California

Re-elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to keep America on track. 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have a track record and policy positions that demonstrate that they will continue to govern effectively in the best interests of this diverse nation.

Progressive endorsements: President Biden and Vice President Harris have the endorsement of some progressive groups, including the Sierra Club, Reproductive Freedom for All America, League of Conservation Voters, National Center for Transgender Equality, and Students Demand Action. They have also received the endorsement of a significant number of labor unions, including United Auto Workers, Actors’ Equity Association, AFL-CIO, IATSE, National Nurses United, and the American Federation of Teachers. President Biden and Vice President Harris also have the backing of the Democratic National Committee and a significant number of current and former Democratic officials, including former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Climate Envoy John Kerry, 14 current governors, 30 sitting U.S. senators, and over 70 members of the House of Representatives. This list includes California’s elected leaders Gov. Gavin Newsom, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Sen. Alex Padilla, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell, and LA Mayor Karen Bass. 

Priority policies: The Biden administration has had policy successes across a diversity of issue areas during their first term. Immediately after taking office during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden worked to move the American Rescue Plan through Congress and successfully passed legislation to provide stimulus checks, boosts to unemployment payments, and increased funds for education and small-business loans. The plan also ramped up the distribution and administration of vaccines. This legislative effort was followed by the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law that made a $1 billion investment in electric vehicle infrastructure, national road and bridge repair, clean drinking water modifications, and power grid updates. In addition to these investments, the administration passed President Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act, an expansive bill to provide needed funding to cap prescription drug costs for the elderly, increase corporate taxes, invest in clean energy and climate protections, reduce the federal deficit, and increase tax accountability by provided additional funding to the IRS. The White House has indicated that nearly 170,000 clean energy jobs have been created by this legislation, clean energy investments have increased by $110 billion, and insulin has been capped at $35 a month. After years of inaction from the federal government, President Biden signed a significant gun-safety bill into law, which strengthens background check laws, incentivizes state-based red flag laws, and expands limitations on the acquisition of firearms by perpetrators of domestic abuse. President Biden also signed the CHIPS Act into law to increase domestic production of the semiconductors used in the manufacturing of many of the products Americans use daily. 

The Biden administration’s economic policies have contributed to the lowest unemployment rate in over 50 years, at 3.4% as of January 2024, economic growth of 3.1% in 2023, and an inflation rate that dropped below 3% at the end of December. The administration has led the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Accord, forgiven $136 billion in education debt, and provided consistent support to striking labor unions across the country. While many of these accomplishments came during the first two years of the administration, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, President Biden and Vice President Harris have worked across the aisle to move impactful legislation forward for the American people with a divided Congress.

While the administration’s legislative successes have been substantial, they have been subject to significant criticism from progressives during this first term. While President Biden has maintained strong support for Israel during the October 7 Hamas attacks and the Israeli government’s retaliatory attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, the electorate and congressional representatives have expressed concerns about the U.S. government providing continued funding to the Israeli military, and activists and leaders have called on the Biden administration to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. On immigration and the southern border, the federal government’s failure to act has effectively continued the anti-immigrant policies enacted under the Trump administration and caused big city mayors and Democratic governors to publicly request that the White House and Congress pass meaningful legislation to reform an increasingly overwhelmed asylum and immigration system. Under Republican control, Congress has not passed any immigration reforms, and Republican leaders have advocated for more punitive and inhumane immigration policies.  

Governance and community leadership experience: President Biden and Vice President Harris have served in the White House since 2020, when they were elected on a joint ticket with 306 electoral votes and over 51% of the national popular vote. Their campaign won six critical swing states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona—to secure the electoral college victory.

Prior to his election, President Biden had a long and prominent political career. He served two terms as former President Barack Obama’s vice president and was responsible for managing the 2009 economic recovery, helping to expand health care through the Affordable Care Act, and acting as the administration’s liaison to the Senate. Before joining the Obama administration, he spent 36 years representing Delaware in the Senate. He was often critiqued as being an unremarkable, status quo Democrat, and mid-career votes in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, anti-drug legislation, and the Iraq War reaffirm that characterization. In 1991, Vice President Biden was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and presided over the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas, who had been credibly accused of sexual harassment by a former colleague, Anita Hill. Vice President Biden’s mismanagement of the hearing resulted in a targeted and unfair character assassination of Anita Hill and remains a reminder of his complicity in the patriarchal and racist systems on which our American government is built. 

Prior to her election, Vice President Harris was the first woman of color elected to represent California in the United States Senate. She sponsored legislation on climate and environmental protections, rental and housing protections, women’s health, and pandemic relief. She was also an original cosponsor of the progressive Green New Deal authored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey.  Before serving in the Senate, Vice President Harris had a long legal career in California, serving for 8 years in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office before transitioning to a role as a prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2003, she won her bid to become district attorney of the City and County of San Francisco, where she served two terms before being elected as the attorney general for the state of California in 2010. She was the first woman and the first person of color to hold this seat. Vice President Harris’s record was both progressive for the time and complicated by her moderate approach to policing and criminal justice. She has been criticized for failing to institute comprehensive police accountability measures, for not establishing meaningful prison reform, and for taking a hands-off approach to cases related to police misconduct. However, her lenient approach to policing was often punctuated by decidedly progressive support for social justice issues, including the establishment of an education and workforce reentry program designed to diminish recidivism. 

Other background: President Biden is from Scranton, PA, and moved to Delaware with his family when he was 10 years old. He has been a resident of Wilmington, Delaware, for most of his adult life. Vice President Harris grew up in Berkeley, CA, and was a longtime resident of Los Angeles. She is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, who both emigrated to the Bay Area in the 1960s.

 

The Race

Primary election: Eight candidates are running in the March 5 Democratic primary, including incumbent President Joe Biden (D), Rep. Dean Phillips (D), and Marianne Williamson (D). The candidate who receives the most delegates in the national Democratic primary will formally become the party’s designated Presidential candidate in August 2024.

Candidate fundraising and pledges: President Biden’s campaign has raised $56 million as of December 2023, and is not funded by police, real estate, corporate PAC, or fossil fuel interests.

Opposing candidate: Rep. Dean Phillips
Opposing candidate’s fundraising and pledges: Rep. Phillips’s campaign has not filed any campaign fundraising receipts with the FEC as of December 2023.

Opposing candidate: Marianne Williamson
Opposing candidate’s fundraising and pledges: Williamson’s campaign has raised $2.6 million as of December 2023, and is funded by corporate PAC interests. A significant amount of her campaign funding has been through candidate donations and loans taken out by the candidate.

 

The Position

The President of the United States is the head of the executive branch of the federal government, and the commander-in-chief for all branches of the armed forces. A president has the power to make diplomatic, executive, and judicial appointments, and can sign into law or veto legislation. Presidential administrations are responsible for both foreign and domestic policy priorities. Presidents are limited to serving two four-year terms in office.