SAN FRANCISCO — Kamala Harris has two words of advice for Democratic presidential candidates hoping to compete in her home state of California.
“Run hard,” the first-term senator told reporters Saturday ahead of her appearance at the California Democratic Convention in San Francisco.
While describing her visit as a “homecoming,” Harris was adamant that she was “absolutely not” taking the donor and delegate-rich state for granted.
“The great thing about California Democrats and California voters is that they make decisions based on issues, they make decisions based on the connection to the relevancy of what you’re talking about and their lives. So I’m here to earn everyone’s support, and I’m going to fight to earn it,” she said.
But Harris deferred “to the pundits” when pressed on how she plans to leapfrog over current front-runners former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and assert herself in a crowded field vying for the right to challenge President Trump next year.
“My experience with poll numbers is perhaps a complicated one,” she said of her 2003 San Francisco district attorney race, in which she initially saw 6% support. “And I strongly believe based on my own experiences running for office that the only poll that matters is on election night,” the lawmaker added, referring to her 2010 state attorney general contest, which ended weeks after voters went to the ballot box because the results were too close to call.
Harris’ comments come after she made an emotional plea to Service Employees International Union members at a sideline breakfast earlier in the morning, asking them to back her candidacy.
“You all stood with me when I was attorney general,” she said, citing her work against for-profit hospitals and big banks. “You stood with me, we stood together, and we took it to the streets. We took it to the streets, and we organized, and we let folks know what was at stake, and we won.”
