Kamala Harris' legislative record is filled with diversity initiatives, climate change bills, broadsides to social justice, and other left-leaning priorities, ultimately earning her the title of the “most liberal” senator of the 2019 Congress.
Government TruckA website that tracks congressional bills and votes: Gradebook But it's this that earned Harris that ranking: First elected to the Senate by Californians in 2016, Harris introduced a string of bills supporting far-left projects during her four years in the Senate. (Related: Kamala Harris' left-leaning voting record second only to Bernie Sanders' in her final year as a senator)
Harris introduced the bill early in her term: Environmental Justice Right to Know Act of 2018The bill deals with “environmental justice regulation of pesticides and cosmetics” and specifically establishes Spanish translation requirements for pesticide labels.
Most recently, Harris sponsored the Climate Equity Act of 2020, a bill that would establish the Office of Climate and Environmental Equity and the Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability.
He introduced the Climate Equity Act of 2020, which aims to create an office at CBO to study the racial climate impacts of any proposed legislation. pic.twitter.com/RGKneoT9Wn
— Amalia C. Halikias (@AmaliaHalikias) July 24, 2024
Another bill she introduced in 2018 wasHow to ensure diverse leadership;“An affirmative action-style bill that would require the Fed to interview at least one individual who reflects gender diversity and one individual who reflects racial or ethnic diversity.”
He introduced the Ensuring Diverse Leadership Act, a general form of affirmative action in Federal Reserve hiring. pic.twitter.com/PQmpF3aO9E
— Amalia C. Halikias (@AmaliaHalikias) July 24, 2024
GovTrack stopped publishing single-year report cards of lawmakers between 2019 and 2021, opting instead to rank them by legislative session, said Joshua Tauberer, the website's founder. statementTauberer said the single-year report card had been “withdrawn,” but Harris' 2019 report card Staying Alive She continued to make that point on her website until just before she was nominated for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Her 2020 card ranks her as the “most politically left” Democratic senator, Available.
“A few years ago, I was focused on the more impactful aspects of our work and not on pages that no one was looking at,” Tauberer told The Daily Caller, explaining why the reports had been on GovTrack for so long. “Earlier this week, after seeing attention being drawn to some of the sites that we had flagged as unreliable in 2020, we removed the calendar year statistics from the site, but left most of the same other statistics.”
Literally as far left as you can go!
They're trying so hard to wipe it off the internet, lol.
https://t.co/jqYbA4GtIZ— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 25, 2024
Tauberer argued in a statement that the original methodology was flawed: “I recognized that the limited data available over a one-year period, especially given the ebb and flow of the congressional calendar, was insufficient to create a reliable portrait of lawmakers' activity and therefore would not be a useful tool for users or the American public.”
But Tauberer also pointed out that the difference between the now-defunct single-year report card and the still-valid multiyear one is subtle.
“As I said at the beginning, the difference is whether Harris was the most left-leaning senator in 2019 or the most left-leaning Democrat in 2019-2020. That's the smallest issue to defend.”
Harris is currently ranked fourth among liberal senators by GovTrack. Updated gradebookTauberer said this compares her legislative record to other senators from 2015 to 2020. Only three people rank behind her in the latest report card: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley.
Democratic presidential candidates California Sen. Kamala Harris (L) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders speak onstage during the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential election season, co-hosted by The New York Times and CNN, at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, on October 15, 2019.
Harris's platform focuses on individual identity and has produced other bills such as: Census Equality ActA bill she introduced in 2018 would require the Census Bureau to collect information about Americans' “sexual orientation and gender identity.”
In May 2020, she COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force Act of 2020 It will “provide reports and recommendations to Congress and relevant federal agencies regarding racial and ethnic disparities in the COVID-19 response.”
Two months later, in July, she COVID-19 Bias and Anti-Racism Training Act of 2020The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “provide grants to health care providers, public health departments, tribal organizations, schools of social workers and health professionals, and other nonprofit organizations to conduct anti-bias and anti-racism training to reduce disparities in the COVID-19 response.”
Harris was the 2018 Mental Health Professional Workforce Shortage Loan Repayment ActThe act required the Health Resources and Services Administration to “establish a loan repayment program for mental health professionals working in designated workforce shortage areas.”
GovTrack claims it “never advocates for or against any policy, politician or organization” and does not receive funding from partisan causes.
But Tauberer has a history of working for and with left-wing politicians and organisations.
He worked for DemandProgress.Org, an advocacy group co-founded by liberal politician David Segal. according to He also served on the Open Government Advisory Group for Washington, DC's Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and was contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Obama administration to help build HealthData.gov. according to on his LinkedIn.
Harris' leftward movement began long before Californians elected her to the Senate. (RELATED: Harris praises 'defund the police' movement shortly before joining Biden's 2020 candidacy)
As San Francisco's district attorney, Harris expunged drug charges against six illegal immigrants in 2009 as part of “Back on Track,” the state's job-training program for nonviolent offenders. according to To SFGate.
VENICE, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 3: San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris attends the “Choose or Lose Your Toy” event at the Obsolescent Gallery on November 3, 2009 in Venice, California. Jesse Grant/Getty Images, Obsolescent
The previous year, prosecutors had tightened the program's guidelines after learning that one of the participants, Alexander Izaguirre, was an undocumented immigrant suspected of robbing and assaulting women, SFGate reported.
“It's an innovative program, and it's proven to work. But with this issue, we fixed it when we found out about it,” Harris said at the time. “When Izaguirre happened, a bright light flashed on. It was very clear when it happened. We fixed it.”
According to SFGate, the program has allowed six undocumented immigrants to graduate, but their illegal immigration status means they are unable to find work after graduation.
“We had some people enrolled who shouldn't have been enrolled,” Harris said at the time, “and we graduated them and reformed our standards.”
Debra Sanders, current columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal Criticized In 2008, Harris appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for not prosecuting 21-year-old immigrant Edwin Ramos, who had a long list of charges, including assaulting a pregnant woman and attempted robbery. Those crimes made him eligible for deportation, Sanders said, and he slipped through the cracks until a jury in the sanctuary city of San Francisco convicted him. murder Tony Bologna of San Francisco and his two sons;
Harris continued her radical legislative stance by introducing bills such as: Fair Housing Opportunity Act of 2019The bill would require public housing authorities (PHAs) to disregard an applicant's criminal history if the applicant is deemed non-violent.
Overall, Harris' voting and political record leans strongly liberal, but Tauberer cautioned that the record doesn't tell the whole story.
“Clearly our analysis contradicts what other serious analyses of Harris' record have found, but the short answer is that both could be true: she can sponsor/co-sponsor left-leaning legislation that is typically low-risk, while also being pragmatic in making risky, high-impact decisions when the time comes,” Tauberer said in an email.
Harris' campaign was denied After former President Donald Trump harshly criticized her bail push, she donated directly to a bail fund in Minnesota, putting several violent crime suspects back on the streets, the Washington Free Beacon (WFB) reported. report.
The Harris team appears to still be involved in promoting the Minnesota Freedom Fund, with the ActBlue fundraising page featuring a photo of Harris and the headline “Kamala Harris for the People.” Still active.
Harris tweeted a link to the fund in 2020.
If you're able, please donate now MN Freedom Fund To help pay bail for people protesting locally in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
Harris' tweet claimed the fund was “to help with bail for Minnesota protesters during the George Floyd riots,” but of the $41 million raised, only $210,000 was used for that purpose. according to To WFB.
Instead, most of the funds went to bail for violent criminals like Christopher Boswell. The Minnesota Freedom Fund paid $540,000 in bail for Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist charged with kidnapping, assault and sexual assault in two separate cases. according to To Fox 9.
Harris, who entered the presidential race after Biden dropped out and failed to gain support in the primary, still lags behind Trump in national opinion polls despite improving relative to the president's approval rating. according to Compared to the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average, Trump is also leading in most key battleground states, including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Georgia.
Republicans and Trump allies have harshly criticized Harris for her role in overseeing the root causes of the migrant influx at the U.S. southern border under Biden, a role that media members have colloquially dubbed Biden's “border czar” and have worked hard to distance her from the term.
As of May, there had been more than 7.8 million encounters at the southern border since Biden and Harris took office. according to To Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee.
