When Kamala Harris was officially sworn in as the Democratic presidential nominee, her home state's delegation had the best seats in the front row of Congress.

Visions of the Golden State and its parade of celebrities were packed into the convention's four-day program, and passes to the California afterparty, featuring John Legend, The Killers and Oakland's Tony! Tony! Tone, were among the most sought-after tickets in Chicago.

Suddenly, California was at the center of politics, something the nation's most important and populous state hadn't seen since former Governor Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

For the first time in history, a California Democrat has topped his party's presidential nominations, thanks in large part to the maneuverings of another California Democrat who helped oust the incumbent presidential candidate.

“California is at a critical moment right now,” says Don Sipple, a political strategist who has helped elect several California governors, because of “the women who opened the door and the women who walked through the door.”

(It's worth noting, however, that the woman opening the door, Nancy Pelosi, and Harris have never been close. The former Speaker of the House spoke publicly of an “open process” for choosing President Biden's successor after Biden decided not to run for reelection, and before endorsing the vice president as the best replacement.)

With increased attention comes increased scrutiny, and with that scrutiny comes a fight over what Harris will represent for California, and by extension, the nation.

The results will likely determine the winner in November.

Is California the sun-drenched incubator of innovation and opportunity that has continued to attract doers and dreamers from around the world for more than 150 years?

Or is it a collection of overburdened and overstretched communities unable to provide even the basics of safety, clean housing and sustainable livelihoods for a shamefully large number of their residents?

Yes, that's right.

“There's plenty of evidence to support both views,” said Jack Pitney, a former Republican activist and political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, quoting Walt Whitman.

“California is big and diverse,” Pitney says, “so both things can be true at the same time.”

Red and blue America. California in prosperity and California in decline. Two perspectives on the same thing.

Bill Carrick, a longtime political adviser to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, scoffed at the idea that Harris' home state would weigh heavily on the vice president's neck.

“At the end of the day, a presidential campaign is about electing someone you think will make your life better,” said Carrick, who has worked extensively in national politics. The candidates' response speeches aren't the key, he said.

“Yes, there are ideological Republicans who are loyal to Trump and fervently embrace the idea that California is a hellish place, but they wouldn't be on our side anyway,” Carrick added.

Most voters, at least those likely to support Harris, know very little about the vice president, which Carrick said gives Harris an opportunity to present herself and her home state on her own terms “as opposed to the Republican cartoon portrayal.”

That may be true.

But Trump and his Republican allies, aided by Fox News and other sympathetic media, will argue that California is a case study of what happens when Democrats take power, and they will point to Harris, who has held statewide office for more than 12 years, as a prime example of California's destructive ruling class.

It's a gross overstatement of her power and influence in her relatively brief stint, first as attorney general and then as one of California's two senators, but the details will surely get lost in the fog of the campaign.

In one important respect, however, Harris is a role model for her home state.

There is no doubt that she reflects the politics and makeup of modern California, just as the state's two presidents, Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon, embodied California at that time.

They rose to power at a time when California was predominantly white, strongly Republican and broadly conservative: By the time Harris was elected attorney general and took up her post in Sacramento in 2010, the state had become predominantly Democratic, more liberal, with more black and brown residents than whites, and there were significantly more opportunities for women in politics.

In that sense, Harris and Reagan serve as perfect opposite ends of the states they represent.

Jim Newton, a biographer and state historian, said it was surprising that California Democrats hadn't been able to put someone from their party in the White House, given the changes over the past 30 years.

“I think this is an exceptionally Democratic place,” he said, “and a lot of national Democratic leaders have come from here.”

Among them are legendary Philip Burton, MP “I think that Biden has been a big influence in the Democratic Party, and he has been a big influence in the Democratic Party,” said Harris, who is also a running mate for the White House.

Of course, absent extraordinary circumstances, Harris would never have had a shot at the presidency: If Biden hadn't performed so badly in the June debate, if Democrats hadn't panicked afterward, if Pelosi and other party leaders hadn't hatched a plan to push the president aside, Harris might well have lost the vice presidency in January.

Still, it's possible that it could happen, but it's worth celebrating how far Harris has gotten: After two decades in politics, she's edging closer to the White House and making history geographically.

In politics, as so much in life, timing is everything.