When news broke that President Joe Biden was ending his campaign and endorsing Kamala Harris, San Francisco politicians across the spectrum scrambled to post old photos with the vice president and express support for her.
Mayor London Breed — who’s in the middle of a tough reelection fight — stands out as one of the vice president’s closest allies and biggest cheerleaders. Local observers are wondering whether the mayor will be able to leverage her ties to Harris to pick up voter support.
“There are some analogies that can be drawn between Kamala Harris and London Breed as Black women leaders,” said Nancy Tung, chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, who has endorsed Breed in the mayoral campaign.
Breed has long touted Harris’ early endorsement when she first ran for supervisor. Additionally, in 2018, Harris, then a U.S. senator, endorsed Breed’s first mayoral bid. But now, the timing could be tricky for Harris to endorse Breed again, as every move by the presumed Democratic presidential nominee will face extra scrutiny. “It’ll be interesting to see if Kamala Harris will publicly endorse her,” said Tung.
A Harris-Breed mailer?
At a rally Thursday celebrating her sole endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic Party, Breed took pains to link her mayoral campaign with Harris’ run for the presidency.
“To San Franciscans and Democrats everywhere, we have an opportunity not just here locally,” Breed said, “but we have an opportunity nationally to make sure that we’re not moving backward.”
The San Francisco Democratic Party will send its endorsement results to voters in mailers. When asked if Harris’ and Breed’s images will appear on a mailer together, Tung said, “Potentially.” In a statement, Breed’s campaign avoided the question about a potential Harris endorsement, declaring that the focus is on helping Harris defeat their mutual enemy: Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy, women’s rights, LGBT rights and minorities,” Breed campaign spokesman Joe Arellano said in a statement. “Mayor Breed will do everything she can to help her friend and ensure that San Francisco continues to serve as a firewall to right-wing MAGA policies.”
Breed, as a California delegate, will attend the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago to support Harris.
Breed’s closeness to the vice president hasn’t stopped other mayoral candidates from jumping on the Harris bandwagon. Mark Farrell, a former mayor and supervisor who is leading Breed in some polls, quietly added a coconut emoji to his X profile last week. The reference to the Harris meme was an apparent effort to absorb some of the energy around the vice president’s candidacy for his campaign.
Jason McDaniel, an associate professor of political science at San Francisco State University, was skeptical about Harris’ influence boosting Breed’s campaign, believing that the Harris-Trump battle will eat up most of the fundraising energy and media attention.
He agreed that Breed will have a chance to build momentum by aligning herself with Harris, but San Franciscans will vote based on local policy.
“Most people are going to vote [in the mayoral race] based on their feelings of the city,” McDaniel said. “It’s not going to be about Kamala Harris necessarily.”