CHICAGO — Kamala Harris, then a California senator, ran for president in 2019, but her Baltimore-based campaign didn’t take off and she withdrew before the next year’s primary elections.
The former prosecutor was then named in 2020 as soon-to-be President Joe Biden’s running mate. Vice presidents are a heartbeat away from the presidency, but the position garners relatively little media attention.
That backdrop meant that Harris was essentially introducing herself to many Americans in her acceptance speech on the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday night.
Harris, whose campaign slogan is “For the People,” was seeking to connect with voters and distinguish herself from Biden, 81, who withdrew from the race in July amid questions about his age.
Harris has emphasized most of the same issues — such as abortion rights and safeguarding democratic principles — that Biden did. Democratic strategists say Harris, because she is a former district attorney and California attorney general, can be especially effective spotlighting Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s May conviction on falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Her gender, relatively young age (59) and past advocacy for abortion rights can help her court young voters, particularly women. Protecting abortion rights was a continual theme by other speakers during the convention.
“She is probably the most effective messenger on reproductive freedom in the country,” said Jessica Mackler, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official who is president of EMILY’s List, which helps elect women who support abortion rights.
“She’s spent her entire life leading on this issue,” Mackler said in an interview before the convention began on Monday. Mackler was a convention speaker Wednesday.
“She can mobilize voters that we need to win — women voters, voters of color. Young voters, and young women in particular, are really motivated by her,” Mackler said in the interview.
