--- title: Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Says She Aims to Bring 'Unity' description: “Some people would say that in a diverse country, you cannot achieve unity. I reject that notion,” Harris said. canonical: https://time.com/5508987/presidential-candidate-kamala-harris-unity/ author: Tara Law article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-21T21:54:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:33:27.633Z article:section: Politics og:title: Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Says She Aims to Bring 'Unity' og:description: “Some people would say that in a diverse country, you cannot achieve unity. I reject that notion,” Harris said. og:url: https://time.com/5508987/presidential-candidate-kamala-harris-unity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b3e1ffd3032b05e/698943b7ab6d77d46c6b4aa1/kamala-harris.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Says She Aims to Bring 'Unity' twitter:description: “Some people would say that in a diverse country, you cannot achieve unity. I reject that notion,” Harris said. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b3e1ffd3032b05e/698943b7ab6d77d46c6b4aa1/kamala-harris.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Says She Aims to Bring 'Unity' > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jan 21, 2019 9:54 PM UTC  U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) (R) hugs Mara Peoples, Executive Vice President of the Howard University Student Association, beside Amos Jackson III, Executive President, after announcing her candidacy for President of the United States, at Howard University, her alma mater, on Janu. 21, 2019 in Washington, D.C. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) (R) hugs Mara Peoples, Executive Vice President of the Howard University Student Association, beside Amos Jackson III, Executive President, after announcing her candidacy for President of the United States, at Howard University, her alma mater, on Janu. 21, 2019 in Washington, D.C. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) (R) hugs Mara Peoples, Executive Vice President of the Howard University Student Association, beside Amos Jackson III, Executive President, after announcing her candidacy for President of the United States, at Howard University, her alma mater, on January 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. Harris is the first African-American woman to announce a run for the White House in 2020.  by [Tara Law](https://time.com/author/tara-law/)  ## Tara Law Jan 21, 2019 9:54 PM UTC Hours after officially [declaring](http://time.com/5508563/kamala-harris-presidential-race/) that she will run for president, Sen. Kamala Harris opened her campaign depicting herself as a unifier who can appeal to the values Americans share across ideological lines. Taking questions from the press on Monday, the California Democratic senator implicitly contrasted herself with President Donald Trump, who has cultivated a reputation for his aggressive approach towards his opponents. Harris argued that she will campaign to all Americans – regardless of where they live or their race. Harris, whose parents are Jamaica and Indian, also appeared to highlight [her identity](http://time.com/5495683/kamala-harris-the-truths-we-hold-book/) through the timing and location of the event. Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and the press conference was held at her alma mater, historically black Howard University. Harris said that regardless of where Americans live or their racial background, most can find common ground on different issues. For instance, Harris said, most Americans will agree that it is important to protect the environment, but want to do so without endangering their economic future. “Every parent wants to know that their child can drink clean water and breathe clean air,” said Harris. “And that same parent wants to know that they’re able to bring home enough money with one job to pay their bills and pay their rent and put food on the table instead of having to work two and three jobs.” Besides asking her about her platform, several of the reporters also probed Harris’s background as a candidate from California and a former attorney general. Prior to becoming a senator, Harris was a deputy district attorney and Alameda County, a district attorney of San Francisco city and county, and later the attorney general of California. While Harris has repeatedly said that she acted as a “progressive prosecutor,” some proponents of criminal justice reform have questioned her record. Last Thursday, Lara Bazelon of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles published a scathing [editorial](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html) in the New York Times, writing that as attorney general, Harris had “opposed reform or remained silent” and that she “fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.” During Monday’s event, Harris carefully positioned herself as a criminal justice reformer, which will could help to secure the support of many black Democrats. Gaining the support of African American voters will likely be an important factor in her ability to secure the nomination. “Every person wants to know that there will be a criminal justice system that is fair to all people regardless of their race. Every person wants that a mother and father should not have to sit down with their teenage son and have ‘the talk’ – and tell that child about how they may be stopped or arrested or in some way profiled and potentially shot because of their race.” Throughout her speech, however, Harris deemphasized her particular identity and instead said that she is speaking for all Americans. She declined to respond directly to a question about how she “described herself” saying that she describes herself as a “proud American” and aims to bring people together. “Some people would say that in a diverse country, you cannot achieve unity. I reject that notion,” Harris said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5508987/presidential-candidate-kamala-harris-unity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5508987/presidential-candidate-kamala-harris-unity/"},"headline":"Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris Says She Aims to Bring 'Unity'","datePublished":"2019-01-21T21:54:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:33:27.633Z","description":"“Some people would say that in a diverse country, you cannot achieve unity. 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