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    • If Harris wins, she will lean heavily on these Democrats in Congress
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    If Harris wins, she will lean heavily on these Democrats in Congress

    Umito Posted on

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    WASHINGTON – If Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is elected president, she will soon try to negotiate deals with her former colleagues on Capitol Hill.

    Harris spent four years in the United States Senate, representing California, the most populous state in the country. Former Senate colleagues and new House supporters told USA TODAY that although his time in Congress was short, she maintains strong relationships there that would be crucial to advancing her legislative agenda in a political environment where she had just defeated Donald Trump but we can still expect to face tough Republican opposition.

    Harris’ Star has become a lawmaker willing to flaunt her prosecutorial skills: She went viral in 2018 when she questioned current Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings.

    Trump, then president said she was “extraordinarily nasty” at the time. And an excerpt from that exchange has become an oft-cited campaign piece for Democrats fighting for abortion rights this cycle: Harris asks Kavanaugh if he can cite “laws that give the government the power to make decisions regarding the male body.”

    Harris returned to the Senate relatively frequently during the first two years of the Biden administration, when the chamber was evenly divided, vote to decide more often than any other vice president in American history.

    Since launching her presidential campaign this summer, she has recruited a legion of House members as surrogates, drawing into her group lawmakers who felt aggrieved. held at arm’s length by the Biden campaign and who had not found Harris so easy to reach when she was a senator.

    Harris has years of experience working with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and also a long-standing relationship with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, first formed through the Congressional Black Caucus. Jeffries, also a New Yorker, is well positioned to become speaker of the House if Democrats regain control of the chamber next year and remain minority leader if the Republican Party emerges victorious.

    Even if Democrats win both chambers, Harris would still have some obstacles to overcome to accomplish big things. The legislation is expected to surpass the 60-vote threshold posed by opponents who are threatening to use the Senate filibuster — although Harris also said during her election campaign that she would support a bill. historical change in procedure which allow exceptions for key issues like the right to abortion. If Republicans win either chamber, as they are expected to do in the Senate, she will have to broker deals to pass substantial legislation and will likely face aggressive oversight from conservative lawmakers — as well as faced obstacles in obtaining confirmation of his appointments to Cabinet positions. and to fill judicial vacancies.

    Harris’ current boss, President Joe Biden, can be described as a creature of the Senate — and he certainly is leveraged his decades-long career in the Upper House while living in the White House. Harris’s allies say she would bring fresh perspectives and a new approach to her dealings with Congress.

    Allies in the Senate

    Some of Harris’ most trusted Democratic partners joined the Senate in 2017, the same year: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.

    Cortez Masto and Harris struck up an old friendship when they were both attorneys general. The pair sued the big banks following the 2008 financial crisis and obtained a $20 billion settlement.

    “Then we got to know each other, to trust each other,” said Cortez Masto, who was a regular Harris surrogate on the campaign trail and helped vet her potential presidential candidates. vice-presidency.

    Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., with whom Harris served on the Judiciary Committee, is often cited as one of her closest allies on the Hill, as is the Senate president pro tempore and chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, and Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut.

    Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, who was California’s secretary of state when Harris was in the Senate and replaced her when she became vice president, remains a good friend, as does Sen. Laphonza Butler, who was a policy adviser for Harris’ 2019 campaign. but who will leave the House in November after declining to seek a full term in the Senate.

    And if she wins her hotly contested race for a Senate seat representing Maryland against former Gov. Larry Hogan, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks would bring to the House a friendship with Harris that started 14 years ago when Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney. Harris called Alsobrooks to congratulate her on winning her underdog race for state’s attorney in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

    Harris continues to enjoy a good relationship with Schumer, who made an exception to help her land a spot on a select committee, the Judiciary, despite the fact that another California senator, the late Dianne Feinstein, is also part of the committee. That allowed Harris to capitalize on her prosecutorial experience during fights over possible Supreme Court nominees for Trump’s first term..

    As vice president, Harris also remained in contact with Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who was the leading Democrat on the panel when Harris served on it.

    “I think she will understand that you have to work with Congress,” the Virginia Democrat said. “She will come with connections, but also with the willingness to roll up her sleeves.”

    Warner said she also built positive relationships with Republicans on the committee, but said he didn’t want to “put them in a difficult position” by nominating them: “They might have to say otherwise now. “

    Harris organized a group of GOP campaign surrogates and pledged to appoint a Republican to his cabinet. She could find Republican allies in the Senate among moderates who have not supported Trump: Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, with whom she served on the intelligence committee, as well as Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska ; Todd Young, R-Ind., and Bill Cassidy, R-La.

    Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who is now the Biden-appointed U.S. ambassador to Turkey, recalled working with Harris on efforts to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects from deportation youth who were illegally brought to the United States as children.

    Congress still hasn’t found a solution to improve the nation’s immigration system, but Flake said of Harris: “She understands that this can only happen in a bipartisan way.” »

    Home Allies

    Harris’ list of congressional friends is favorable in the Senate, but she still has close relationships she can draw on in the lower house.

    She has ties to Jeffries from her time as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and if Democrats take the House and the White House, they would form a historic duo as the first black speaker of the House and first female speaker. Harris also stayed in touch with several members of the group, including the current president, Steven Horsford, D-N.V.

    Harris also established a good relationship with the House co-chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., and was a leader of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus during her time in Congress. She invited Horsford, Barragan and Rep. Judy Chu, California Democrat and caucus chairwoman, to sit in his box during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

    Rising star Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, Nikema Williams, Democrat of Georgia, all count Harris as a mentor.

    Crockett said during a speech at the Democratic National Convention that she wasn’t sure she made the right choice in running for the House when she arrived in Washington in January 2023. The first time She met Harris as vice president, she said: “She saw me through me.” She saw the distress. I immediately started crying. And the most powerful woman in the world wiped away my tears and listened to me.

    Harris was also a long-time mentor to organizer Lateefah Simon, who is all but assured of winning her Bay Area congressional race and heading to the House next year.

    And she chose a staff with strong ties to the House: Her legislative affairs director as vice president is Andy Flick, who was the executive director of the centrist New Democratic coalition, a crucial bloc in the Democratic caucus.

    Umito
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