Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris is easily dismissed by conservatives as an out-of-touch California progressive, a glittering embodiment of her party’s leftward lurch, unviable as a presidential candidate forced to compete between the coasts. But beyond her performative interrogations of Trump nominees, Harris’ approach to party politics is more nuanced than your average #Resister.

This first struck me last April, when the freshman senator offered a sharp and substantive rebuke of identity politics. A Los Angeles Times profile of Harris included an anecdote about her appearance at a meeting of progressive activists that left them gaping. “We can’t afford to be purists,” Harris reportedly said. “You have to ask that question of yourself: Are we going to be purists to this resistance to the point that you let these guys go? Or can you understand that you may not agree with 50 percent of their policy positions, but I can guarantee you will disagree with 100 percent of their replacements’ policy positions. So that is part of the question. What do we have to do in this movement to be pragmatic?”