as a liability 鈥� a cudgel that opponents and, at worst, a tired, sexist trope used to of her ascendant career. In the first run to be San Francisco鈥檚 district attorney, Harris deliberately hired a campaign consultant known for working with clients outside the Brown political machine. During that same campaign, she described her past relationship with the former speaker and mayor as 鈥渁n albatross hanging around my neck.鈥�
And in 2020, that if Biden offered her the chance to be his running mate, she should turn him down 鈥� noting that 鈥渢he glory would be short-lived, and historically, the vice presidency has often ended up being a dead end.鈥�
He recently told a reporter, regretfully, that he and Harris are .
3. A lack of clarity
You saw it in the presidential race. You鈥檝e seen it in her . As the New York Times once: 鈥渢he content of her message remains a work in progress.鈥� We saw it before in California.
While running the California Department of Justice, Harris was often loath to wade into the political battles taking place just a few blocks away in the state Legislature.
There was the bill that would have required her office to investigate police shootings. She did not take a formal position (though she did it would be bad policy). The bill died.
There was the proposal to force police departments to gather data on the ethnicity and race of the civilians they stop. Harris also to take a position. It passed anyway.
And on the biggest criminal justice overhaul in California in a generation, Harris also kept mum.
Prompted by a judicial decree that the state had to dramatically cut the population of its overcrowded prison system, 鈥渞ealignment鈥� was a package of state policies passed in 2011 that shifted tens of thousands of inmates out of state custody and into county jails or onto the rolls of local probation systems.
Despite in many ways reflecting the lessons described in her book 鈥淪mart on Crime,鈥� which argued that non-violent criminals can be redirected into less punitive systems without jeopardizing public safety, Harris, the state鈥檚 top law enforcement officer, was silent on the policy.
鈥淭he idea that she would have consistent positions on issues informed by ideology isn鈥檛 who she is.鈥�COREY COOK, POLITICAL SCIENTIST AND PROVOST OF ST. MARY鈥橲 COLLEGE
That earned a rebuke from the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, which in its endorsement of her 2016 Senate candidacy that Harris 鈥渉as been too cautious and unwilling to stake out a position on controversial issues, even when her voice would have been valuable to the debate.鈥�
What some critics call prevarication or flip-floppery, her supporters call pragmatism. Those are just two ways of describing the same quality, said Corey Cook, a political scientist and provost at St. Mary鈥檚 College, and a longtime observer of San Francisco politics.
鈥淪he鈥檚 not an ideologue,鈥� he said, meaning rather than stake out the boldest, ideologically-coherent agenda, she tends to focus on individual fixes to specific problems. Hence the 鈥溾�� of her presidential campaign, a collection of policy changes designed to address the problems that keep the average voter up at night.
鈥淭he idea that she would have consistent positions on issues informed by ideology isn鈥檛 who she is,鈥� said Cook. Harris may appear to pick her battles, he said, because for her 鈥渢he only lasting solutions are going to be the ones that are able to sustain a majority coalition of support.鈥�
4. Making a mark: sex crimes, domestic violence, child abuse
Harris has never shied away from the 鈥渢ough on crime鈥� label when it comes to a certain class of criminals: domestic violence perpetrators, child abusers and sex traffickers.
After nearly a decade in Alameda County and a short stint as a deputy district attorney in San Francisco (she left, calling the leadership there 鈥溾��), in 2000, Harris joined the San Francisco city attorney鈥檚 office under Louise Renne.
Renne said she was looking for someone to head the office鈥檚 Child and Family Service unit, which investigates child abuse cases. This was not considered a prestigious post. Prosecutors inside the unit had taken to calling it 鈥渒iddie law.鈥�
Renne thought Harris, who had focused on child abuse and sexual exploitation cases in Alameda County, would be a good fit.
鈥淪he comes into my office and says 鈥楥ome on, Louise, we鈥檝e got to go over to court. There are going to be adoptions today,鈥� and she had all these teddy bears."LOUISE RENNE, FORMER SF CITY ATTORNEY
That instinct was confirmed on Harris鈥� first day on the job, Renne said, when a number of children who had been separated from their parents were formally adopted into new families.
鈥淪he comes into my office and says 鈥楥ome on, Louise, we鈥檝e got to go over to court. There are going to be adoptions today,鈥� and she had all these teddy bears,鈥� Renne recalled. 鈥淪he knew the occasion. She knew it was an important one and it should be celebrated.鈥�
Harris鈥� focus on the victims of abuse and exploitation continued after she was elected as San Francisco鈥檚 District Attorney.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what the term 鈥榯eenage prostitute鈥� means. I have never met a 鈥榯eenage prostitute.鈥� I have met exploited kids,鈥� Mesloh, then Harris鈥� communications director, recalls her boss saying at her first all-staff meeting. Harris then ordered her prosecutors not to use the term in court. A year later, Harris sponsored a bill putting the crime of human trafficking into the state criminal code.
Some Democrats say Harris鈥� prior life as a prosecutor with a focus on sex crimes would be a in a potential general election contest against Trump, who has been found and recently became the first former president to be convicted of a felony. In that case, the 34 counts were related to the falsifying of business records in connection to an alleged sexual encounter with a pornographic film actress.
But using the full force of the law to penalize pimps, traffickers and other abusers has earned Harris some criticism from and from .
In one of her final acts as California鈥檚 attorney general, Harris had the CEO of Backpage.com, Carl Ferrer, arrested on pimping charges. Backpage was an online classifieds site known for its 鈥渁dult services鈥� section, which prosecutors had long warned served as a marketplace for sex traffickers.
The arrest was based on a contentious legal argument that pit anti-trafficking fervor against the First Amendment. Since Backpage was merely a platform for ads, its lawyers argued, it was protected by the same law that protects Google from being held liable for illicit websites listed in its search results. A superior court judge and threw out the case, though an amended charge, pursued by Harris鈥� successor, then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, led Ferrer to to money laundering and conspiracy to facilitate prostitution and to the shuttering of the site.
5. The Harris mantra: 鈥楽mart on Crime鈥�
One of the reasons Harris became known as a rising-star District Attorney was her focus on prevention, which she explained in her book, Smart on Crime, written in 2009, the year before she ran for attorney general.
鈥淧ublic health practitioners know that the most beneficial use of resources is to prevent an outbreak, not to treat it,鈥� Harris wrote. 鈥淚nstead of just reacting to a crime every time it is committed, we have to step back and figure out how to disrupt the routes of infection.鈥�
Harris鈥� 鈥淏ack on Track鈥� program, considered the most successful implementation of this idea, redirected first-time, non-violent drug offenders into supervised education, job training courses, therapy sessions and life skills classes. It was a modest program, but a novel one compared to what most other big city law enforcement officers were doing in 2005.
鈥淚n that time period, I think that she was a radical,鈥� said Mesloh. The program has since been emulated by cities around the country. When Harris became attorney general, she launched a similar pilot program for Los Angeles County.
Harris鈥� focus on prevention produced some of her key accomplishments as district attorney. But in the context of the 2020 presidential primary, some of those same accomplishments struck many critics on the left as overly punitive.
The year after launching Back on Track, Harris introduced an anti-truancy initiative. Based on a statistical correlation that chronic class skippers are more likely to be both perpetrators and victims of homicide, Harris鈥� office began threatening the parents of persistently absent students with prosecution.
Harris has been quick to point out that the 鈥渟tick鈥� in this carrot and stick approach only came out after a series of escalating interventions, including mandatory meetings with school staff and social workers. No one went to jail under the program, though a handful of parents were fined. Within a few years, city truancy rates fell by a and Harris took credit.
In 2010 her office to take the program statewide. In the hands of other district attorneys, the statute was used in at least a to put parents behind bars. Critics have said that the policy has been disproportionately .
In a 2019 , Harris said she regretted any 鈥渦nintended consequences鈥� of the state law.
6. Harris has (almost) always opposed capital punishment
Her opposition to the death penalty has been one of the most controversial stands in her career, but it鈥檚 also an example for those who criticize her lack of consistency.
On April 10, 2004, three months after her inauguration as San Francisco鈥檚 new district attorney, 29-year-old police officer Isaac Espinoza was gunned down by a 21-year-old with an AK-47. Three days later, Harris made good on a campaign promise and vowed not to seek the death penalty for the shooter. David Hill was later convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
The decision engendered a predictably fierce backlash from the police union and rebukes from politicians. 鈥淭his is not only the definition of tragedy,鈥� Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at Espinoza鈥檚 funeral, 鈥渋t鈥檚 the special circumstance called for by the death penalty law.鈥� The assembled officers cheered while Harris remained seated.
Some of Harris鈥� critics say she has wavered in tougher political circumstances.
In 2014, when a that California鈥檚 administration of the death penalty was unconstitutional, Harris appealed the decision as state attorney general, arguing that it was 鈥渘ot supported by the law.鈥�
Harris later that she was obligated to defend capital punishment as the legal representative of the state. Many have pointed out that she was happy not to defend a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that voters passed in Proposition 8 when it was challenged a year earlier. Harris鈥� response: She was merely reflecting the position of her client, Gov. Jerry Brown鈥檚 administration.
She also that the judge鈥檚 ruling, which held that the long delays between sentencing and execution in California amounted to 鈥渃ruel and unusual punishment,鈥� could be used to justify speeding up the state鈥檚 system of capital punishment.
7. Prosecutorial overreach controversies
Both as district attorney and as state attorney general, Harris led offices that criminal justice advocates say was overly aggressive in pursuing convictions and lacked transparency in a way that belies Harris鈥� brand as a 鈥�.鈥�
In March 2010, just as Harris was campaigning to become California鈥檚 attorney general, San Francisco authorities shut down a police department crime lab in the city鈥檚 Hunters Point naval yard. A technician named Deborah Madden was accused of skimming drugs, raising broader questions about the lab鈥檚 ability to appropriately handle evidence in criminal cases. (Madden later pleaded guilty).
Harris immediately dismissed 20 drug cases, but the number eventually grew to after documents showed that prosecutors within Harris鈥� office had known about Madden鈥檚 potential unreliability months before the lab was closed, but had neglected to tell defense attorneys.
A superior court judge later Harris鈥� office, writing that the violations infringed on the defendants鈥� constitutional rights.
Afterward, Harris formed a unit to handle the sharing of evidence with criminal defense attorneys. She has also said that she about the problems at the crime lab until after the scandal blew up.
But that hasn鈥檛 done much to assuage the concerns of critics who say Harris had a , which continued once Harris became the state鈥檚 attorney general.
In 2015, for example, lawyers for an inmate convicted of murder attempted to have the case thrown out after new evidence suggested that Riverside County prosecutors lied on the stand during the initial trial. Harris鈥� office, representing the state prison system, resisted, only backing down after footage of one of her by three federal judges went viral.
A spokesperson for her since-abandoned presidential campaign said Harris ordered her office to drop the challenge as soon as 鈥渟he became aware鈥� of the case.
Critics point to other examples. There was her office鈥檚 decision to a molestation conviction that local prosecutors had secured with a false confession.
Asked about that case, the spokesperson said that it was 鈥渓ong-standing practice鈥� for prosecutors within the Californian Department of Justice to file legal motions without the express approval of the Attorney General, implying that, again, Harris was not aware that her office was making the argument. But in this case, the spokesperson added, state prosecutors believed 鈥渢he original case鈥as valid and that the victim in the case deserved justice.鈥�
Another example: her office鈥檚 to take over a 2011 Seal Beach mass shooting case after a judge recused the entire Orange County District Attorney鈥檚 office for widespread prosecutorial misconduct. Harris her decision: 鈥渋t was being handled at the local level.鈥�
Such a track record is to be expected of any prosecutor, said Sally Lieber, who worked with Harris on human trafficking legislation while representing Mountain View in the state Assembly.
鈥淚t is an adversarial system and so she was filling a particular role, but I think that she was able to do it in a very sophisticated, smart and responsive way,鈥� she said.
8. As California鈥檚 AG: Playing hardball
Harris鈥� biggest accomplishment while California鈥檚 attorney general was to secure a financial settlement with some of the country鈥檚 largest banks accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners.
In September 2011, Harris pulled out of ongoing negotiations between attorneys general from nearly every US state and the five banks, the proposed deal of $2-to-$4 billion 鈥渃rumbs on the table.鈥�
Harris was not the first attorney general to walk away, but the departure of the country鈥檚 largest state seemed to have its intended effect.
A few months later, with California back in the mix, a new deal was struck. This time, California got $20.2 billion in debt reductions and direct financial assistance.
Still, some consumer groups and outside experts were critical of the deal, arguing that the banks would have been forced to write off much of that bad debt eventually. 鈥�,鈥� is how Georgetown law professor Adam Levitin put it.
But Harris鈥� willingness to play hardball did result in a bigger settlement, said Rob McKenna, former Washington attorney general who was part of the negotiations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 possible for states to overstate the impact they had on the final settlement. The former New York Attorney General (Eric Schneiderman) would sometimes make claims about the settlement and improvements he had obtained,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 fair to say that Attorney General Harris negotiated and obtained some improvement in the settlement for California.鈥�
9. Kamala the campaigner
Harris launched her 2020 presidential campaign high on fanfare and hype, only to before even making it to Iowa. It was a historically stark underperformance from a candidate that many Democratic insiders believed would be a formidable contender.
In California, Harris鈥� electoral track record has been mixed.
Her first spin on the campaign trail was a superlative success. In her 2003 race for San Francisco District Attorney, she pushed out a two-term incumbent and won more votes than any other candidate running for a city-wide office that year.
Harris鈥� first run for statewide office didn鈥檛 go quite smoothly. Her race for Attorney General against Republican Steve Cooley wasn鈥檛 called until . Yes, Harris won. But she did so by less than a percentage point.
Now, after 18 years in which not a single Republican has won statewide office in California, it鈥檚 easy to look back at that nail-biter of an election and see an early sign of Harris鈥� weakness as a candidate. But at the time, the calculus was a little different. Cooley, a relative moderate, was considered the favorite to win against Harris, a San Francisco liberal. This was 2010, which proved to be a historic landslide election for the GOP. The fact that Harris eked it out despite those headwinds, and as the first woman and person of color to hold that office no less, in the Democratic Party.
Also rising was Gavin Newsom. The two were San Francisco friends and ran in the same social circles even before their political careers ignited. They share the same political consultants. And when the two most prestigious California elective offices opened up 鈥� for governor and U.S. senator 鈥� they sidestepped a ballot rivalry when she successfully ran for the Senate, as did he for governor.
Newsom has 鈥� and recently 鈥� that he would not challenge Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination should Biden withdraw. Although on lists of hypothetical Biden replacements, Biden鈥檚 endorsement indicates she is the heir-apparent.
This story incorporates prior reporting and interviews from CalMatters鈥� 2020 election coverage.
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