HOUSTON, Texas — Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris tried to go big in Texas, a state with a stereotype for being preoccupied with size.
Her weekend swing through the Lone Star State was a direct challenge to El Paso-based, former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has led in the early fundraising stakes.
She compared herself to the last Texas Democrat to occupy the White House, Lyndon B. Johnson, who served following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and was a four year term from 1965 to 1969, and authored the Great Society series of social programs.
Harris, 54, said she would raise teacher salaries, a proposal her campaign bills as “the largest federal investment in teacher pay in history.” Johnson, she said, “was the last president that made a meaningful investment in public education” as a way “to bridge the gap between helplessness and hope.”
She made small-scale appearances in Dallas and Houston, and one fundraiser, before a 2,400-person rally at Texas Southern University. “We are here to fight,” she declared.
The presence of the first-term senator and former California attorney general was a direct challenge to O’Rourke, the state’s latest favorite son, as well as Julian Castro, former San Antonio mayor and housing secretary in the Obama administration.
Michelle Schwartz, 50, drove three hours from Austin to attend Saturday’s rally so she could hear Harris speak and to talk with staffers about how she could volunteer. Schwartz, a writer, last year worked for O’Rourke’s unsuccessful campaign for Senate. Yet, less than five months later, Schwartz said she was “all in” for Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.
“It’s the spark, the gravitas, the ‘x’ factor, but I’ve also done my research about where she sits on the different policy spectrums,” she said. “I definitely think it was smart for her to come to a historic black college because that’s a segment of the population that Beto failed to reach and build a coalition around.”
Cameron Whitaker, 26, told the Washington Examiner that he votes regularly; however, the only political rally he had been to before Saturday was for former President Barack Obama in 2012.
“I like how direct she is. She seems authentic, but I feel like she also offers specifics,” the Houston-based communications specialist said of Harris in comparison to O’Rourke. “He’s great and passionate, but he lacks specificity.”
Whitaker said Harris’ pitch to teachers on Saturday resonated with him personally given his mother is an educator.
Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University professor of political science, said Harris’ foray in Texas indicated she was preparing to “run everywhere” in a national effort not focused solely on early-voting states.
“She was here to introduce herself to women, particularly women of color, who make up a large swath of the Democratic electorate. It was also a signal to Beto, and a lesser extent to Julian Castro, that she’s here to compete,” Jillson said of the former mayor of San Antonio, who is additionally contesting the presidency.
Even if Harris does not take Texas, placing third would still be considered a victory as it would provide her with momentum and offer her a share in the state’s 200 delegates, Jillson said.
Similarly, Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University, told the Washington Examiner Harris already had a solid base of support among black women, who constitute one of the most reliable Democratic voting blocs, as well as from an ever-growing Indian-American community.
“She’s also throwing down the gauntlet to Beto to go to California,” Jones said. “It’s incumbent on him to show well there because he can’t afford to have a narrow win in Texas and finish fifth to her in her home state.”
Nevertheless, Matt Angle, founder and director of liberal political action committee Lone Star Project, said the Oakland native’s decision to come to Texas had nothing to do with El Paso’s homegrown star.
“I just see it as smart politics. Texas is a very large and very diverse state. There will be a lot of delegates at stake in the primary,” Angle wrote in an email. “In fact, any serious Democrat seeking the nomination will ignore Texas at their own peril.”
Harris is next scheduled to cross the country for a series of stops on Sunday in Atlanta, Ga.
