Senator Kamala Harris of California announced Monday that she is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the third female senator to throw her hat in the ring.
“I am running for president of the United States and I am very excited about it,” Harris said on Good Morning America. “I love my country, and this is a moment in time that I feel a sense of responsibility to stand up and fight for the best of who we are.”
“Justice. Decency. Equality. Freedom. Democracy. These aren’t just words. They’re the values we as Americans cherish. And they’re all on the line now,” Harris said in a video released separately on social media Monday morning. “The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States.”
Harris, a career prosecutor, served as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general before running for the Senate. Asked on ABC whether her past statement that “the left has to get over its bias against law enforcement,” would present a problem for her in the primaries, she took a moderate tack.
It is a “false choice to suggest that communities don’t want law enforcement,” she said. “Most communities do. They don’t want excessive force. They don’t want racial profiling. But then nobody should.”