Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) has announced she is suspending her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
In a statement posted to Medium, the junior senator from California gets down to brass tacks quickly: “My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue. I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.”
“In good faith, I can’t tell you, my supporters and volunteers, that I have a path forward if I don’t believe I do,” she continues. “So, to you my supporters, it is with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude — that I am suspending my campaign today.”
Harris adds, however, that she will keep fighting for “what this campaign has been about. Justice for The People. All the people.”
She goes on to list the many issues she made central to her candidacy including inadequate teacher pay, gun violence, unconstitutional state abortion laws, and speaking to the experiences of Black women and people of color.
The senator closes her statement expressing gratitude to all of her supporters, friends, husband, and family, before adding:
“And I want to be clear: although I am no longer running for President, I will do everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump and fight for the future of our country and the best of who we are.”
It has been the honor of my life to be your candidate. We will keep up the fight. pic.twitter.com/RpZhx3PENl
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) December 3, 2019
Harris has been a longtime ally to the LGBTQ community going back to her days as Attorney General of California when she denounced her state’s Proposition 8 prior to its passage. She refused as AG to defend the homophobic law, which led to the Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that anti-LGBTQ groups seeking to defend the measure had no standing to do so. As a result, Proposition 8 was overturned.
Harris also urged the California state legislature to ban the use of ‘gay panic’ or ‘trans panic’ legal defenses in crimes against LGBTQ people.
As a senator, she supports the Equality Act and for allowing trans people equal access to public accommodations.
In 2018, she introduced the Do No Harm Act which would prohibit the federal Religious Freedom From Restoration Act from being used against the LGBTQ community. She also introduced legislation to ensure that LGBTQ Americans were properly counted in the census.
Key LGBTQ issues cited on her campaign site include:
- Rollback the Trump/Pence hate agenda by reversing Trump’s actions to harm the LGBTQ+ community, including the transgender service ban and guidelines to protect students from discrimination and harassment.
- Establish a Chief Advocate for LGBTQ+ affairs in the White House to ensure that LGBTQ+ Americans are represented in hiring and policy priorities across the government.
- Fight for full equality for the LGBTQ+ community by passing the Equality Act and other laws to ensure that everyone is safe and supported at work, at school, and throughout their communities.
