A California Democrat has never been nominated for president, but that appears to be changing — and it's not necessarily in the party's best interest.

Please forgive me for being the skunk at a picnic where California Democrats are celebrating the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Biden as the party's nominee to take on President Donald Trump.

Democrats can and should do better than Harris, and this is their chance to minimize Biden's burden and excite voters with a fresh face and a new approach.

Well, maybe that's a fantasy.

The reality is that Biden waited so long to withdraw that, with the Democratic National Convention less than a month away, there is little time left for the presidential candidate to clinch a victory in the nomination race.

Given the favorable conditions in Harris' favor, fueled by the president's endorsement and the swift backing of many Democratic politicians, plus the turmoil in the party caused by the convention brawl, it seems likely that no potential replacement candidate would choose to mount a serious challenge anyway.

And you won't be recruited by the so-called party leaders for these jobs. There will be no more smoke-filled rooms. To be elected leader of the free world, you have to be a full-throttle, aggressive campaigner with a ton of money. And Harris will take over Biden's campaign finances.

But let's go back to history.

Harris is already a historic figure: The daughter of immigrant parents (a Jamaican father and an Indian mother), she has many firsts to her name.

She is the first woman, the first Black American, the first Asian American Vice President. She has also been Attorney General of California. She was the first Black Senator from California. She is also the first woman and the first person of color elected as San Francisco District Attorney.

Harris is now on track to become the first female president of the United States.

She would also be the first California Democrat to be nominated for president, a remarkable achievement given that California became the most populous state in the nation 60 years ago.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown tried three times to win the Democratic nomination, mostly failing miserably but always spectacularly.

There has been a lot of speculation about California Gov. Gavin Newsom, but it is unlikely he would challenge Harris. Newsom has always maintained he would not run against his longtime California ally.

For most of California's history, the state has been a battleground state, typically flipping from purple to red on Election Day.

In fact, the first Republican presidential candidate in 1856 was explorer, general, and U.S. Senator John C. Fremont from California, who lost to Democrat James Buchanan.

Two California Republicans, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, were elected president.

But demographic changes have transformed California into a strongly Democratic state, with millions more people of color joining the electorate in recent years, and while they reliably vote for the Democratic front-runner, Republicans appear to be making inroads among Latino voters nationwide.

California's state and big cities have been governed too far to the left, which could be a major problem for Harris, who is sure to be smeared as the “San Francisco Democrat” that many moderates in battleground states fear.

California has great beaches, majestic mountains, Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but it also has extremely high taxes, homelessness and skyrocketing housing prices. The state with the highest illegal immigrant population in the country.

Trump is already campaigning against Harris as Biden's failed immigration czar, never mind that he has told Republicans he wants to keep the issue alive as campaign fodder, shamefully undermining a bipartisan solution in Congress.

If the Trump campaign were to take a closer look at Harris' record as a state attorney general, they would find that she has never been particularly courageous on the issues she has consistently called her top priorities. She has tended to not take positions on politically difficult issues, especially those that could upset law enforcement, a powerful interest group in attorney general politics.

For example, although she has been a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, she was publicly neutral on votes to abolish the death penalty in 2012 and 2016. Both bills were defeated. She also did not take a position on a proposal to expedite the implementation of the death penalty, which passed by a narrow margin.

But Trump is an easy target for Harris, a former prosecutor who would arguably be a better debater than the upset Biden.

And Ms Harris, 59, would make age an issue in the campaign — and perhaps even turn it against Mr Trump, 78, whose disorganized, rambling acceptance speech last week showed signs of cognitive decline.

Hopefully, Harris will emerge as a much better, stronger and less indecisive candidate than she was in the debacle that was the 2020 presidential election.

Still, the party would be better off holding a wide-open convention where all presidential candidates could compete and make their case, rather than simply nominating a vice president, which would likely result in the nomination of the best candidate, a future president, and would undoubtedly excite voters and stimulate interest in the candidates.

But a number of top potential replacements are already lining up behind Harris, who consider her the nomination a lock and want to be her running mate.

Whatever the outcome, California has already played a key role: Influential former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank have urged Biden to step down.

And California's delegation, the largest ever at a Democratic convention and giving it the 22% of the votes needed to win the nomination, will likely support him.

Harris' nomination seems inevitable. She may not be the best choice, but she will at least have a better chance of stopping the vile Trump.