Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a rising party star and outspoken critic of President Trump’s immigration policies, launched her 2020 campaign for the White House today.
“I love my country,” she said on Good Morning America. “This is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are.”
Harris, 54, enters the race with the potential advantage of being the Democratic candidate who looks most like the party’s increasingly diverse base of young, female and minority voters.
“Let´s do this, together. Let´s claim our future. For ourselves, for our children, and for our country,” Harris said in a campaign video that was released to coincide with her television appearance.
She is the first African American candidate with any national name recognition to enter the race.
Her announcement falls on the U.S. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader, she selected that day as a reminder of his fight.
“The thing about Dr. King that always inspires me is that he was aspirational. He was aspirational like our country is aspirational,” Harris said on GMA. “We know that we’ve not yet reached those ideals. But our strength is that we fight to reach those ideals.”
“So today, the day we celebrate Dr. King, is a very special day for all of us as Americans and I’m honored to be able to make my announcement on the day we commemorate him.”
Harris’ parents are immigrants from Jamaica and India; she identifies as African-American.
The former California state attorney general has become popular with liberal activists for her tough questioning of Trump administration appointees and officials, including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during Senate hearings.
She also has pulled no punches against Trump as the month-old partial government shutdown continues,prolonged by a standoff over congressional funding for a border wall the president has promised for four years.
“The president at this point is holding the American people hostage over his vanity project,” she said last week. “That’s what’s happening. And this is a crisis of his own making.”
Sen. Kamala Harris getting a breakfast sandwich at New York’s Penn Station after announcing her run for president
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said in a statement that Harris “is arguably the least vetted Democrat running for president, but it’s already clear how unqualified and out-of-touch she is.”
Her campaign will focus on reducing the high cost of living with a middle-class tax credit, pursuing immigration and criminal justice changes and a Medicare-for-all healthcare system.
She has said she will reject corporate political action committee money.
Harris’ campaign will be based in Baltimore, with a second office in Oakland, California.
Her slogan will be ‘For the People,’ in a nod to Harris’ roots as a prosecutor, aides said.
She will hold a launch rally in Oakland on Sunday, and also plans to travel to Columbia, S.C., on Friday to speak to the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, which she joined at Howard University.
Harris is the sixth Democrat to enter what is shaping up to be a crowded battle for the nomination to challenge Trump, the likely Republican candidate.
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Maryland Rep. John Delaney, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, New York Sen. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachussets are already campaigning.