Joe Biden announced California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate Aug. 11, a decision heavily anticipated for months by both sides of the political spectrum. Chosen from a field of a near-dozen prospective vice presidential nominees – including front-runners Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, California Rep. Karen Bass and former national security advisor Susan Rice – this decision marks Harris as the first Black woman and Asian American ever nominated for a vice presidential major party ticket. 

“@JoeBiden can unify the American people because he's spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he'll build an America that lives up to our ideals,” Harris tweeted shortly after the announcement. “I'm honored to join him as our party's nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief.”

While Harris received support from the other candidates on Biden’s shortlist for vice president, many Democrats were upset by the decision. Harris’ past as a prosecutor played a role in her Dec. 3 resignation from the presidential election, as her political backing wasn’t strong enough to compete with criticism she faced for her handling of prison systems and investigations into wrongful incarcerations, specifically within Black communities.

After her resignation, Harris aligned herself with the Black Lives Matter Movement, continuing to work toward police reform and joining a protest May 30 outside of the White House. In selecting Harris, Biden’s campaign platform – which consists of views promoting the elimination of private prisons, assisting student debt and fighting climate change – can more readily appeal and draw in the moderate-left backing, as well as tap into the Black and women demographic. By rounding out his edges, Harris offers a safer promise to the Biden campaign, said Chapman campaigns and elections professor Fred Smoller.

“The most important thing for the Democrats is to win, and (Harris) is a choice that makes that possible,” Smoller said. “I believe this election is Joe Biden’s to lose. He’s been ahead by 10 points nationally and in battle ground states; he’ll go on to win according to most election models – unless he screws it up … By not making mistakes, (Biden) will be on a glidepath to an election victory.”

Because Harris is the more pragmatic legislator out of the other potential nominees, Biden leaves President Donald Trump with less effective claims of a radical, leftist agenda. However, that didn’t stop the Trump administration, and fellow Chapman University law professor John Eastman, from questioning Harris’ eligibility for vice presidency. Trump also released a political advertisement on Twitter Aug. 11 denouncing Biden, whom he dubbed “Slow Joe,” for selecting Harris, or “Phony Kamala.”

Biden and Harris made their first appearance together the following day in Wilmington, Delaware, and united to make their initial remarks as running mates.

“This morning, all across the nation, little girls woke up, especially little Black and brown girls, who so often feel overlooked and undervalued in their communities,” Biden said at the event. “But today, just maybe, they’re seeing themselves for the first time in a new way: as the stuff of president and vice presidents.”

If Biden-Harris does become the winning ticket, that would mean a vacant seat in the Senate. California Gov. Gavin Newsom would select the individual to fill that gap in January, when the newly elected president and the vice president are formally inaugurated. The Panther reached out to Katie Porter, the Democratic Representative representing California’s 45th district in Congress, to gather her thoughts on pursuing the seat.

"I can't imagine saying no to any position in which I could make a real difference in people's lives; it's why I said yes when Kamala Harris asked me to be the California Monitor overseeing the big banks for the National Mortgage Settlement,” Porter wrote in an email statement to The Panther. “But right now, I'm focused on the work that needs to be done today through November: winning my own tough reelection race, taking back the White House and the Senate, building a strong bench of Democratic elected officials in Orange County, and getting help for working families during this pandemic."

Continue following The Panther as we report on the 45th Congressional District elections.