This week, The New York Times Editorial Board formally endorsed Kamala Harris as “the only patriotic choice for president.” But a review of Harris’s past and the ideologies that have shaped her political agenda paints a far different picture of Democrats’ standard-bearer.
While the Times endorsement was unsurprising, the Editorial Board included a significant caveat. It stated that Harris’s strategy of avoiding tough questions and substantive interviews may earn her victory in November, but that it was “a disservice to the American people and to her own record.”
Perhaps Harris struggles to defend her record because so much of it is indefensible and inaccurate. Vice President Harris purports to be from a humble, middle-class background. She has repeated these talking points so often that it has become an ongoing joke among Republicans. During a recent Trump campaign stop, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., stated in jest, “All you have to know is seven words, and you never have to admit to doing anything wrong again…I was born in the middle class.”
Harris’s now-infamous line may pass muster with legacy media outlets, but even a cursory examination reveals that statement to be overwhelmingly false. Harris’s father, Donald, was a UC Berkeley economics professor with a reputation for romanticizing Karl Marx and “Marxian Economics.” According to research from “The Lars Larson Show,” Donald Harris’s Stanford University paycheck “was twice what the average American earned.”
On top of this, Harris’s mother was a cancer researcher with a high income. While Harris claims to be from Oakland, California, her childhood homes were in Berkeley and Palo Alto, the latter of which boasts some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
Harris’s history of radical policies makes far more sense in this context. Harris integrated herself into California high society from her earliest days in public office. According to a Politico Magazine feature, “From 1994, when she was introduced splashily… as the paramour of one of the state’s most powerful politicians, to 2003…the Oakland- and Berkeley-bred Harris charted the beginnings of her ascent in the more fashionable crucible of San Francisco.”
While serving as District Attorney, Harris became the textbook definition of a West Coast liberal. She spent her days paying lip service to inequality and various social justice causes while spending her evenings rubbing shoulders with California elites at some of the finest restaurants in the world.
As Politico notes, “Harris used as a launching pad the tightly knit world of San Francisco high society, navigating early on this rarefied world of influence and opulence.” She curried favor with VIPs and California elites, making a name for herself as a rising star and celebrity darling. She made “spiffy and powerful friends” who were critical to her success. One early supporter described her as “a socialite with a law degree.”
Of all the relationships and contacts Harris cultivated, arguably none was more consequential than her early befriending of Mark Buell, a billionaire real-estate developer and Democrat mega-donor. Buell’s wife Susie is a co-founder of The North Face and a close confidant of Hillary Clinton. According to Influence Watch, “The Buells are well known in social and political circles in the San Francisco Bay area.”
Buell played a key role in Harris’s campaign for San Francisco DA and has been involved in all of her campaigns since. He was reportedly the driving force behind Harris raising an eye-popping $81 million in 24 hours following the announcement that Biden would be dropping out of the race.
Buell is also a close associate of George Soros and one of the founding members of the Democracy Alliance. In 2021, Politico described the Democracy Alliance as “the most powerful network of Democratic donors.” One member described the organization as the Democratic version of the Koch network but for “the good guys.” Vox called it the “closest thing that exists to a left-wing conspiracy.”
The organization is a central hub through which ultra-wealthy liberals collect and distribute billions of dollars to advance left-wing causes and defeat Republicans under the guise of “social justice.” The group spent some $275 million against Donald Trump during the 2020 election cycle. Individuals linked to at least a dozen organizations who received funding from Democracy Alliance were then given key posts on the Biden transition team. Democracy Alliance studiously avoids media attention as much as possible, preferring to operate from the shadows.
It’s easy to see why Buell and Democracy Alliance have backed Harris so enthusiastically. A recently unearthed video shows then-Senator Harris chanting “down with deportation” at a 2018 Los Angeles rally. Gov Track ranked Harris as the most liberal U.S. Senator, surpassing Bernie Sanders. She was an early co-sponsor of Medicare-for-All bills and the Green New Deal. During her ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign, Harris supported defunding the police, abolishing ICE, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, banning fracking, firearm confiscation, and a plethora of other radical left policies.
Despite her run to the center following her elevation to the top of the Democrat ticket earlier this year, far-left progressivism has always been at the core of Harris’s identity, from her governing philosophy to her social circles and even her upbringing.
In the same way she skillfully navigated California high society, Harris is now attempting to steer attention away from her shockingly liberal past. But while she may be hoping to sell herself as a common-sense moderate and a kid from the middle class, the truth about Kamala Harris’s past and policy record will keep getting in the way.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
