When Sam Lauter joined a group of informal advisers to Kamala Harris’ successful campaign for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, he knew the young prosecutor was going places.
He just didn’t know how far.
“I would be lying if I said I saw this,” said the Bay Area political consultant and Democratic Majority for Israel board member, commenting on Harris’ imminent nomination as Democratic presidential nominee. “But she’s so smart and dedicated to the causes she believes in. That’s the kind of politician I hope people look for, [one] who combines intelligence with dedication to the issues.”
Harris’ political ascent has been steep. In two decades, she has risen from district attorney to California attorney general to U.S. senator to vice president and now, possibly, to the country’s highest office following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race on July 21.
In the current fast-moving political landscape, Harris’ positions and statements on issues important to the Jewish community have been heavily scrutinized. Her Bay Area supporters say she consistently has shown herself to be a staunch ally.
They point out that Harris has been outspoken in her defense of Israel, her condemnation of antisemitism and her bond with the Jewish people. Harris and her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, hung the first-ever mezuzah on the doorpost of the vice presidential residence and hosted a Passover seder there.
The 59-year-old Oakland native has talked about her feelings of connection to Israel long before her rise on the national stage.
Harris, whose mother was born in India and father in Jamaica, fondly recalls carrying around a Jewish National Fund pushke (coinbox) as a child — a story she mentioned again July 25 after meeting privately with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington, D.C.
“From when I was a young girl collecting funds to plant trees for Israel to my time in the United States Senate and now at the White House, I’ve had an unwavering commitment to the existence of the State of Israel, to its security and to the people of Israel,” Harris said at a press conference.
But Harris, who honored a prior commitment instead of attending Netanyahu’s July 24 speech to a joint meeting of Congress, also described pressing him in their face-to-face meeting to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would bring home the hostages and open the way to rebuilding Gaza. Her remarks stressed her commitment to Israel’s right to self-defense but also her anguish over Palestinian suffering during the ongoing war.
“I will not be silent,” she said.
Her absence at Netanyahu’s congressional speech and her later comments sparked criticism in the Israeli press and from Republicans, including the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“If you thought Joe Biden was bad, Kamala Harris is far worse on issues of top concern for pro-Israel voters,” RJC chief executive Matt Brooks said in a statement.
It may, in fact, be impossible for Harris to garner Republican support, as she will almost certainly be the person who runs against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee who has been endorsed by the RJC.
Harris visited Israel as a senator in 2017, traveling with her husband. Her first visit, though, was in 2004 with the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area.
The vice president’s commitment to the security of Israel and the Jewish people is as deep and strong as President Biden’s bond. Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director emeritus of JCRC Bay Area
Rabbi Doug Kahn, then executive director of JCRC, recruited Harris to join a 10-day tour. The itinerary took the group of politicians up and down the country, as they met with politicians, academics, military personnel and average Israelis.
“She was deeply interested in learning more about Israel and the geopolitical situation, which showed her interest in foreign policy, and in addressing issues of hate and bigotry at home, including concern for the welfare of the Jewish community,” Kahn recalled to J. “That was evident then and became part of the trajectory of her career.”
After meeting with an elderly Holocaust survivor during that trip, Harris told J. upon her return, “I deal with people who are victims of violent crime all the time. They experience trauma, and when [the survivor] described the experience of surviving and then going to Israel and getting that feeling of ‘Why did I survive? Why am I here when so many were killed,’ that really gelled for me, knowing the experience victims of crime have.”
Lauter also saw the effect that trip had on Harris.
“Her family [members] were involved with the Civil Rights Movement,” Lauter said. “And she saw the relationship between the Jewish community and the movement. She was predisposed to be an ally of our community and saw all the beauty and complexities of Israel that the trip provided, and she has extremely close friends in our community whom she respects and admires.”
Harris’ first elected office in San Francisco followed her degree from the then-Hastings College of Law in S.F. and jobs in the district attorney offices in Alameda County and then in San Francisco.
Fellow prosecutors who worked with her then recall her as a courtroom star.
David Chiu, San Francisco city attorney and former state Assemblyman, met Harris in 1998.
“I was a new assistant DA and was told to watch the closing argument of a seasoned prosecutor named Kamala Harris,” Chiu said. “She and I became friends and worked closely together. I saw her brilliance, her fierce sense of justice and her compassion.”
The son of immigrants himself, Chiu said he believes Harris’ immigrant heritage “helps explain how Kamala is comfortable in so many settings and able to connect with people. I’ve seen her in many Jewish realms, and her deep ties to many in the Jewish community.”
Another fellow prosecutor at the time, Rebecca Prozan, was similarly impressed. She remembers that the “DA’s office would often shut down to watch her close” during a trial. Their friendship led Prozan, who is now a Google executive, to sign on to run Harris’ campaign for DA.
In terms of support for Israel and the Jewish community, Harris’ record has become somewhat of a Rorschach test, especially in light of Biden’s repeated declarations over the years that he is a Zionist. But Kahn expressed his confidence in her.
“Even while they are of different generations,” Kahn said, “my sense is that the vice president’s commitment to the security of Israel and the Jewish people is as deep and strong as President Biden’s bond, which was forged in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and has led her to be outspoken in condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel and the surge of antisemitism at home.”
As Harris sails toward an official nomination as her party’s standard-bearer, her Bay Area supporters understand that it will be a tough few months leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5.
“This race has been unpredictable, but she is the quickest of quick studies,” Chiu said. “No one is better able to prosecute the case against [Trump] than Kamala Harris. This has been a horrifically difficult time for many, including the Jewish community, with so much antisemitism in recent months. [Harris] is someone who can make the case to America how this is a moment to unite.”