Sen. Kamala Harris announced that she’s running for president Monday, jumping into what’s expected to be a broad field of Democrats competing for the chance to take on President Trump.
The first-term California senator, who’s reached national prominence over the last two years for her tough questioning of Trump’s appointees and her prosecutorial case against the administration, painted her run as a battle for national values.
Harris, 54, made her announcement on Twitter and Good Morning America on the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. day, a symbolic move highlighting her history-making status as only the second African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
“The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values,” Harris said in her announcement. “I’m running to lift those voices, to bring our voices together.”
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Mary F. Calvert 3/28/97 Argus News
Dep. DA Kamala Harris, Alameda County Superior Court
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris (left) who supports presidential candidate Barack Obama talks with an Obama supporter Alicia Crank from Mountain View during California Democratic Party State Convention on Friday, March 29, 2008 in San Jose. (**MANDATORY CREDIT**Dai Sugano/Mercury News)
Sean Connelley/ staff 5/12/04 Tribune
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris during an interview with Oakland Tribune reporter Josh Richman at her office at the San Francisco Hall of Justice. Harris is under fire for sticking to her campaign promise to never seek the death penalty, even in the case of the man charged with killing an SF Police officer.
Projected on a screen San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris who is one of California champaign co-chair for Presidential candidate Barack Obama, speaks during California Democratic Party State Convention on Sunday, March 30 2008 in San Jose. (Dai Sugano/Mercury News)
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, center, tells the audience that California’s Proposition 8, which would ban same sex marriage in the state, is not just intolerant but “bad government,” during a rally of Prop. 8 opponents outside city hall in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008. (D. Ross Cameron/The Oakland Tribune)
Kamala Harris, who is running for California Attorney General, speaks about her views of California, including immigration. Jerry Brown, the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial challenger to Republican Meg Whitman, appeared with other Democrats who are seeking high office, at Solaria, a Fremont high-efficiency solar panel manufacturer, on Wednesday, June 10, 2010. (Karen T. Borchers/Mercury News)
(Lt.to Rt.) ACLU Executive Director for Northern California Maya Harris, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, celebrated a ruling by the California Supreme Court which struck down as unconstitutional marriage laws that discriminate against gay and lesbian couples with a 4 to 3, at City Hall in San Francisco, Thursday May 15, 2008. (MARIA J. AVILA/MERCURY NEWS)
ACLU Executive Director for Northern California Maya Harris, National Center For Lesbian Rights Executive Director Kate Kendell, and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, celebrated a ruling by the California Supreme Court which struck down as unconstitutional marriage laws that discriminate against gay and lesbian couples with a 4 to 3, at City Hall in San Francisco, Thursday May 15, 2008. (MARIA J. AVILA/MERCURY NEWS)
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, top, waves to the crowd during the annual Gay Pride Parade along Market Street, Sunday, June 28, 2009 in San Francisco. (D. Ross Cameron/Staff)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris poses for a photo with fifth grade student Jewmarcus Walker during a visit to the East Oakland Pride Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Harris has sponsored legislation to help local school districts and communities address California’s elementary school truancy crisis. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
East Oakland Pride Elementary School principal Jacqueline Perl, left, walks across a playground with California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Harris has sponsored legislation to help local school districts and communities address California’s elementary school truancy crisis. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, left, talks with students at the East Oakland Pride Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Harris has sponsored legislation to help local school districts and communities address California’s elementary school truancy crisis. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Attorney General Kamala Harris and Leon Panetta speak before giving presentations during the California Police Chiefs Association Training Symposium at the Monterey Conference Center in Monterey, Calif. on Wednesday February 26, 2014. (Photo David Royal/ Monterey County Herald)
Proposition 8 plaintiffs Sandy Stier, second from right, and Kris Perry, of Berkeley, right, are married by State Attorney General Kamala Harris, left, at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 28, 2013. Their son Elliott Perry is to the far left. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on gay marriages in California, opening the way for weddings to begin again. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Proposition 8 plaintiffs Sandy Stier, left, and Kris Perry, of Berkeley, are married by California Attorney General Kamala Harris at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 28, 2013. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the stay on gay marriages in California, opening the way for weddings to begin again.(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
State Attorney General Kamala Harris speaks during a press conference at the Oakland Emergency Operations Center in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 8, 2013. An early morning multi-agency raid resulted in the arrest of members of the Case Boys Gang and the Money Team gang. Harris is an Oakland native. (Jane Tyska/Staff)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, right, and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg answer questions from students during the Safer Internet Day conference at Facebook in Menlo Park, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. (John Green/Bay Area News Group)
Attorney General Kamala Harris addresses the audience during the memorial service for San Jose police Officer Michael Johnson at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, April 2, 2015. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)
Attorney General Kamala Harris waves to the crowd along Market Street while riding in the San Francisco Pride parade on Sunday, June 26, 2016, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
California attorney general and U.S. Senate candidate Kamala Harris speaks at her office in San Francisco, Calif., Wednesday, March 18, 2015. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris greets the crowd at Service Employees International Union, Local 521, during a campaign stop for her bid for the U.S. Senate in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. Harris extinguished any speculation that she would be interested in any U.S. Supreme Court nomination after the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)
In this Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016 photo, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, right, does the “dab” at the conclusion of her debate with state Attorney General Kamala Harris in Los Angeles. The Orange County congresswoman capped the hour-long event with her fellow Democrat by mimicking a celebratory gesture popularized by NFL star Cam Newton. (Ed Crisostomo/The Orange County Register)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris makes an appearance at a daily breakfast meeting for California Democratic delegates during a Democratic National Convention event at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, in Philadelphia, Penn., on Tuesday, July 26, 2016. (LiPo Ching/Bay Area News Group)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 3: U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) participates in a reenacted swearing-in with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol January 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. Earlier in the day Biden swore in the newly elected and returning members on the Senate floor. (Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 27: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)(L) walks with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) (C), to a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence closed door meeting at the U.S. Capitol, on April 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigation possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Senator Kamala Harris speaks during a town hall meeting at Beebe Memorial Cathedral in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Senator Kamala Harris, right, talks with attendees after speaking during a town hall meeting at Beebe Memorial Cathedral in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Senator Kamala Harris, second from left, shakes with attendees after speaking during a town hall meeting at Beebe Memorial Cathedral in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Senator Kamala Harris speaks during a town hall meeting at Beebe Memorial Cathedral in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group Archives)
California Governor Jerry Brown is flanked by U.S. Senators Kamala Harris, at left, and Dianne Feinstein during a community meeting at Santa Rosa High School on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris speaks during a community meeting at Santa Rosa High School on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, at left, introduces U.S. Senator Kamala Harris during a community meeting at Santa Rosa High School on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group)
Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) looks on before a markup hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on September 28, 2018, on the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – NOVEMBER 05: California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom campaigns on the final night of his California gubernatorial race, November 5, 2018, at the Chapel in San Francisco, California. He was joined by his wife Jennifer Seibel Newsom, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
Harris’ kickoff campaign rally will be in her hometown of Oakland on Sunday. Her first campaign swing will include an appearance on “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah on Thursday, an event in South Carolina on Friday, and a town hall on CNN in Iowa next Monday.
A Harris presidential bid has long been in the works, and she’s been mentioned as a 2020 contender since even before her 2016 Senate victory. Her campaign office is expected to be in Baltimore, with another office in Oakland.
A former San Francisco District Attorney and California Attorney General, Harris has fashioned her status as a former prosecutor into a key part of her political identity. But some Democrats are already questioning how progressive her record was.
She’s the first California Democrat to run for the White House since former Gov. Jerry Brown made an insurgent bid in 1992. But she likely won’t be the last this campaign: East Bay congressman Eric Swalwell and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti are also considering runs.
Already in the race are Harris’ fellow Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, as well as Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, and Maryland congressman John Delaney. Other potential contenders include former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke.
Harris was born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica. Her parents met as graduate students at UC Berkeley and divorced when she was a young child, and she was raised mostly by her mother Shyamala, a physician. Her dad was an economics professor at Stanford.
“My parents were very active in the Civil Rights Movement, and that’s the language I grew up hearing,” Harris said on Good Morning America. “It was about a belief that we are a country that was founded on noble ideals, and we are the best of who we are when we fight to achieve those ideals.”
After moving to Montreal for high school, Harris went to Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., where she ran her first political campaign, winning a race for freshman class representative. She also interned for California Sen. Alan Cranston, who occupied the same Senate seat she holds today.
She got her law degree at UC Hastings and worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County and San Francisco, trying murder and other felony cases. She won a bruising race for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, defeating Terence Hallinan, her old boss, and went on to be elected state attorney general in 2010.
In state political circles, Harris gained a reputation for tiptoeing around contentious issues. One exception: her 2004 decision as San Francisco DA not to bring the death penalty against a man accused of fatally shooting a police officer, which earned her the ire of police unions and most of the state’s elected officials. She also made waves by rejecting a settlement offer with big banks in a national case over abusive mortgage practices, eventually winning more money for state homeowners in 2012.
In 2016, Harris ran for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, defeating fellow Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the state’s first top-of-the-ticket race featuring two candidates of the same party. It was clear that Trump was on his way to the White House when she came onstage for her victory speech at a Los Angeles nightclub, and she gave an early preview of her new political tone, repeating the word “fight” 33 times in eight minutes.
Over the last two years in the Senate, Harris has cast herself at the head of California’s resistance to Trump. Her prosecutorial experience has come in handy in hearings where she’s grilled Trump officials — including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh — in exchanges that often went viral online. She’s regaled liberal audiences with stories about calling former Homeland Security secretary and chief of staff John Kelly at home during the administration’s ban on immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries.
Harris has introduced legislation that would launch a new tax credit for working families, help undocumented immigrants get attorneys, reform the cash bail system and improve conditions for women in federal prisons, among other measures. But in a Republican-controlled Senate, none of Harris’ major bills have gotten very far.
She’s also invested heavily in expanding her reach on social media, using Facebook ads to grow her list of supporters — a tool that could be important in an expensive presidential race where small-dollar donors will be key.
In trips around the country in recent months — including to key early caucus and primary states like Iowa and South Carolina — Harris has road-tested a message of embracing diversity and progressive values.
“This is a moment to fight for the best of who we are,” she told rapt fans in Iowa City last October. “We are better than this.”
