California’s Kamala Harris Just Became the Fourth Woman of Color to Be Elected US Senator

She’s been called the “next Barack Obama.”

AP Photo/Eric Risberg

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Kamala Harris, who gained a reputation as a potential “next Barack Obama,” during her tenure as California’s attorney general, won the race for an open California Senate seat against Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.).

The seat was vacated by Sen. Barbara Boxer, who served four terms before retiring. Harris announced her candidacy days after Boxer’s announcement in January last year. It was the first open seat in California since 1992.

Harris is a Bay Area native who made history in 2003 when she became the first black woman and the first South Asian woman to be elected as San Francisco district attorney. She was reelected in 2007, and in 2011 she became California’s attorney general, serving as one of only two black female Democrats in statewide office. In 2013, President Obama—who would later endorse Harris for Senate—praised her work as attorney general, calling her “brilliant,” “dedicated,” and “tough.”

In an interview with Mother Jones, Harris said she has experienced sexism and racism over the course of her political career, but she’s never let it influence her.

“As a female prosecutor, let alone a woman of color, there have definitely been moments where people said, ‘No, you can’t do that,'” she said. “Well, I eat ‘no’ for breakfast, and I’ve never been a fan of the word ‘can’t’—aimed at me or anyone else.”

Harris was one of 13 women to run for Senate for the first time in 2016. One of those women, Loretta Sanchez, was Harris’ opponent. Had Sanchez won, she would have been the first Latina to serve in the US Senate.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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