U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is the “inevitable” Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 2020, according to U.S. News & World Report senior politics writer David Catanese, citing political oddsmakers.
The first-term junior Senator, Catanese writes, is the “female Obama”:
At a time when the Democratic Party remains adrift in the political wilderness, still painfully sorting out its last national election loss while simultaneously trying to turn the page anew, Harris has vaulted over a fleet of venerable talent to bear the torch of former President Barack Obama’s legacy for the next generation.
In his lengthy profile, Catenese also highlights one facet of Harris’s biography that is relevant to the current debate over sex and politics: she once dated then-California State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, who gave her a car and also helped her gain a foothold in California politics. As the SF Weekly noted in 2003: “Harris acknowledges that she benefited from her relationship with Brown, but insists there was nothing improper about it.”
Since then, Harris has moved up through the ranks, fighting a tough election to become the state’s Attorney General, and facing somewhat easier contest for the U.S. Senate seat, when the state’s Bay Area liberal establishment and Barack Obama himself backed her campaign against the upstart, Southern California-based, Latino-focused effort of then- U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA).
Since arriving Washington, Harris has used her confrontations with Republicans — usually triggered by her refusal to let witnesses speak at committee hearings — to create viral YouTube videos that help drive fundraising. She is known to be tapping into Hillary Clinton’s donor network, has also become an big fundraiser for other candidates.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.