Washington: Kamala Harris, the first Indian-American to be elected to the US Senate, is a potential Democratic presidential candidate for 2020 elections, a leading American newspaper said on Monday.
Harris, 51, whose mother was from Chennai and father from Jamaica, is one among the six Democratic leaders, whom The Washington Post said are the top contenders to bag the party's nomination for the 2020 presidential elections.
Interestingly four of these are women. The other three being outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama, Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York.
Other two potential Democratic presidential candidates according to the US daily are Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey and Governor John Hickenlooper from Colorado.
"Harris will not officially become a US senator from California for more than a month, but she is already regarded as national-candidate material in four years," Washington Post columnist Chris Cillizza wrote in his article.
"It is not hard to see why. She is the first African American woman elected to the Senate since Carol Moseley Braun in 1992. Harris also represents the largest and most Democratic state in the country, a huge financial launchpad to a presidential bid," he said, noting that through mid-October, she had raised more than USD 13 million for her Senate candidacy.
"Her law-and-order background -- she was elected and reelected attorney general in California -- also will appeal to many Democrats. Whether Harris wants to -- or will be ready to run for national office so soon after being elected to the Senate remains to be seen," Cillizza said.
Harris is a two-term popular Attorney General of California. She was elected to the United States Senate from California in a landslide. She was endorsed by outgoing US President Barack Obama, in her Senate race. The Washington Post columnist also said First Lady Michelle has true star power.
"She gave the two best political speeches of the past two years -- the first at the Democratic National Convention in July, the second in New Hampshire in the fall, an emotional condemnation of Trump's America," he said.
"Obama has one thing -- with the possible exception of Booker -- that the rest of the people on this list lack: true star power. She would start the race not only totally known by base Democrats but also absolutely beloved. The issue for Obama is that being a candidate in your own right is very different from being a surrogate for a candidate," he wrote. However, Obama in the past has said she has no interest in
running for office.
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