Democratic US Senator Kamala Harris jumps into 2020 White House race

California Senator Kamala Harris speaks at a Polk County Democrats event in Des Moines, Iowa, US, 22 October 2018 – Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters): First-term Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California, a rising party star and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, launched her 2020 campaign for the White House on Monday by touting her background as a prosecutor.

Harris, 54, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, enters the race with the potential advantage of being the Democratic candidate who looks most like the party’s increasingly diverse base of young, female and minority voters.

“I have the unique experience of having been a leader in local government, state government and federal government,” she said in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

She timed her announcement for the US Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday honouring the slain civil rights leader, saying he was an aspirational leader.

“We are the best of who we are when we fight to achieve these ideals,” she said on ABC. “We are flawed, we are not perfect, but we are a great country when we think about the principles upon which we’re founded.”Harris, a former California state attorney general, has become popular with liberal activists for her tough questioning of Trump administration appointees and officials, including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during Senate hearings.

Harris’ campaign will focus on reducing the high cost of living with a middle-class tax credit, pursuing immigration and criminal justice changes and a Medicare-for-all healthcare system, aides said. She has said she will reject corporate political action committee money.

In the first 30 minutes after her announcement, Harris received individual online contributions from all 50 states, spokesman Ian Sams said on Twitter.As one of the earliest congressional critics of Trump’s immigration policies, Harris has pushed hard for a deal to protect from deportation those immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, a group known as Dreamers.

She is the fifth Democrat to enter what is shaping up to be a crowded battle for the nomination to challenge Trump, the likely Republican candidate. More than a dozen other Democrats are considering runs and CNN reported former Starbucks chief Howard Schultz is exploring an independent candidacy.