Sen. Kamala Harris Set To Run For President In 2020

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is expected to make a bid for president in 2020.

According to several reports, the 54-year-old California Democrat will formally announce her run on or around Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 21), most likely during an event in her native Oakland, where she also started her early legal career. Harris was also among a handful of female Democratic lawmakers — including Sens. Elizabeth Warrren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) — to begin hinting at a 2020 presidential run shortly after the 2018 midterm elections in November.

Harris — who also lived in Montreal, Canada, during her early life — has recently appeared on several television talk shows like The View and is also on a short tour to promote her new book, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. 

Harris, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has served as a U.S. Senator for California since January 2017. She has criticized President Donald Trump and his administration several times before and has made a name for herself as a lawmaker who is unafraid to ask tough questions, as demonstrated by her performances in hearings like the testimony of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh late last year. Harris has also made her mark as a progressive who is pro-abortion and in favor of single-payer healthcare like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). She has also pushed for stricter gun control legislation, and in May 2018 co-sponsored the Marijuana Justice Act that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced in 2017. Harris has also pushed for clean energy and pollution reductions.

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According to CBS News, Harris’s advisers are hoping to avoid associating the California Democrat too much with San Francisco, where she served as a district attorney for two terms.

“San Francisco is viewed as a very nutty place by people outside of California, and frankly, by a lot of people inside California,” said Democratic strategist Darry Sragow. 

In an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday, Harris said she would consider running in 2020.

“I might,” Harris said, laughing after host Stephen Colbert asked her if she would run and the audience cheered loudly.

Colbert also asked Harris where her hope comes from despite the tumultuous political landscape.

“I remain optimistic,” she said. “The way I think about it is that we are a country that was founded on noble ideals, and we all know we’ve not yet reached those ideals but part of our strength is we fight to reach those ideals.”

She continued: “We are an aspirational country. And at the moment that we lose this aspiration to be all that our founders said we should and can be, that’s a bad moment. But I remain optimistic that this is worth fighting for. Our country is worth fighting for.”

Harris drew another round of applause for stating her position on the continued fight between Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Trump over border security and the president’s proposal of a wall, an issue that has caused a government shutdown that entered its 21st day on Friday.