Kamala Harris’ Ex Criticizes Her Campaign: ‘Not One of Them Got it Right’
Some surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris attribute her historic defeat to now-President-elect Donald Trump to President Joe Biden's delayed decision to exit the race. However, several former campaign staffers argue that such claims are "detached from reality."
Former San Francisco Democratic Mayor Willie Brown, who had a romantic relationship with Harris in the 1990s, believes her campaign faltered because they "read the tea leaves wrong."
“Not one of them got it right, not one,” Brown lamented. “They did not go back and say, how is it we did not succeed with Hillary? Is it possible to elect a woman to the presidency in the United States? If that answer from all of the processes says questionable, then you know what you need to do.”
Brown also pointed out that while Hillary Clinton was “traumatized by her defeat for years,” he thinks Harris will “overcome” this loss and continue her political journey.
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When Kamala Harris was a young prosecutor, an older boyfriend lavished her with gifts, including trips to Paris, the Oscars, and a BMW—events that many believe catalyzed her rapid ascent in California politics.
Harris is widely recognized for her relationship with Democratic Party powerbroker Willie Brown, which began in 1994 when he was the speaker of the California Assembly, and she was 29 years old, according to a New York Post report.
“During their relationship, Brown gave Harris a BMW, she traveled with him to Paris, attended the Academy Awards,” and even joined him on a business trip to Boston, where he met with Donald Trump, as detailed in the 2021 biography Kamala’s Way: An American Life by journalist Dean Morain.
The Los Angeles Times referred to Harris as Brown’s “frequent companion,” while the San Francisco Chronicle described her as “the speaker’s new steady.” Their relationship was a well-known topic in San Francisco at the time.
As his term as Assembly speaker ended, Brown appointed Harris—then working in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office—to the California Medical Assistance Commission. The position paid $72,000 annually and required only monthly meetings.
Brown, now 90, has openly acknowledged his role in Harris’s political rise. Last week, he joined prominent Democrats endorsing her for president ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“Yes, we dated,” Brown wrote in a 2019 opinion piece. “Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco.”
Harris’s allies continue to attribute her loss to Trump to Biden’s delayed departure from the race, but former campaign staffers call this view "detached from reality."
Instead, critics argue that Harris’s defeat stemmed from her inability to appear authentic and connect with a majority of voters.
“The biggest onus of this loss is on President Biden,” said Andrew Yang, a Harris supporter who previously ran for the 2020 Democratic nomination, according to the Associated Press. “If he had stepped down in January instead of July, we might be in a very different place.”
Yet others, including Newsweek, suggest the blame rests squarely on Harris. Philadelphia Democratic Chair and former congressman Bob Brady criticized her campaign, stating that many of her staffers were “just elitist and went out there, did their own thing and didn’t include Democratic city committee or (ward leaders) or committee people. They just didn’t do it.”