It’s too quickly to know whether or not California’s subsequent governor might be a girl, with the race nonetheless two years away. However Vice President Kamala Harris’ go to to Sacramento on Thursday highlighted the chance after the nation’s first feminine vp frolicked with two girls aiming to change into California’s first feminine governor.
At a historic mansion close to the state Capitol, Harris met with Democratic state lawmakers, the place she was launched by Senate chief Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), the primary lady to carry that submit. Then Harris attended a fundraiser hosted by one other feminine first — Democratic Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, the primary lady elected to that workplace.
Atkins and Kounalakis have already launched campaigns to run for governor in 2026 in what’s anticipated to be a crowded discipline that may embrace at the very least one different lady — Betty Yee, vice chair of the California Democratic Celebration.
Neither of them was the main target of Harris’ go to. The vp’s message Thursday to a pleasant home-state viewers was skilled on rallying Democrats to reelect President Biden. She known as this 12 months’s election a “binary” alternative between “a former president who overtly talks about his admiration for dictators” and Biden, whose administration “is about lifting up the situation of the individuals.”
“The cut up display screen couldn’t be extra stark. And the stakes couldn’t be greater,” Harris mentioned to donors gathered on the sprawling Sacramento house of Kounalakis’ mother and father, which featured marble columns, crystal chandeliers and golden candelabras.
Friends included Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of Lengthy Seashore and Doris Matsui of Sacramento; Jodi Hicks, president of Deliberate Parenthood Associates of California; and quite a few lobbyists who do enterprise on the state Capitol. Donors had been requested to offer between $5,000 and $50,000 to attend, in response to the invitation, and Kounalakis mentioned the occasion raised $648,000 for Biden’s reelection.
Ties between the vp and the lieutenant governor return about 20 years, Kounalakis mentioned, to when Harris was first elected San Francisco district legal professional. Kounalakis was operating her household’s home-building enterprise on the time and routinely helped elevate cash for Democratic politicians.
“We began having common lunches collectively… round San Francisco, and simply verify in on what it was prefer to be a girl skilled, a number of the challenges that we had,” Kounalakis mentioned in an interview. “We’d usually examine notes on footwear and fits, and the place to get the most effective ones.”
Kounalakis mentioned she as soon as set Harris up on a date, however “it was not a love match.”
California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis signing a invoice into legislation whereas performing as governor in 2022 when Gov. Gavin Newsom was on trip. State Senate chief Toni Atkins stands behind her.
(Wealthy Pedroncelli / Related Press)
They remained linked as Harris’ profession superior. Kounalakis and her household donated at the very least $29,000 to help Harris’ campaigns for California legal professional basic in 2010 and 2014, marketing campaign finance data present. When Kounalakis ran for lieutenant governor in 2018, Harris offered a essential endorsement “that constructed credibility for my marketing campaign early within the race,” Kounalakis mentioned.
Two years later, when Joe Biden was looking for a operating mate, Kounalakis lobbied his marketing campaign to select Harris as his vp.
“I felt that there was an absence of appreciation for her expertise and her abilities and her capabilities. Numerous us in California felt that approach,” Kounalakis mentioned.
She arrange a Zoom assembly with Biden’s choice committee and invited elected officers and labor leaders from round California. Each obtained two minutes to offer a testimonial about Harris.
“Dolores Huerta’s was probably the most memorable to me as a result of she stared down the choice committee and mentioned, ‘We must be telling our daughters that being formidable is a power, not a weak point,’” Kounalakis recalled.
In Sacramento on Thursday, Harris described her go to as a homecoming of types, having spent six years working in state authorities as legal professional basic.
“She has shut ties with so many members of our caucus. It was nice to welcome her,” mentioned Democratic Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas.
Harris talked to lawmakers about advantages California is getting from Biden’s initiatives, such because the federal infrastructure invoice and the CHIPS and Science Act, which directs billions of {dollars} towards home semiconductor analysis and improvement, and informed them that California performs an essential function in pushing a Democratic coverage agenda that may wind up shaping the nation.
“The message she despatched was an ideal reminder of how essential the work is that we do as a state Legislature,” Rivas mentioned.
Republicans, unsurprisingly, noticed it in another way.
“Californians are worse off right now due to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” California Republican Celebration Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson mentioned in a press release that criticized “their disastrous insurance policies” on the southern border, on the financial system and on crime.
Atkins mentioned she appreciated Harris speaking with lawmakers about reproductive rights and abortion entry, a key theme Democrats will push in races up and down the poll on this 12 months’s election. Harris’ reelection message was inspiring, Atkins mentioned, and Democratic lawmakers really feel a way of delight that the nation’s first feminine vp is a Californian.
What that may imply for the ladies looking for to interrupt the glass ceiling within the California governor’s workplace stays to be seen.
“We’ve got all these relationships,” with Harris, Atkins mentioned. “She is aware of Betty Yee, she is aware of Eleni, she is aware of me.”
Atkins mentioned “there was no jostling or jockeying” Thursday to shift Harris’ consideration to California’s gubernatorial race in 2026.
“That day will come, I’m certain,” she mentioned. “However that was not right now.”
