SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The author of Kamala Harris’ biography told ABC10 the Vice President has an uphill battle to win the Presidency – but believes it’s not impossible.
“She should not be underestimated. Don't count her out, but she is the underdog,” said Dan Morain, a veteran California journalist and the author of Harris’ biography: "Kamala’s Way: An American Life."
ABC10 spoke with him Monday afternoon about Harris’ history as the daughter of two immigrants.
“This is such a California story,” Morain said.
In his book, Morain writes about Harris’ father, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, and her mother, who emigrated from southern India.
Harris went to University of California Hastings College of Law., became a prosecutor and – eventually – California Attorney General, U.S. Senator for California and Vice President.
“When she ran for U.S. Senate, she was a very good candidate, cleared the field,” Morain said. “That's not easy to do in California: to run and win statewide three times in California is an impressive feat. Not many people can do that.”
Morain also points out Harris joined the prestigious Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for African American women during her undergraduate years at Howard University, a historically Black research university. With that, he said, comes a strong network of influential Black women across the country, who have mobilized for her on previous campaigns and are doing so again now.
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After President Joe Biden announced Sunday he would end his re-election bid and endorsed Harris to take his place, Harris set a new presidential donation record: $81 million dollars in 24 hours.
“I'm very excited about all the fundraising that happened yesterday,” said Alan Geraci, a California delegate for the Democratic National Convention. “That, to me, was the exclamation point that she's the right person.”
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California has nearly 500 delegates going to the Democratic National Convention next month. One delegate told ABC10 there has been an organized effort by the state party to get delegates on board to support Harris as the nominee.
“I immediately sent my personal endorsement to the committee chairperson, and I think within a couple of hours, we had a super majority of delegates in California ready to stand behind Kamala,” Geraci said.
He thinks Harris will help energize the Democratic party – and positively influence down-ballot elections.
“I met her when she was Attorney General and I was a prosecutor earlier in my career, and I admired her tenacity and her ability to get things done,” Geraci said.
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Democratic consultant Andrew Acosta said there are still a lot of unknowns.
“There's going to be energy and she's younger and all these things, but I don't know if we can say this is exactly the path to winning the presidency yet,” Acosta said.
He has been involved in California politics over the course of more than 30 years and has seen Harris’ wins and losses—including her failed presidential bid back in 2019.
“I took my daughter to her rally in Oakland, when she launched her presidential campaign,” Acosta said. “That was probably the highlight of the campaign, 20,000 people there. And then, after that, it kind of, you know, sort of imploded.”
As for what comes next, he said, there is still a lot of polling to be done and questions to be answered.
“Look, I'm 55, and the last time a president stepped out was-- I was five years old. It was Nixon,” Acosta said. “So I don't think anybody can say, ‘This is what we're going to do because this is what we did last time,’ because I don't think anyone's been through this before. You know, we're definitely in uncharted territory.”
