Local Democratic leaders rallied Monday morning to support Vice President Kamala Harris' run for president on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, shortly before Harris received a key endorsement from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Harris, the former San Francisco District Attorney and California senator, suddenly finds herself as one of the frontrunners to lead the Democratic ticket in November after President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday.
As they endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination, speakers at Monday's rally stressed that it was California's responsibility to back Harris in areas of the country not as familiar with her.
"We know the real Kamala Harris," San Francisco Mayor London Breed said to a fired-up crowd of some 100 organizers and politicians on the San Francisco City Hall steps. "It is our job to support and defend her record. It is our job to go out there and tell the story of the real Kamala Harris to voters in those swing states."
Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, said that the organization was considering a bus campaign in Nevada, one of the most consequential states when Biden and Harris won election in 2020. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said he came to the rally after a call with more than 300 of "Kamala's longest and earliest supporters," who were strategizing a nationwide campaign effort.
Chiu spoke at the rally wearing an old, red t-shirt from Harris' first public campaign more than 20 years ago, when she won election as the San Francisco district attorney. The shirt was covered in a bit of dust when he found it, he said. But he said those who've known Harris long enough to have a shirt that old needed to defend her from a deluge of right-wing attacks that he predicted were coming. He said his firsthand experience working on Harris' 2003 campaign for district attorney will help voters come to know Harris, whom he described as "misunderstood."
"We need to share this. We need people to know the Kamala that we have known for decades, that will be an incredible precedent," Chiu said.
Specifically, Chiu said that he'd point to Harris' time as district attorney to counter those labeling Harris and Democrats as soft on crime.
Chiu's message seemingly involves drawing a contrast between Harris' record as DA and Republican nominee Donald Trump's ongoing legal troubles, including the 34 felonies of which he was convicted in May.
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Although San Francisco Democrats have mostly rallied around Harris, she hadn't yet received endorsements from some of the party's biggest names. Before the rally, that included Pelosi, one of California's most powerful Democrats and reportedly one of the forces that led to Biden withdrawing from the race.
Emma Heiken, vice chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, said that Pelosi's office sent an RSVP for Monday's endorsement rally, but it was for staff, not Pelosi herself. But shortly after the San Francisco rally ended, Pelosi officially endorsed Harris for president.
Should Harris win election over Republican nominee Donald Trump, she would become the first woman and second Black person to hold the office, after Barack Obama. Breed drew several comparisons between Harris and Obama at Monday's rally.
It was while attending Obama's 2007 campaign launch alongside Harris that she first thought that Harris may someday find herself in the same spot, she said. And Breed said that Harris had an Obama-like ability to build political coalitions, despite Harris' 2020 presidential bid ending quickly after it began.
Breed, who is facing her own reelection challenge this fall, echoed calls from other speakers for San Francisco Democrats to lead efforts to get voters to the polls in swing states.
"My challenge to you Democrats, you San Francisco Democrats, the bluest spot in the state that is the bluest state in our country: We need you now. Because democracy does not happen in a vacuum. Democracy happens when you show up," Tung said.
But that blue spot has shown some streaks of red this election cycle. Trump has found a number of supporters amongst the Bay Area-based tech entrepreneurs, who've contributed millions of campaigns. Still, Democrats at Monday's rally were largely focused beyond the Bay Area.
"I'd like to think that the delusion of some Republican billionaires is not a result of what we've seen here," Chiu said. "We have to continue to fight for the hearts, the minds and the wallets of Californians. But more importantly, because California will be Kamala country, we need to make sure that our energy, our time our resources, go to those swing and battleground states."
A few speakers noted the turmoil of the last three weeks, as Biden and top Democrats weighed whether he should drop out of the race. But with Biden's decision in the rearview, San Francisco organizer Ernesto Cuellar said that people in his group chats were energized.
"I think it's time to show the world what it means to be San Franciscan," he said.
