Kavanaugh Hearing
First elected to the Senate in 2016, she received national attention for her aggressive questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the Senate Judiciary Committee, earning plaudits from the left and criticism from the right.
The Californian’s pro-immigration positions, including an early refusal to compromise on Trump’s border wall, has endeared her to activists prominent in the Latino community. She was the first senator to call on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign for carrying out Trump’s family separation policy for illegal border-crossings. Immigration activists say she seeks their counsel and describe her as knowledgeable about the issue.
She’s highlighted racial disparities between whites and blacks on maternal mortality and criminal sentencing. Last year, she campaigned for two prominent black politicians: gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams in Georgia, and Senate nominee Mike Espy in Mississippi. She may not be the only black candidate in the field, with others like New Jersey Senator Cory Booker also considering a run.
Southern States
“You have to actively compete in the Southern states. You need those black votes. You can’t be the Democratic nominee without them,” Symone Sanders said, adding that the black community’s overwhelming support for Clinton was “definitely a big barrier” between the Bernie Sanders and the 2016 nomination.
“All the black voters in the southern states from Mississippi to Georgia and in between don’t necessarily know who Senator Harris is. Her name ID is not very high,” Sanders said. “So she’s trying to carve out her space,” she said, noting that Harris is trying to strike a balance between speaking pointedly to constituencies like African Americans while highlighting issues -- like cash bail -- that have broad consequences across racial and ethnic lines.
The 2016 presidential election came down to about 80,000 votes in three states -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. If the Democrats’ 2020 nominee can flip those back and hold the states Clinton won, Trump will be a one-term president, and there’s enormous hunger among Democratic voters to pick a candidate who’s likely to defeat him. For Harris, that means persuading primary voters that she has a winning message on economic issues like trade, which powered Trump in the Midwest.
“I think because it’s the year of the woman, she’ll have the ability to lean into that. She is one of the best-positioned candidates of color,” Sanders said. “But she still has to work for it.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.