Politico: Kamala Harris, 2020 Presidential Contender, is a Mystery in California

First-term Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is emerging as a Democratic presidential contender in 2020. However, according to Politico, her own voters in California do not really know much about her.

In an article titled “Kamala Harris’ rapid rise confounds California,” Politico’s David Siders writes:

Kamala Harris has been called “the female Barack Obama.” She’s built a national following with her outspoken criticism of Donald Trump and prolific fundraising for fellow Democrats.

But the California senator’s rapid rise — she’s just 15 months into her first term — has created an awkward issue: Even as progressives tout her as one of the top 2020 contenders, Harris remains something of a mystery back home.

Her approval ratings are solid, but not stratospheric. And 28 percent of California voters say they don’t know or have no opinion about Harris, according to a recent Morning Consult poll — placing her in the bottom 10 of name recognition among U.S. senators in their home states.

A Berkeley IGS Poll in September found California voters — by a more than 2-to-1 margin, 49 percent to 22 percent — would rather Harris stay in the Senate than run for president in 2020.

(Read the rest of Siders’s article here.)

Harris has been a top presidential prospect ever since Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016. She served as the state’s Attorney General and went on to win her Senate race that year with the full backing of the Bay Area political establishment that essentially controls Democratic Party politics (and hence the state).

However, aside from viral fundraising videos of her interrupting witnesses at Senate hearings (and then complaining about being silenced), it is not clear what she has achieved for California.

Last year, left-wing activists in the state were already expressing doubts about Harris’s prospects as a presidential candidate.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.