2024 U.S. elections Kamala Harris, For the People

Harris Walz | Democrats homepage

55 Things You Need to Know About Kamala Harris (2020)
Who is Kamala Harris? The life of the woman stepping into the 2024 limelight (2024)
Kamala Harris’s American story includes a Canadian adolescence

22 August
Full Transcript of Kamala Harris’s Democratic Convention Speech
The vice president’s remarks lasted roughly 35 minutes on the final night of the convention in Chicago.
(NYT) Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party during a speech before a packed United Center on Thursday in Chicago

2 November
In surprise, Harris has slight lead over Trump in Iowa poll
Kamala Harris’s strength among women, particularly those who are older or politically independent.
A well-regarded poll released Saturday shows Vice President Kamala Harris with a slight lead over former president Donald Trump in Iowa, a state that analysts have regarded as so solidly red that neither candidate has focused on it in final pitches and one that prognosticators have viewed as having virtually no chance of flipping.

1 November
Harris camp grapples with anger over Gaza up to race’s final days
While Harris engages in back-and-forth with activists, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have appealed directly to Arab Americans — with mixed results.
(WaPo) The events of the last week highlight how divisions within the Democratic Party over the war in Gaza continue to hang over a bitterly contested presidential election into its final days. Democrats had hoped Harris’s more empathetic rhetoric on Palestinian suffering would help rally Arab American and Muslim support, particularly in the crucial swing state of Michigan. But the combination of a worsening situation in the Middle East and Trump’s overtures to the Arab American and Muslim community have complicated that effort, as polls show the race remains one of the closest in modern history.

31 October
“Mr. Trump poses an unacceptable risk”: The Economist endorses Harris
‘I did not see this coming’: MSNBC hosts stunned by ‘powerful’ new Harris endorsement
(Raw Story) New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and anchor Mika Brzezinski both expressed surprise Thursday morning that the Economist editorial board chose not to endorse former President Donald Trump.
The endorsement from the United Kingdom-based publication surprised Sorkin because of its historic dedication to conservative economic ideals such as free trade and characteristic support for conservative fiscal policy.
The Economist argued that Trump supporters were “deluding themselves” about the dangers a second Trump administration presented to the global economy and national security.
“You cannot imagine [Harris] bringing about a catastrophe,” the endorsement reads. “We hope that a second Trump presidency would avoid disaster, but Mr. Trump poses an unacceptable risk to America and the world.”

On the last Saturday of October, Michelle Obama appeared in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and gave one of the most remarkable political speeches in memory. It was expansive and nuanced, yet conveyed the most straightforward message imaginable, applicable not just to the presidential candidate she was supporting, but to the millions of people who will be voting in the 2024 election:
“I am asking you all, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously,” she implored. “Please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us. A vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health, against our worth.” This is a question, she said, “about our value as women in this world.”

29-30 October
Kamala Harris pledges unity in Ellipse speech
(GZERO media) Kamala Harris made her closing arguments at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, on Tuesday night, where more than 75,000 supporters turned out to support the vice president.
The speech took place where Donald Trump addressed his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before they stormed the US Capitol.
Harris reminded supporters of Trump’s actions on that fateful day, focusing on the former president’s authoritarian leanings, calling him a “petty tyrant” and “wannabe dictator.”
She contrasted herself to the “chaos” of the first Trump administration and promised to compromise with those who disagreed with her and to work for all Americans. She pledged to preserve Obamacare while cutting taxes for middle-class households. Meanwhile, she warned that Trump’s tariff plan would effectively amount to taxes paid by consumers. Harris also pledged to have Medicare cover home health care for the elderly to help alleviate the burden on sandwich-generation caregivers of both young families and their parents.

Harris tries to paint contrast with Trump, arguing ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’ at DC rally
(CNN) Kamala Harris on Tuesday night warned Americans that Donald Trump would open up a floodgate of vengeance against his political rivals, including ordinary Americans, while promising that she’d work for the American people.
“In less than 90 days, either Donald Trump or I will be in the Oval Office,” Harris said from the Ellipse in Washington, DC, pivoting to the visage of the White House behind her as she delivered what he campaign had billed as a “closing argument” speech.
“On day one, if elected, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. When elected, I will walk in with a to-do list full of priorities on what I will get done for the American people.”
Harris’s Closing Argument: Turn the Page on Trump, and Avert Chaos
In a speech in Washington where organizers are planning for up to 40,000 attendees, she will argue that she represents generational change. But her rival will remain at the spine of her case.
(NYT) On Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump stood onstage at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House, and encouraged thousands of his supporters to fight to overturn an election he falsely claimed had been stolen.
That angry image is exactly the one that Vice President Kamala Harris wants Americans to remember as she steps onstage at the Ellipse on Tuesday evening…[to] deliver what her campaign is calling a closing argument that is meant to persuade still-undecided voters to consider what the future might look like if it holds another Trump term.
“We know that there are still a lot of voters out there that are still trying to decide who to support or whether to vote at all,” Jennifer O’Malley Dillon…said that Ms. Harris’s speech would be designed to reach a slice of the electorate that may be “exhausted” by the politics of the Trump era.

25 October
Voters are convinced the economy is worse than it is. It could cost Harris the election.
(Politico Nightly) Entering the final week before the election, the vibes for Democrats aren’t great — and many in the party are at a loss over how to influence a seemingly calcified electorate.
… Democrats lament that nothing they do seems to get through to Trump-curious voters. Nothing “moves the needle,” as Washington insiders like to say.
Nowhere is this more frustrating to Democrats than on the economy. To Biden/Harris alums, it should be a selling point. Inflation is down, manufacturing jobs are up, and the U.S. economy is the envy of the world — at least to the chattering classes in Washington and abroad.
Union members ostensibly should be the most appreciative. The Biden-Harris administration has put them the center of U.S. economic policy in a deliberate attempt to avoid the Blue Wall collapse that doomed even former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. The White House has expanded Trump’s tariffs, passed historic industrial policies, and Biden even joined a UAW picket line. Major unions from the Teamsters to the Autoworkers won record contracts under his watch. Shouldn’t Democrats be rewarded for that at the ballot box?

23 October
Takeaways from Kamala Harris’ CNN town hall
Over and over, Vice President Kamala Harris argued at a CNN town hall Wednesday night that Republican rival Donald Trump is “unstable” and “unfit to serve.”
The Democratic nominee’s message in the closing weeks 2024 presidential race is squarely focused on warning Americans – particularly undecided independents and moderate Republicans – that Trump poses a threat to the nation’s core principles.
She pointed repeatedly to former senior military figures in Trump’s administration who have called him a fascist and claimed the former president spoke glowingly of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals. She also raised concern over his comments about turning the military against “enemies within.”
Harris was as focused on putting the former Trump aides and military leaders’ comments in front of the Pennsylvania town hall crowd, and voters watching at home, as she was on detailing her own policy agenda.
23 Nobel Prize-winning economists call Harris’ economic plan ‘vastly superior’ to Trump’s
(CNN) More than half of the living US recipients of the Nobel Prize for economics signed a letter that called Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic agenda “vastly superior” to the plans laid out by former President Donald Trump.
Twenty-three Nobel Prize-winning economists signed onto the letter, including two of the three most recent recipients.
“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’ economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump,” the economists write in the letter obtained by CNN.
23 Nobel Prize-winning economists back Harris’ economic proposals
(Axios) … Why it matters: With the economy a top priority for voters in the 2024 election, the signees backing Harris’ policies are a boost for the Democratic nominee with less than two weeks until Election Day.
Where Kamala Harris stands on 10 key issues, from immigration to guns
Economy
As vice-president, Ms Harris worked with President Biden to pass major economic legislation – regularly labelled “Bidenomics” – which included major investments in infrastructure and green energy.
Growth and jobs creation have been strong but inflation and high interest rates continue to hit American wallets.
In her convention acceptance speech, the vice-president promised mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers, a tax credit for parents of newborns and bans on price gouging at the grocery store to help target inflation.
She added that her plans would create “an opportunity economy where everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed”.
In her first interview as the Democratic nominee with CNN, Ms Harris said that one of her highest priorities was “to support and strengthen the middle class”, a theme she has repeated on the campaign trail.

21 October
A US president above all?
(GZERO media) When asked last week while speaking at Chatham House to fill in the gaps of a Kamala Harris presidency, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi responded: “You are talking about one person, but we’re talking about our country.” And yet, whoever is selected to serve as the 47th US president, this one person, will place the US on a trajectory for the latter half of this decade, and at a pivotal moment in geopolitical history.
Since leaping onto the main stage in late July, Harris has been dogged by questions about her foreign policy experience and potential priorities. From her convention speech to debate performance to a strategically timed Fox News interview, Harris has sought to differentiate herself from Joe Biden’s presidency while still giving a nod to longstanding Democratic policy positions.
Without more meat on the bone being offered by her campaign, watchers from abroad are left scratching their heads about whether Harris is “turning the page,” as she likes to say, or if they will find themselves reading from the same recognizable book of democracy promotion, multilateral cooperation, international institutions, and free markets.

Who might make up Harris’ Cabinet
By Politico Staff
If Kamala Harris wins the election, she will likely approach the task of filling out her Cabinet and West Wing much like she did when she took over Joe Biden’s campaign operation this summer.
While she’ll ensure her closest advisers and key Cabinet members are people she personally trusts, there will be some continuity with the current administration, according to five people familiar with ongoing conversations granted anonymity to speak candidly about the transition process. And regardless of whether Democrats keep their narrow hold of the Senate or Republicans take control, Harris will have to game out how much of Biden’s Cabinet she can hold over.
Secretary of State
For Harris, who hasn’t yet fully distinguished her foreign policy agenda from Biden’s, the choice of top diplomat will suggest whether she’s going for four more years of Biden, or something entirely new. …

4 October
Job growth blows away expectations, in boost for Harris
The surprisingly solid numbers put Fed Chair Jerome Powell on course to reduce interest rates by a modest quarter of a point when the central bank holds its next meeting
BUT
Harris meets with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan
Meeting comes as VP holds a rally in Flint, site of a 2014 water crisis that became a symbol of government neglect
(WaPo) Vice President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan on Friday, part of an ongoing effort to stem defections from a pivotal group of voters who have fiercely criticized President Joe Biden for his staunch support of Israel’s wars in Gaza and now Lebanon.
The meeting came during a campaign swing through the Rust Belt as Harris has tried to both shore up and showcase the multiracial, multiethnic and even bipartisan coalition she hopes will land her in the White House. Arab Americans make up an unusually large proportion of the Democratic electorate in Michigan, a state critical to Harris’s campaign strategy.
After Friday’s meeting with Muslim leaders, Harris spoke at a campaign rally in Flint, a majority Black city whose 2014 water crisis became an international symbol of government neglecting the basic needs of its vulnerable citizens. That year, it emerged that a failure to add proper corrosion-control chemicals to the water supply had allowed lead to flow into homes and threaten the entire community.

3 October
Liz Cheney campaigns with Kamala Harris
(GZERO media) Cheney’s presence with Harris sends a clear campaign message: You don’t have to agree with the candidate on most issues to support her over Trump, whom Cheney has called a danger to the Constitution. The Harris campaign hopes Cheney’s support will persuade conservatives who won’t support Trump to “take the extra step” and cast a ballot for his opponent.
The flow of GOP officials looks unlikely to make a large difference in vote totals, but in Wisconsin and the other states most likely to decide the election — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada —polling margins are so close that even a small shift can decide the outcome.

30 September
The Only Patriotic Choice for President
NYT Editorial Board
It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks. …
For this reason, regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her, Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.

27 September
Kamala Harris’ Pennsylvania Problem
Joe Biden’s local ties and cultural roots kept him competitive in culturally conservative northeastern Pennsylvania. Harris’ prospects in the heavily Catholic, working-class Lackawanna County in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania there are dicier.
(Politico) Harris is a Baptist woman of color from California who has become a leader of the Democrats’ abortion rights message in the post-Dobbs era. …“That profile makes her an awkward fit in a closely watched, economically hard-pressed working-class region that’s historically been a locus of anti-abortion activity.”

25 September
Harris’s Economic Pitch: Capitalism for the Middle Class
(NYT) In a major address in Pittsburgh, the vice president praised business and used technical language to court economy-minded voters skeptical of big government.
Vice President Kamala Harris wants voters to know that she is not a socialist.
That was the clear, unspoken theme of Ms. Harris’s nearly 40-minute economic policy speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. It was why she paraphrased Warren Buffett, cited a survey of top economists and praised entrepreneurs in language that echoed Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s presidential run a dozen years earlier.

9 September
Harris campaign website now outlines policy platform
(WaPo) The page lists Harris’s economic, immigration and foreign policy agendas, contrasting each section with the far-right Project 2025 policy proposal.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign posted a list of her policy positions on her website Sunday.
Titled “A New Way Forward,” the page outlines her agenda on the economy as well as immigration and foreign policy.

The Harris agenda emerges: Populism with a ‘healthy dose of centrism’
The vice president has in a few weeks revamped Democratic Party policy with a raft of new proposals. A debate is raging about what it all means.
By Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter
(WaPo) Since she suddenly became the Democratic presidential nominee barely a month ago, Harris has released, disavowed or refined a raft of policies — on health care, housing, child benefits and more — that begin to define her vision for the economy. The result, which blends left-leaning populism with more sympathy for industry, has led critics to accuse the campaign of scrambling to appease warring internal factions. But it also has drawn praise for taking a broader view than Biden’s of the American economy.

8 September
New Poll Suggests Harris’s Support Has Stalled After a Euphoric August
Almost 30 percent of voters said they needed to learn more about her.
(NYT) …it wouldn’t be hard to explain if Vice President Harris’s support really has faded a bit in recent weeks. After all, she was benefiting from an ideal news environment: an uninterrupted month of glowing coverage from President Biden’s departure from the race in July to the Democratic convention in August. It’s possible she was riding a political sugar high; if so, it would make sense if she came off those highs in the two uneventful weeks since the convention.
There’s also a plausible reason the Times/Siena poll would be the first to capture a shift back toward Mr. Trump: There simply haven’t been many high-quality surveys fielded since the convention, when Ms. Harris was riding high. There was a scattering of online polls this week, but there hasn’t been a traditional high-quality survey with interviews conducted after Aug. 28.

7 September
How Harris will distinguish her foreign policy from Biden — and Trump
(NPR) It’s an issue likely to be front and center in Tuesday’s debate with former President Donald Trump. Republicans have sought to blame Harris for what they cast as the foreign policy failures of the Biden administration — from the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan to the number of migrants at the southern border
… the day after she was inaugurated, Harris made her first international call as vice president to the head of the World Health Organization to discuss the administration’s decision to rejoin the group. Trump had pulled out of the WHO during the pandemic.
… As vice president, Harris made a point of visiting Africa — something Biden promised to do, but has not yet done. A senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe Harris’ work behind the scenes said she has had an emphasis on the Global South in her work.
Harris has endorsed and echoed Biden’s emphasis on managing competition with China and supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
When it comes to the war in Gaza — one of the biggest foreign policy challenges for whoever wins the election in November — Harris has said Israel has a right to defend itself and that she will ensure it has the “ability” to do so.
At the same time, she was among the first voices in the administration to emphasize the humanitarian suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. But to date she has offered little indication of how her rhetorical empathy may translate into policy.

Dick Cheney says he will vote for Harris
Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris instead of former President Donald Trump — explaining that his decision had to do with Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

29-30 August
Harris’ first interview recap: She’s pragmatic, not progressive
(GZERO media) Performance review. The interview came amid criticism that she had been avoiding a hard-hitting media interview. This attempt to answer that criticism may have fallen flat. Harris appeared comfortable and articulate, but the interview consisted mostly of soft-ball questions. The real test of Harris’ mettle is yet to come on Sept. 10 when she faces off against Donald Trump on the debate stage.
Harris says she will put a Republican in her Cabinet if elected
In first major interview since Biden’s withdrawal, Harris calls Trump’s attack on her identity the “same old tired playbook.”
(WaPo) Harris’s comments appeared to signal a goal of returning to a more bipartisan climate if she wins the White House. Before the current polarized era, presidents not infrequently named figures from the other party to their Cabinets, as a way of broadening their appeal and signaling they would govern for all Americans.
Harris defends immigration shift, could name Republican to cabinet
Harris’ first formal interview since nomination
Harris has moved to center on immigration, fracking

Jennifer Rubin: How Kamala Harris can improve on Biden’s White House
On personnel, policy and communications strategy, Harris has the opportunity to do Biden one better.
The Biden administration has been one of the most efficient and successful in modern history. With narrow majorities in Congress and then a hostile House in the past two years, the White House nevertheless passed a huge raft of legislation, had no scandals (Republicans failed to come up with anything), enjoyed virtually no turnover and did very little leaking. Though Vice President Kamala Harris can be expected to build on President Joe Biden’s successes if she wins the election, each White House is different, because each president is different. And Harris can make some significant but important changes.
To start with personnel: Harris should make every effort to keep Biden’s Cabinet superstars — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — as she assembles her own team. At the Justice Department, however, she will need someone far more aggressive and politically astute than the current attorney general — perhaps former acting attorney general Sally Q. Yates or North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a former state attorney general who, by then, will be out of office. Harris also should make every effort to find one or more Republicans who can reinforce the bipartisan coalition she is assembling. Adam Kinzinger for Veterans Affairs would make sense, with Liz Cheney perhaps at the FBI or in a top ambassadorship.

27 August
Harris, Biden and allies hit battlegrounds for Labor Day blitz
The campaign hopes to shore up working-class voter support.
(Politico) The Harris campaign is planning a Labor Day blitz of events on Monday in nearly every battleground state, including Vice President Kamala Harris’ first joint campaign appearance with President Joe Biden since the switch at the top of the ticket.
Harris will travel to Detroit on Monday, before joining Biden in Pittsburgh for a campaign event, a nod to the president’s union bonafides in states like Pennsylvania. Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and first lady Gwen Walz will travel to Milwaukee as the city celebrates its annual Laborfest, while second gentlemen Doug Emhoff will attend a Labor Day event in Newport News, Virginia.

25 August
Kamala Harris, For the People
Jeremy Kinsman
(Policy) Amid enormous energy and enthusiasm in the United Center, speakers exhorted delegates to work intensely from now until Nov 5 to prevail. Many remember that on August 20, 2016 Hillary Clinton had a national polling lead of 5.7%. Vice President Harris had built a national lead in the polls of a few % when the convention opened. Momentum is king, for as long as it lasts.
They know that Harris has yet to be tested on the substantive issues, in news conferences, interviews, and in the possibly decisive September 10 debate with Trump.
He has avoided substantive discussion, indulging mainly in personal attacks on Harris. He depicts her as the incumbent in an age of anti-incumbency. She aims to transfer the burden of incumbency back to Trump, declaring the country need only recall his chaotic 2017-21 term. As Barack Obama said, “we have seen that movie – and we all know that the sequel is usually worse.” Democrats repeatedly mocked the toxic “Project 2025” outline of autocratic policy proposals prepared to guide a Trump return, that he now disowns, but that everybody knows reveals his radical intentions.
It has been a race without precedent in drama and stakes, as Kamala Harris emphasized, “not only the most important of our times, but of our nation’s history.”
The Globe and Mail saw the possibility of a real political inflection point that could substitute “a return of optimism to politics” for a political culture driven by outrage and anger, typified by Donald Trump’s divisive populist campaigns. The replacement of “can-do” for Trump’s “un-do,” if successful, could herald a rally of optimism within other embattled democracies.
The New Yorker writer Susan Glasser remarked the other day, “What a time for a journalist to be alive.” I guess. But with drama, comes stress. Buckle up.

23 August
Kamala Harris Was ‘Confident, Principled — Presidential’
Best and Worst Moments From Night 4 of the Democratic Convention
(NYT Opinion) … Jamelle Bouie, Times columnist …this wasn’t a speech about the meaning of her candidacy. It was something closer to a State of the Union — a statement of policies and priorities and an indictment of her opponents. It was as if the campaign had offloaded talk of symbolism to other speakers so that Harris could present herself as ready to be president on Day 1.
5 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ historic acceptance speech
(NPR) History was made Thursday night when Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to do so.
Those historic firsts can be opportunities, and they can be challenges. Harris is not someone known for delivering big speeches, and the public’s views of her are still forming.
1. Harris introduced herself to America.
Overall, Harris sounded in control, shared her values, told the country where she comes from and where she wants to take it, while also contrasting herself with Trump
2. She and Democrats inverted a lot of Republican messaging.
Instead of a “radical” California liberal, Harris painted herself as a regular, blue-collar kid, who understands the needs of people and the value of hard work and discipline.
3. Harris showed she was disciplined.
She looked the part, stuck to the script, didn’t ramble or meander, and mostly stuck to the facts. She laid out a vision for the future of the country, one that stands in stark contrast to what Trump wants to do. … And she did it all without dwelling on her gender, race or ethnic identity.
4. She tried to stake a claim to the “change” mantle?
Harris showed not only is she change from Trump, someone who has now been running or serving as president for almost a decade, but also from Biden. That was evident by the very different speeches they delivered this week. … Another way she showed her difference with Biden was in how she spoke about Gaza.
5. Democrats are walking away thrilled with how the week went, but this is still a very close race.
The week was well produced; the campaign pulled off a high-wire act seamlessly marrying the convention with a packed Harris-Walz rally in Milwaukee at the very arena where the Republican National Convention was held; and it had big stars.
But most importantly, it showcased and introduced Harris in the best light possible. And all of that has Democrats over the moon.
The Surprising Word Democrats Keep Using to Describe Kamala Harris’ Campaign
Is Harris already or can she be, people were asking, not only a candidate for president but actually, and rather remarkably, the leader of a political movement?
(Politico) “A chance,” as she said, three key letters capitalized in her written remarks, “to chart a New Way Forward.”
This was just the kind of language that had people this week talking not just about an energized campaign but something much more grand. From the United Center to the convention center to the ballrooms and halls of the delegate-housing hotels, from stages to caucus meetings to the roster of wee-hours parties, people were using a word loaded with historical weight.
…could Harris really be more than an emergency alternative but actually a transformative figure who shifts the political order for more than an election cycle or two?
“I think she already is,” Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland told me. “I think what we’re seeing right now is not just about a political campaign. I think what we’re seeing right now is the American people have a choice about what type of country that we want to be. That,” he said, “is a movement.”

Kamala Harris’ Parents: All About Her Mom Shyamala Gopalan and Dad Donald J. Harris
(People) After Shyamala earned a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology from UC Berkeley, she became a distinguished breast cancer researcher.
According to her obituary published in the San Francisco Chronicle, she began her career conducting research at the school’s zoology department and its cancer research lab. She published numerous notable research papers and spent time at many of the top research institutions in the U.S. and around the world.
Shyamala worked at the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin and abroad in France and Italy. She spent 16 years at McGill University’s Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital in Canada. During the last decade of her work, she returned to UC Berkeley to conduct research within the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
During her career, Shyamala made “substantial contributions to the field of hormones and breast cancer” and received numerous honors. The cancer advocacy organization Breast Cancer Action wrote that her work “transformed the medical establishment’s understanding of the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue.”
She was also a National Institutes of Health peer reviewer and served on the President’s Special Commission on Breast Cancer.
Shyamala Harris Obituary
All About Kamala Harris’ Father, Donald J. Harris
Kamala Harris’ dad, Donald J. Harris, immigrated from Jamaica to attend the University of California, Berkeley
(People) Donald was a professor of economics at Stanford University
Following his graduation from U.C. Berkeley, Donald took temporary teaching positions at two Illinois colleges: Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He soon became a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before returning to California in 1972 to become a professor of economics at Stanford University.
There, he taught “radical political economics,” and was described as a “Marxian economist” by The Stanford Daily in 1974. Shortly after, he became the first Black man to earn tenure at the school, teaching there for over two decades before retiring in 1998.
During his time as a professor, Donald continued to hold true to his roots in Jamaica and served as an economics policy consultant to the country’s government and as an economics advisor to a number of Jamaican prime ministers.
In addition to his other honors, Donald has published numerous academic papers and books, including Jamaica’s Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth and “A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term.”

17 August
‘A Completely Different Campaign’: How Kamala Harris Reopened the Electoral College Map
A longtime Democratic strategist thinks Kamala Harris is on the cusp of becoming an unstoppable candidate.
By Ryan Lizza, Playbook Co-Author and Chief Washington Correspondent for POLITICO
Unlike President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris has multiple pathways to victory in the Electoral College. The gender gap this year may be bigger than ever. And Harris has the rare opportunity to turn what is now just a political campaign into a genuine movement.
…some of the insights I gleaned from Doug Sosnik, who is best known for being a top adviser to Bill Clinton: he went beyond the fundamentals and also touched on a few ideas about the forthcoming sprint to November that might surprise you: why JD Vance might influence the election more than Tim Walz, which two metrics can tell you the most about the state of the race and and why he thinks Harris has the potential to match the impact of Ronald Reagan. …
“She’s still the leader of a campaign. But she has been making strides, and she could by the end of the month — particularly if the convention goes well in Chicago — she could be at a point where she’s a head of a movement, which is bigger than a candidate, and that’s pretty much unstoppable. And if you are leading a movement, issues don’t matter, nothing matters.”

16-19 August
Harris unveils part of her emerging economic platform at North Carolina rally
Vice President Kamala Harris announced a sweeping set of economic proposals Friday meant to cut taxes and lower the cost of groceries, housing and other essentials for many Americans, declaring, “Look, the bills add up.”
Economists pan Harris-nomics
(Axios) Kamala Harris, presidential candidate, has proved herself unafraid of chasing votes with populist policy promises — no taxes on tips! money to buy houses! — that abandon orthodox economics.
Why it matters: Such policies tend to elicit eye-rolls from economists, who see them as counterproductive and say they would push up prices and worsen the inflation problem they’re attempting to address.
Mainstream left-leaning economic pundits…have all criticized the Harris campaign’s proposals.
The big picture: Sound politics doesn’t always align with sound economics. In an election both sides are treating as existential, political considerations often trump other practicalities.
Brooks and Capehart on Harris’ economic policy proposals
Just days before she formally accepts her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Vice President Kamala Harris is unveiling key policy proposals.

16 August
First-name basis: Harris is leaning into ‘Kamala’
It’s part of her long-held strategy.
(Politico) One word is everywhere these days: on campaign signs, in social media posts and echoing across rallies.
“KAMALA.” “KAMALA.” “KAMALA.”
When it comes to building a brand, most presidential campaigns reach for a candidate’s last name — think Barack Obama’s ubiquitous red-white-and-blue “O,” or Donald Trump’s…everything. But as POLITICO’s campaign reporter Myah Ward writes in her new piece, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has taken a different approach: leaning into “Kamala” rather than “Harris.”
In the process, Myah writes, Harris has reclaimed her first name from Trump and other Republicans who mispronounce it on purpose as an insult. She’s also staked out a bold position in a thorny ethical debate about referring to female politicians by their first name.

6-8 August
Why did Kamala Harris choose Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro for VP? Expert weighs in
(ABC) “I think both Shapiro and Walz had risks and rewards for her and one of the reasons people pay attention to veepstakes is because it says something about the candidate,” noted Dr. Susan Liebell, a political science professor at St. Joseph’s University.
“I think what she’s trying to do is throw something to progressives to say, ‘I do care about these policies.’ But she’s also saying, ‘I know this race is going to be won in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Western Pennsylvania,'” Liebell added.
Harris chooses Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as VP pick
Walz, who has a record of winning over rural conservative voters, is little-known on the national stage.

30 July
The pro-Harris ad blitz begins
(Politico Playbook) The minute-long ad, “Fearless,” projects a mostly positive message introducing Harris as a fighter — from prosecutor to VP — against criminals, big banks and Big Pharma. It closes with a knock against DONALD TRUMP over tax breaks for corporations and the Affordable Care Act, and then Harris’ new mantra that “we are not going back.” The spot is the first in a $50 million ad campaign, running on TV and online with a significant Olympics footprint.
The anti-Harris ad blitz begins
The Trump campaign’s first $12 million ad flight targeting Harris goes live in six swing states this morning, and it’s all about the border — tagging the VP as “failed, weak, dangerously liberal.”
“Under Harris, over 10 million illegally here. A quarter of a million Americans dead from fentanyl. Brutal migrant crimes. And ISIS — now here,” the voiceover says

28 July
Harris raised $200 million in first week of White House campaign and signed up 170,000 volunteers
(AP) The campaign, which announced its latest fundraising total on Sunday, said the bulk of the donations — 66% — comes from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle and were made after President Joe Biden announced his exit from the race and endorsed Harris.
Her campaign said it held some 2,300 organizing events in battleground states this weekend as several high-profile Democrats under consideration to serve as Harris’ running mate stumped for her.
Harris campaigned in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday, drawing hundreds to a fundraiser that had been organized when Biden was still at the top of the Democratic ticket. The fundraiser had originally been expected to raise $400,000 but ended bringing in about $1.4 million, according to the campaign.

27 July
Game Over: Kamala Harris and the New Campaign
Jeremy Kinsman
I’ll not try to believe that Kamala is today’s Bobby, or Barack. I only need to be sure she can beat Donald Trump, and I am. That’s good enough for now.
(Policy) Washington media picked on Harris in gossipy items; her unusually high staff churn and redecoration of the VP’s residence, painting her as a superficial prima donna. However, when the Trumpian Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, and 14 states adopted highly restrictive laws on women’s reproductive autonomy and rights, Harris came to the fore as an articulate and forceful litigator of the interests of women, in ways that Joe Biden, as an older white man, never could.
Six months ago, it was conventional Washington wisdom that Harris was nonetheless a drag on the aging Biden’s chances against Trump, a gift to the MAGA crowd who whispered to all who could hear, “If you vote for fragile and failing Joe Biden, you’re more than likely in a year or two to get wacky, radical Kamala Harris.”
Biden’s sudden and belated step-down on July 21 had an extraordinary effect. At least half of Americans felt an instant and giddy release from worry and despondency. The next day’s sobriety changed the subject to Biden’s replacement.
Biden, to his credit, endorsed Vice President Harris right away, not in his July 21 resignation letter to the American people, but in a simultaneous tweet. The form didn’t matter. The swift formation of a consensus that Kamala Harris was the right one to succeed him as nominee seemed as startling and as inevitable as was his decision to step aside.
Former Trump press secretary Anthony Scaramucci has drawn attention to a salient demographic fact that ought to – and does – scare thinking Republicans. Since the 2016 election, 20.2 million baby boomers, most of whom voted for Trump, have died. Since then, 40 million Gen X and Millennials became eligible to vote. They are polling 60% Democratic in principle, but were not at all enthused by Biden.
Harris has the personality and profile to bring them back into the game. A New York Times/Siena College poll July 25 already shows a dramatic shift among under-29 and Hispanic voters away from Trump and back to Harris from three weeks ago. Trump’s promises to deport 15 million illegal immigrants come across to Hispanics as a toxic pogrom.

The Interview
Pete Buttigieg
By Lulu Garcia-Navarro
(NYT Magazine) … I think people do know this, but she is not just impressive, she’s smart and funny. The best chances I had to see this were when I was very involved in debate prep. I was asked to effectively play Mike Pence, which is a very strange psychological thing for me to do, but I’m so glad I got to do it because I got to see her in action. So often you hear, Oh, this person’s really funny and loose, but it doesn’t come through on TV. But I actually think what’s interesting, not just TV, but the internet has picked up on the fact that she has this great sense of humor. And it’s also revealing that the G.O.P. has tried to attack her for it, and that’s fallen flat. I mean, even just this idea of sending around images of her laughing, as if her joy is something that looks bad. When actually what looks bad is to be the doom-and-death march Republican Party against a Democratic Party that on one hand is very cleareyed about the enormous stakes of this election, and on the other hand is visibly enjoying ourselves right now.

26 July
Barack and Michelle Obama endorse Kamala Harris, giving her expected but crucial support

24-25 July
Harris Narrows Gap Against Trump, Times/Siena Poll Finds
In a survey taken after President Biden stepped aside, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are locked in a tight race separated by a single percentage point among likely voters.
(NYT) Vice President Kamala Harris begins a 103-day sprint for the presidency in a virtual tie with former President Donald J. Trump, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, as her fresh candidacy was quickly reuniting a Democratic Party that had been deeply fractured over President Biden.
Who should Kamala Harris choose as her vice president?
What does she need in her running mate to govern
Who Could Kamala Harris Pick as Her VP?
(NYT) Vice President Kamala Harris is considering a bench of new-generation Democratic leaders as she moves toward a critical decision: picking a running mate.
The list of possibilities is fairly well known and includes Democrats widely seen as possible presidential candidates in 2028. She is expected to make the pick before Democrats convene on Aug. 19 in Chicago for their nominating convention.

24 July
From Melinda Gates to Reed Hastings, here’s what business leaders are saying about Kamala Harris
The leader of the “KHive” even got a nod of approval from Beyoncé herself
(Quartz) Within 24 hours, the Harris campaign raised $81 million, in what her team touted as the largest single-day haul in campaign history. While many of those contributions came from grassroots donors, according to her team, Wall Street Democrats also resumed their regularly scheduled giving — after keeping their wallets firmly shut to pressure Biden to make way for a younger, ostensibly more competitive candidate.
Among the wealthy donors were Centerview’s Blair Effron, Blackstone’s Jonathan Gray, Lazard’s Peter Orszag and Ray McGuire, Paul Weiss’ Brad Karp, Evercore’s Roger Altman, and Avenue Capital CEO Marc Lasry, Semafor reported.
As members of the business world open their wallets to Harris, here is what some of the top business leaders are saying (or singing) about the new name set to top the Democratic ballot.

22-23 July
Harris leans into her prosecutor background and draws contrast with Trump
By Will Weissert
Vice President Harris is honing the political message she plans to use to seek the White House in November.
(AP) Rallying staffers at Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, Harris emphasized her professional background as a prosecutor. She contrasted that with Trump, who has been convicted on 34 felony counts in a hush money case in New York.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said, adding, “I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Harris gets a dream start, but the task ahead is monumental
Analysis by Stephen Collinson
Kamala Harris has aced her moment. So far.
(CNN) The vice president has already won the backing of enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, sparked a fundraising bonanza and alchemized the mood of a party that looked headed for defeat.
But while Harris can hardly have hoped for a better start in establishing legitimacy among Democrats, she is still just hours into a mission that ranks as the most daunting for any modern potential presidential nominee. And the full intensity of Republican nominee Donald Trump’s attacks is yet to unfold in the most unpredictable election season in generations.
Historic flood of cash pours into Harris campaign and allied groups
Democrats reported raising more than $250 million since Biden announced he was leaving the presidential race and endorsed Harris.
(WaPo) Weeks of pent-up Democratic panic gave way to a historic flood of campaign cash for likely presidential nominee Vice President Harris this week, as allied groups reported massive fundraising hauls amid donor elation.
The coordinated Harris campaign reported Wednesday morning that they had raised more than $126 million from 1.4 million donors between Sunday afternoon, when President Biden announced he was stepping aside, and Tuesday evening. FF PAC, also known as Future Forward, the largest outside group supporting Biden, announced $150 million in commitments in the first 24 hours after Biden’s Sunday afternoon announcement.
Here are the latest Democratic delegate estimates after Biden’s withdrawal
From CNN’s Ethan Cohen, Molly English, Matt Holt and Sydney Topf
CNN has so far been able to identify more than 500 endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris from Democratic delegates.
Majority of pledged Democratic delegates endorse Harris on first full day as a candidate
Less than a day after Biden passed the torch, other prominent Democrats endorsed Harris, and none stepped forward to challenge her for the Democratic nomination.
(NBC) Harris has been quickly consolidating support around her day-old bid for the Democratic nomination for president, with seemingly all of her major potential rivals rallying around her less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced he was bowing out and with state delegate slates endorsing her quickly, too.
The Harris Gamble
She may be the last best hope, but don’t deny the risks.
By David Frum
Democrats are taking a risk with Harris—and it’s not only their risk. If she does secure the Democratic presidential nomination, then she becomes the only hope to keep Trump out of the White House for a second term. She becomes the only hope for Ukraine, for NATO, for open international trade, for American democracy, for a society founded on the equal worth and dignity of all its people. Anyone committed to those principles and ideals, whatever his or her past or future political affiliation, now has everything riding on the chances of the nominee chosen by some 4,700 Democratic delegates in Chicago next month.
… Her midlife marriage, her mixed-race origins, her manner and appearance, her vocal intonations, her career in the Bay Area with all of its association in the right-wing mind with dirt and depravity—those will be resources to construct a frightening psychosexual profile of the Black, Asian, and female Democratic candidate.
… Great presidents have summoned Americans to heed the better angels of their nature, in Lincoln’s famous phrase. But before they became great, those presidents first had to become president—and that meant taking Americans as they are, not as the angels they might be. That same Lincoln again and again deferred to prejudices that he could not in the moment defeat. He even made use of impulses he did not share. As his law partner William Herndon said of him, “He was not impulsive, fanciful, or imaginative; but cold, calm, and precise.” Lincoln took the fewest possible risks; he habitually expressed his boldest ideas in the most conservative language. He had a democracy to save. So do we.

21 July
Joe Biden on X
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race and Endorses Harris
… President Biden said he was ending his campaign and backing Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place. Ms. Harris said she would seek the nomination, adding: “Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.”