From CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu:
In the first — and perhaps only — presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the duo tussled over abortion rights, health care, border security, international relations and more for 90 minutes.
They managed to not mention California even once.
The Golden State — and all that conservatives have been blaming the state for — were notably absent, which surprised some political experts.
“Trump’s message has been to attack Harris for being a liberal Californian,” said Christian Grose, political science professor at the University of Southern California. “Trump missed an opportunity to tag Harris as someone from California out of step with the independent voters of swing states.”
Republicans — who have railed against deep-blue California for decades — have been attacking Harris’ Oakland roots and political career in the state, trying to define her as too radical for America. That brand, some political experts say, is partly why no California Democrat has ever become president.
But Harris came the closest to mentioning her own California record. “I am the only person on this stage who has prosecuted transnational criminal organizations for the trafficking of guns, drugs and human beings,” she said, referring to her time as California attorney general.
Throughout the debate, Trump instead repeated unsubstantiated claims on undocumented immigrants and exaggerated statistics on inflation and the death toll during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He insisted he had won the 2020 election, even though there is no evidence of fraud to support his claim. He repeatedly attacked Harris as “the worst vice president” in American history, and doubled down on his July comment that Harris had “turned Black.”
Harris spent the night drawing the contrast between her and Trump, urging Americans to move beyond bickering and “name-calling” and discuss tangible policies.
“We see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor,” she said. “We don’t want a leader who’s constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other.”
- Grose: “She wanted to appear presidential to a national audience — and the lack of discussion of California and her older positions here helped her.”
More on Harris: CalMatters has several pieces on Harris’ record, including her career as a prosecutor, her fundraising ties to the state, her stance on abortion and the ways California has shaped her political career. We also took a deep dive comparing Harris and Trump on health care for Californians.
Newsom back on the trail: Gov. Gavin Newsom returned to the presidential campaign fray, appearing on cable news just before the debate and showing up in the post-debate spin room. Earlier Tuesday, he visited Harris-Walz headquarters in Philadelphia and contrasted Harris and Trump on CBS. Newsom was among President Joe Biden’s most enthusiastic supporters earlier this summer, but pulled back from the trail after Biden withdrew in late July. Newsom only made brief remarks on Harris’ behalf at the Democratic convention last month.
This story originally appeared in CalMatters.
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