Kamala Harris Will Rise Again



This news is breaking my heart.

My Senator, Sen. Kamala Harris has dropped out of the race for president. Despite being one of the most promising candidates since Barack Obama, the national media has succeeded in first drowning her campaign in negative coverage and then blacking her out, it seems.

I had not picked a favorite in the presidential primary, but it was no secret that Harris and Biden were my top two choices. What I didn’t expect is how incredibly sad I would be at the news of Harris dropping out.

I have cast six votes for Kamala Harris - in the primary and general elections for two terms as Attorney General of my state and one as a United States Senator. Voting for Harris made me as proud as voting for President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and I would be lying if I said I did not take a measure of personal pride from the fact that this incredible leader and I share a common heritage.

The nation has seen Sen. Harris as the Senate’s most able prosecutor against Donald Trump’s nominees, but we Californians have seen her as a neighbor, a fighter for children in disadvantaged communities, and a protector unafraid to stand up for California against powerful forces, be it banks, crime syndicates, or unaccountable, for-profit schools. It is not a surprise to us that Harris was elected to the Senate with one of the largest margins in California history, earning over 60% of the vote.

Because I know how brilliant and caring Sen. Harris is, it breaks my heart that she has to end her campaign before many who are less deserving of a place in the Democratic primary. I am disappointed in our national discourse erasing black women, and I mourn Harris’s campaign falling victim to it.

But I will not write an obituary.

Because we in California know Kamala Harris, we know that she is not done. We know that she will not stop fighting, and she will not go quietly into the night on the things that matter to our country. Kamala Harris will rise again.

In the immediate term, look for her dominating presence in the Senate Judiciary Committee once the impeachment of Donald Trump moves to the Senate for trial. Look for her to make the case against a criminal in the White House. Look for Kamala Harris to speak out on the presidential race, lead on gun violence prevention and educational justice, and be the North star on criminal justice reform and women’s dignity.

There is a lot of talk about whether Kamala Harris should be chosen as the vice presidential nominee next year. I think that it is, first and foremost, her decision whether she even wants that position - let us not all just rush and assume that she does. Personally, I’d much rather Harris be the next Attorney General of the United States and prosecute the Trump crime gang first hand. Or the next Democratic appointee to the Supreme Court. But once again, there is much work to do before that, and it will be her choice.

Just 55 years old, Kamala Harris’s rise is not over. One day, she will likely run for president again, and it is not unfathomable that I will get a chance to call her ‘Madam President’ before the twilight of my life.

Between then and now, though, the charge she has led on the campaign trail in pronouncing that justice is on the ballot, falls on the rest of us. Irrespective of whether she was your choice for the Democratic nomination or not, the causes she championed on the campaign trail are all of our causes. She will continue to lead, but we must work hard to make the vision of a just America a reality.

So, it is with a heavy but optimistic heart that I welcome my senator back home, and repeat, to all of you, that Kamala Harris will rise again.




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