Comments
THE WESTSIDE - A consortium of grass roots Democratic organizations turned out in force Sunday afternoon in Santa Monica as a jammed pack crowd was pumped up to elect favorite daughter, Vice-President Kamala Harris the 47th President of the United States.
Harris, the Oakland native who served as California Attorney General, US Senator and now Vice-President, would become the second native-born Californian to ascend to the Oval Office.
Former President Richard Nixon, who also served as a US Senator and Vice-President under Dwight Eisenhower was the first hailing from Whittier.
Since Biden dropped his campaign for reelection, the Democrats received a political dose of adrenaline with the Harris ascension to the nomination raising over $500 million in a month and recruiting tens of thousands of volunteers across the country. New polling released today shows Harris opening up a six-point lead, as former President Donald J. Trump finds himself off-balanced and on the defensive, a place he has rarely been in his two previous presidential runs.
Trump is the first candidate to seek the presidency three consecutive cycles since 1940 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought an unprecedented third term against Wendell Wilkie, a corporate lawyer and executive from Indiana. Trump is trying to retake the presidency the same way Grover Cleveland did after losing to Benjamin Harrison in 1888, only to defeat him in a rematch in 1892, becoming the only non-consecutive, two-term president. In that 1888 defeat, Cleveland won the popular vote, but Harrison the Electoral College. Cleveland was the first presidential candidate to win the popular vote three times (1884, 1888 & 1892).
Roosevelt would not only replicate, but win a fourth term as he won the popular vote four times (1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944).
In the case of Trump, he won the Electoral College in 2016, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Rodham Clinton by some 2 percentage points. Trump would lose both the popular vote and Electoral College in 2020 to current President, Joseph Biden.
In each case where the presidential nominee that won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College, all were Democrats (Andrew Jackson, Samuel Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton).
Both Harris and Trump seek to become the 47th President and Harris would become the first female, and second African-American since Barack Obama (2009-2017) to win the presidency.
Harris seeks to become the first sitting VP to assume the presidency since 1988 when George Herbert Walker Bush defeated Michael Dukakis to succeed Ronald Reagan.
Only fifteen vice-presidents have assumed the presidency in American history.
For the tone, tenor and excitement around the Kamala Harris campaign is truly unprecedented and today’s rally was no different.
In 2016 as a member of the West LA Democrats I remember attending a very low key and lackadaisical headquarters opening for then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that was listless and lifeless.
But today’s event was more reminiscent of the initial 2008 campaign for Barack Obama as a standing room only crowd was in attendance of at least 200-250 onlookers with people waiting outside to come in. The only sour note was a demonstration by supporters of Palestine outside the headquarters that was peaceful, and did not disrupt the excitement you felt once inside the headquarters.
Cara Robin, the longtime President of the West LA Democrats just returned from Chicago where she served as a delegate to the DNC and part of the California delegation. We spoke briefly today, and she agreed the excitement was indeed unprecedented given the fact the Vice-President could become the first Californian to be elected as a Democrat.
Only Republicans have nominated candidates for the presidency from California beginning with John C. Fremont in 1856, Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932, Richard Nixon in 1960, 1968 and 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.
Harris running-mate, Governor Tim Walz from Minnesota would become the third person from the Gopher State to assume the vice-presidency. The other two were Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, all Democrats. Humphrey was the 1968 Democratic nominee for the presidency and Mondale the 1984 Democratic standard bearer.
Invited guests included Congresswoman Maxine Waters, California Treasurer Fiona Ma, and Los Angeles County Democratic Chair Mark Ramos, who came from the ranks of labor with the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), AFL-CIO.
“This is an outstanding turnout. Everyone is fired up and ready to go,” offered one young volunteer working on a presidential campaign for the first time.
The headquarters is expected to be open daily and they also have a merchandise area that will subsidize the cost and operation of the campaign. Westside Democrats have had a presidential campaign headquarters in every cycle since 2004 when John Kerry was defeated by incumbent President George W. Bush.
(Nick Antonicello is a thirty-one year resident of Venice and covers all things political on the Westside and is also a twenty-year member of the West LA Democrats. Have a take or a tip? Contact him via e-mail at [email protected].)
