The day that Kamala Harris announced she was running for president, she faced a basic question. Most Democrats were running on their own signature issues: economic inequality, climate change, women’s rights, millennials. “What,” one reporter asked, “is the core issue of your campaign?”
“The core of my campaign is the people,” Harris responded. “It’s about people.”
With a huge, flashy rollout on Sunday in Oakland, the California senator has quickly cemented herself as one of the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination. But instead of giving Democrats easy answers on how to define her candidacy, Harris’s campaign has been broad, even vague. She leapfrogs between a host of progressive issues. She defies most neat ideological boxes.
But to many voters, according to conversations across Iowa and California, it’s clear what Harris’s campaign is about — and it isn’t any particular policy. Those voters like Kamala Harris because, in every way, she is the antithesis of Donald Trump.
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