Key Assets:
- An experienced campaigner on the national scale
- Former prosecutor with a track record for making big business pay their fair share and implementing innovative approaches to reduce recidivism and get people to work
- A history of working across the aisle to advance legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans, and a record of introducing and supporting bills to protect vulnerable communities.
Sen. Kamala Harris built her reputation as a dynamic and effective implementer of justice and legislation long before stepping onto the national stage in her current role as a member of Congress or as a one-time top candidate in the race to become the Democratic party nominee for the 2020 presidential race. Prior to her election to Congress in 2016, she served as state attorney general for California, becoming the first woman and African-American to hold the position. Harris made an immediate impact by holding large financial institutions responsible for the damage they did to hard working Californians by engaging in the improper mortgage practices that caused the 2008 recession. She ultimately secured a $20 million dollar payout from the institutions, which was five times the originally proposed figure for California.
As attorney general, Harris also protected the rights of LGBTQ communities by refusing to defend Proposition 8, a 2008 California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage; took down a for-profit college chain that swindled students by offering worthless degrees; and advanced a lawsuit that ultimately ended a long-running sex-trafficking advertising service. As San Francisco District Attorney, Harris became known as the smart-on-crime prosecutor for implementing initiatives that cut recidivism by offering job training and other educational programs for low-level offenders.
In the Senate, Harris has been highly active in proposing and supporting legislation that would support urban and working-class communities, including legislation to raise wages for working people, reform the broken criminal justice system, make healthcare a right for all Americans, address the epidemic of substance abuse, support veterans and military families, and expand access to childcare for working parents. She was a cosponsor on the Broadband Data Act, a law that aims to deploy high-speed Internet service to all Communities, especially those that are unserved and underserved. Harris also has garnered a reputation as a brilliant legal mind, particularly for her pointed questioning of Brett Kavanaugh, who faced accusations of sexual assault after being nominated for Supreme Court justice in 2018, and of then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a 2017 hearing that delved into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign team and Russian agents.
Harris currently serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on the Budget. She attended Howard University and the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.