Kamala Harris just got her first job in Congress, yet is already considered a top presidential contender.
Speaking on a panel about the 2016 presidential election at the Coins2Day Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif. On Tuesday afternoon, three political power players all had California’s Senator-elect Harris in mind when asked about the Democratic Party’s best hope for the 2020 presidential race.
While she wasn’t the only name to come up—Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Were also mentioned—she was the only one to be unanimously considered to be a top choice by the panelists, who included Color Genomics CMO and former White House advisor Katie Jacobs Stanton, longtime Republican political strategist Juleanna Glover , and Politico senior Washington correspondent Anna Palmer .
“A lot of people think Senator-elect Harris is right in line to run for president as soon as she possibly can,” said Palmer.
While Glover’s area of expertise lies on the other side of the political spectrum, even she admitted that Harris was a major force. However, she said, “We’re also going to see a lot of conservative or Republican new personalities coming to the forefront in this new age of political unexpected and chaos.”
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That all three women pointed to Harris may have something to do with her long history of being a barrier-breaker. Earlier this month, she became the first African-American to be elected as a California senator. When she was first elected California’s attorney general in 2010 (she was re-elected in 2014), she became the first woman, first African American, and the first Indian American attorney general in California.