The good and the bad Kamala Harris brings to the Biden ticket
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San Francisco — US senator Kamala Harris brings an aggressive approach to politics and public policy, deep electoral experience and hands-on expertise in the beleaguered US criminal justice system as Joe Biden’s running mate.
Harris, at 55 a full generation younger than Biden, also imparts a youthful persona and diversity, with Jamaican and Indian ancestry that may help Biden, as a 77-year-old white man, energise a Democrat base that is rapidly becoming younger, more female and less white.
But Harris comes with a track record as attorney-general of California and district attorney of San Francisco, where she was known as being tough on minority defendants, an issue she will likely need to address in the 83 days remaining in the campaign.
She at times proved a lacklustre campaigner in the primaries, which she quit in December after failing to give voters a clear idea of what she stood for.
Here’s a look at the assets and liabilities Harris brings to the Biden campaign.
Asset: electoral experience
Harris has run in statewide elections in California three times and won each time. She was narrowly elected attorney-general in 2010 and re-elected by a larger margin in 2014. In November 2016, she won the right to replace outgoing senator Barbara Boxer by defeating representative Loretta Sanchez.
She was first elected to public office in 2003 when she defeated the incumbent district attorney of San Francisco, Terence Hallinan, partly by branding him “soft on crime”.
Liability: unclear campaign persona
Harris’s presidential campaign was hobbled by her struggle to convey clearly what she stood for in an election in which voters demand authenticity. She switched positions on Medicare for All within six months, saying she supported the elimination of private insurance, then backing away from legislation she co-sponsored that did just that.
Similarly, she branded herself as “progressive prosecutor” early in her campaign, despite a record back to 2003 of presenting herself as tough on crime.
The Trump campaign already dubbed Harris “Phony Kamala” on Tuesday.
Asset: ‘simpatico’ with Biden
Harris delivered one of the toughest blows Biden ever took on a debate stage, accusing him of siding with segregationist senators over school busing in the 1970s, and she poignantly described the indignity she suffered going to school across town. “That little girl was me,” she said.
The Biden camp was stunned, especially because Harris had been friendly with Biden’s late son, Beau, when they ...
Harris, at 55 a full generation younger than Biden, also imparts a youthful persona and diversity, with Jamaican and Indian ancestry that may help Biden, as a 77-year-old white man, energise a Democrat base that is rapidly becoming younger, more female and less white.
But Harris comes with a track record as attorney-general of California and district attorney of San Francisco, where she was known as being tough on minority defendants, an issue she will likely need to address in the 83 days remaining in the campaign.
She at times proved a lacklustre campaigner in the primaries, which she quit in December after failing to give voters a clear idea of what she stood for.
Here’s a look at the assets and liabilities Harris brings to the Biden campaign.
Asset: electoral experience
Harris has run in statewide elections in California three times and won each time. She was narrowly elected attorney-general in 2010 and re-elected by a larger margin in 2014. In November 2016, she won the right to replace outgoing senator Barbara Boxer by defeating representative Loretta Sanchez.
She was first elected to public office in 2003 when she defeated the incumbent district attorney of San Francisco, Terence Hallinan, partly by branding him “soft on crime”.
Liability: unclear campaign persona
Harris’s presidential campaign was hobbled by her struggle to convey clearly what she stood for in an election in which voters demand authenticity. She switched positions on Medicare for All within six months, saying she supported the elimination of private insurance, then backing away from legislation she co-sponsored that did just that.
Similarly, she branded herself as “progressive prosecutor” early in her campaign, despite a record back to 2003 of presenting herself as tough on crime.
The Trump campaign already dubbed Harris “Phony Kamala” on Tuesday.
Asset: ‘simpatico’ with Biden
Harris delivered one of the toughest blows Biden ever took on a debate stage, accusing him of siding with segregationist senators over school busing in the 1970s, and she poignantly described the indignity she suffered going to school across town. “That little girl was me,” she said.
The Biden camp was stunned, especially because Harris had been friendly with Biden’s late son, Beau, when they ...
