Sen. Kamala Harris officially announced on Monday that she will seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. Harris, the 54-year-old daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, made history when in 2016 she became the second Black woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Her announcement is not exactly a surprise: the career prosecutor and former California attorney general has been rumored as a potential presidential candidate even before she took federal office.
Symbolically, the California junior senator chose to announce her candidacy on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In an appearance on Good Morning America, Harris revealed she would be running and said, "I’m honored to be able to make my announcement on the day that we commemorate [Dr.King,]."
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During her two years serving in the Senate, Harris has emerged as one of President Donald Trump's fiercest opponents. She will be joining what will likely be a crowded Democratic primary. Former mayor of San Antonio Julián Castro, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have all have entered the race so far.
Warren announced the launch of her exploratory committee last month and kicked off 2019 by traveling to Iowa. Her first campaign even will take place in South Carolina on January 25, followed by a rally in her hometown of Oakland, CA on January 27. Gillibrand also made several stops in Iowa in recent days, while Castro chose Puerto Rico as the location for his first campaign event. Other potential nominees include Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Cory Booker, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, and the list goes on.
If Harris succeeds at obtaining the Democratic nomination and defeating Trump in November 2020, she would be the first woman and the second Black person to become president of the United States in the nation's 244-year-old history.