The presidential-primary dam is bursting.
Getting more serious about a 2020 run by the day, Kamala Harris has been reaching out to Democrats in Iowa to plan a trip there at the end of the month, according to people who know about the calls. The California senator is likely to spend the final weekend before the midterms in the home of the first caucuses, crossing a symbolic but unmistakably significant line toward owning her interest in a presidential campaign.
She endorsed Deidre DeJear for Iowa secretary of state in August, but this would be a much more extensive campaign swing, potentially over several days.
And it will be part of a lot more campaigning in the final stretch of the midterms geared toward states on every Democratic strategist’s map for 2020. She’s scheduled to do a swing through Ohio and to speak at the state Democratic Party dinner this weekend, and she has already announced an appearance at the Arizona Democrats’ dinner and a return to Georgia to campaign for the gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. More stops are already in the works.
Harris heading to Iowa is the latest sign that the cutesy denial stage of the 2020 race is ending for the expected top tier: Last weekend, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts acknowledged openly for the first time that she is thinking about running for president, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey is scheduled to be in Iowa for his own debut swing this weekend, which he’ll follow with a trip to South Carolina later in the month. An Iowa poll earlier this week had Warren in second place for name ID, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and just ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Harris was right behind, in fourth place, narrowly ahead of Booker.