For the first time since Ronald Reagan, a politician from the Golden State is on a major party ticket
Kamala Harris wasn’t picked for geographic reasons. But in the perpetual power struggle between the East and West, her ascent carried all the signs of a rebalancing.
That’s only the beginning. Harris is just 55. To the extent that California’s political arc is reflected in her trajectory, it is likely to outlast her tenure as vice president. Fourteen vice presidents have gone on to become president, and Biden — despite previous failed runs such as Harris now has behind her — entered the 2020 primary as a favorite almost singularly because of the name recognition and goodwill he built as Barack Obama’s No. 2.
The nation’s media and political centers are on the East Coast. Time zone differences force bleary-eyed politicians in the West to rise at 3 a.m. for morning television hits. Flights to Washington are long, and direct flights to other important cities are hard to come by. But Harris may be uniquely qualified to straddle the Western and the Eastern reaches of the United States. She was as much a national figure as a Californian even before a presidential run that Californians, like Democrats elsewhere, never warmed to. Harris was called the “female Barack Obama” as long ago as 2010, when she first ran for California attorney general.
If Harris truly is the “last voice in the room,” as Biden suggested she would be when he introduced her in Delaware on Wednesday, her influence — and California’s — could be profound. Reagan brought Caspar Weinberger, Ed Meese and Lyn Nofziger from California to Washington. And in heavily Democratic California, there are far more Democrats where those figures came from.
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