What does Kamala Harris’ record show? From California prosecutor to the vice president

Vice President Kamala Harris’ political record — and how Republicans will use it against her — is center stage now that she’s the expected front-runner to top the 2024 Democratic ticket.

President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would drop out of the presidential contest. He then endorsed Harris to be the Democratic nominee in a post on X.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” Biden wrote. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump.”

Harris’ recent talking points as vice president have centered on abortion, more aligned with her mainstay issues before becoming the first woman and Black and South Asian American vice president in January 2021.

Harris, 59, was tapped as Biden’s vice president in 2020, after running her own short-lived presidential campaign that year. She left the U.S. Senate seat she had held since 2017 to join the White House. Prior to that, Harris served as California’s attorney general, and San Francisco District Attorney.

Republicans not only see an opportunity to attack Harris’ record as vice president, but also dating as far back to her time in San Francisco. And even among Democrats, Harris has been chastised for changing, or at least muddling, her positions on some issues that will be key to the 2024 race.

Here’s a look at what those issues might be:

Immigration

Biden tapped Harris in March 2021 to lead an effort to ease the “root causes” of migration from Central America — a national strategy that would improve economic and safety conditions and encourage potential migrants to remain in three Central American countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

That effort has been mocked by Republicans who dubbed her the “border czar,” even though immigration analysts contend her work is not really about the southern border.

“Immigration was not her issue” before becoming vice president, said Dan Morain, a veteran California journalist and author of the biography “Kamala’s Way.”

“She had been to the border. She had talked about transnational gangs,” Morain said in an interview this month. “This was an issue that she talked about as California attorney general, but it wasn’t one of her go-to issues.”

The White House has said it is on track to meet its goals set in 2021 to give $4 billion to the Central American countries in four years, and that Harris’ work with the private sector has generated more than $5.2 billion in investments for job creation, internet access and formal financial systems.

Abortion and Reproductive Health

Harris has traveled the country as part of her Fight for Reproductive Freedoms Tour this year talking about abortion access, warning about what a second Trump administration could do to abortion rights and calling state laws limiting access “Trump abortion bans.”

Since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections set by Roe v. Wade in 2022, Harris has held more than 90 events in 21 states on the issue, the White House said.

“Without a doubt, women’s health issues, that’s been a recurrent issue for her,” Morain said.

It’s an issue that has come up repeatedly in Harris’ career. As California attorney general and a senator, Harris worked on efforts for women’s rights, maternal health and other related issues.

Before Harris became District Attorney of San Francisco, she specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. She continued prosecuting domestic violence perpetrators, child abusers and sex traffickers as chief of the Division on Children and Families at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Crime, Criminal Justice and the Death Penalty

Throughout her career, Harris promoted herself as a tough-on-crime attorney. At the 2016 Democratic convention, she told a New York delegation she was California’s “top cop,” a moniker that many in the state’s communities of color criticized.

When she became a U.S. senator in 2017, Harris became a leading voice in a bid to reform the nation’s criminal justice system, notably after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020. The White House told The Bee this month that Harris spent her career trying to reduce recidivism, help people rebuild after prison and improve children’s civil rights in the juvenile justice system.

Harris’ 2019 presidential campaign platform included seeking a federal moratorium on the death penalty, which she has long opposed.

She was embroiled in controversy as a San Francisco prosecutor when she would not seek the death penalty against a suspect accused of killing a police officer.

When she ran for attorney general in 2010, many in the law enforcement area opposed her. Four years later, after a federal judge ruled California’s death penalty unconstitutional, Harris appealed the decision: “It is not supported by the law, and it undermines important protections that our courts provide to defendants,” she said at the time.

Healthcare

Soon after joining the Senate, Harris publicly supported the Medicare for All plan of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., and reiterated that view two years later when she started her presidential run: “I believe the solution — and I actually feel very strongly about this — is that we need to have Medicare for All,” she told a CNN town hall.

In June, during the Democrats’ first debate, Harris raised her hand when moderator Lester Holt of NBC asked “Who here would abolish their health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” But after the debate, Harris said she misinterpreted the question. She said her vision “includes private insurance where people can have supplemental insurance.”

A month later, she wrote in a post on Medium, “We will allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans as a part of this system that adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits.”

Marijuana Legalization

Harris opposed a 2010 California ballot initiative to legalize pot. But as part of her criminal justice reform package in 2019, she had a different view.

“It is past time to end the failed war on drugs, and it begins with legalizing marijuana,” she said, adding emphasis with the italics.

The Biden administration started the federal process of rescheduling weed from the most tightly regulated Schedule I to less regulated Schedule III in May.

At a White House event in March, Harris reiterated a position she’s held recently: “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”