Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has made a quick course reversal when it comes to accepting corporate money.
Eighteen days is all is took for the freshman senator to rethink her position on corporate campaign cash, landing her among the ranks of other Democrats rumored to be considering bids for their party’s presidential nomination in 2020.
Harris made waves after she firmly refused to swear off corporate money at an April 5 town hall in Sacramento. But by April 23, Harris had “thought about it” and would now go without it.
“I wasn’t expecting the question and I thought about it afterwards,” the California Democrat explained, reflecting in a Monday radio interview on that fateful town hall answer. Harris cited the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case as a key factor motivating her change of heart. This is amusing given that Citizens United came down almost a decade ago and has been decried loudly by progressives ever since.
But the senator’s first answer to the question earlier this month had been rather firm, and her explanation of her change of heart rather flimsy.
Like most potential presidential candidates in this stage of the game, Harris has played coy when asked about her ambitions for seeking higher office. She’s also been surprisingly willing to embrace centrists and critique identity politics. But pivoting so quickly on a question that’s already functioning as something of a progressive litmus test for rumored candidates is nothing less than conventionally shameless political maneuvering.
