Kamala Harris touched down in the Bay Area this weekend after a multi-state tour introducing her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to court donors in a home crowd at a thousands-of-dollars-a-head fundraiser in San Francisco.
The night before, San Francisco Mayor London Breed greeted the vice president-turned-Democratic nominee on the tarmac at SFO alongside California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis.
The VP drew hundreds of donors to the exclusive Sunday morning event hosted by the Harris Victory Fund, which reportedly raised about $12 million by selling tickets for $3,300 to $500,000 apiece.
Welcome back to SF Madam @VP !
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) August 11, 2024
So proud to have the Future President of the United States back in San Francisco where it all started. pic.twitter.com/sr2l940a2U
For Harris, an Oakland native who served as San Francisco district attorney before catapulting to higher office, the event is something of a homecoming.
As a host of big-money Democratic donors filed into the iconic Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, where the Health Ministry recently reported the death toll for Palestinians exceeded 41,000.
Protesters held up signs calling out Harris directly, including one featuring Harris holding a bomb that read, “Got $ for war, but can’t feed the poor.”
Inside the Harris Victory Fund soiree, attendees sipped mimosas and nibbled on hors d’oeuvres brought by gray-uniformed servers before shuffling into 14 rows of forty seats divided by an aisle in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom.
The stage was adorned with American and California flags and a big blue sign with Harris-Walz in bold white lettering.
The soundtrack opened with, among other classic hits, Jackson 5’s “ABC,” the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There,” Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and Aretha Franklin’s “Think.”
Some attendees telegraphed their enthusiasm through signs or quote-emblazoned shirts. One woman walked in with a homemade poster board display that read “Make America Joyful Again.” Another donned a white T-shirt with “Elect Women” stitched on the front in cursive.
At least one person wore a shirt from Harris’ 2020 campaign that read “For the people.” A number of people showed up wearing all-white in homage to the women’s suffrage movement and as a symbol of hope that the nation may finally elect its first female commander-in-chief.
In a line slowly making its way toward the back of the room for beverages, a man with spectacles on his head stood out in the roomful of blue blazers and button-up shirts by channeling The Big Lebowski protagonist in an off-white T-shirt with Jeff Bridges’ face surrounded by the slogan “Dudes for like, Harris, man.”
A host of San Francisco leaders, including Mayor Breed in a blue jacket and Supervisor Aaron Peskin in a white button-up shirt and a navy suit, were seen mingling in the crowd.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a crisp white shirt and dark-gray suit, pressed flesh and posed for photos — including an obligatory snapshot with a baby — in the back of the ballroom.
SF was proud to welcome our very own @VP back to the Bay!
— Aaron Peskin (@AaronPeskin) August 11, 2024
It was especially poignant to congratulate my childhood friend @KamalaHarris on her historic reenergizing of the @DNC and bid to keep the @JoeBiden-Harris legacy alive. Our country needs her and she needs us!
Let’s GO! pic.twitter.com/fagheO9Q38
Other California Democratic dignitaries in attendance: Newsom second-in-command Kounalakis, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee.
Gary McCoy, vice president of communications for San Francisco’s Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, showed up with his husband, Kory Powell-McCoy, to soak in the celebratory atmosphere.
“I see joy,” Gary McCoy told The Standard. “That’s what this campaign has been pushing and promoting and exuding.”
Reporters were relegated to a balcony overlooking the ticket-holding crowd below, forbidden from taking pictures or recording audio or video, and told they could stay only until the end of Harris’ speech.
By 11:20 a.m., a voice piped through the PA system directing everyone to take their seats. Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” played followed by Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope” and Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Sun is Shining.”
Another hour passed before the mixer ended with Pelosi taking to the podium to a roar of applause. “Good morning, everyone,” she began. “And isn’t it a wonderful morning?”
The congresswoman began her stump speech by touting the importance of “the three M’s” — that is, mobilization, message and money.
“We must do our work … with our mobilization on the ground, we have to have a message that is bold and progressive, and we have to have the money to get the job done,” she said.
Pelosi then thanked the attendees — whose price of entry on Sunday helped cover the last M — “for making all of that possible.”
She then rattled off Harris’ accomplishments over the past few years under President Biden.
“Democracy is on the ballot,” Pelosi said, “and we want democracy to win an Olympic gold on that day.”
She then welcomed the guest of honor to the stage. Harris, in a dark suit and white blouse with a bow, took the mic.
“How’re you doing, everyone?” she asked. “It’s always good to be home.”
She gave a nod to Newsom, noting how she and the governor were both began their political careers with their election on the same day in San Francisco: Jan. 8, 2004.
“We took our oath and I have known Gavin as a friend and a colleague for so many years,” she said. “I want to thank you in person for being an extraordinary Californian and a national leader.”
The audience responded with a standing ovation.
Harris then wished a happy 50th birthday to Breed, gave a shout-out to Rep. Lee and congratulated “our soon-to-be congressperson” Lateefah Simon.
“This is a room of dear, dear longstanding friends,” Harris continued. “So many of you have been on this journey with me through some very tough races. We’ve been through a lot together. I thank you for our dedication to our country.
“I’ll start and end with this: We will win this election.”
Audience members again rose from their seats in applause.
She said the stakes are high in the coming election and described her campaign as “focused on the future” while the Republicans are “so clearly focused on the past.”
Harris took a shot at Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint whose more controversial proposals have given the Democrats fodder for anti-Republican attacks.
“Can you believe that they actually put that thing in writing?” Harris asked. “So much of what they’re proposing is based on proven failed policies. We are not going back.”
In some parts of the country, she said, crowds start chanting about how they don’t want to go back before she even says it. On cue, the room began to chant: “We’re not going back!”
She then turned to listing various freedoms she said are under threat by her political opponents, such as freedom from gun violence, freedom to breathe clean air, and freedom to openly love whom one loves.
“Not to mention the fundamental attack on the freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris said to yet another standing ovation.
She noted how when Donald Trump was president, he hand-picked three U.S. Supreme Court justices who went on to undo Roe v. Wade. And if he wins the White House again, she warned, “he would sign a national abortion ban.”
If she’s elected, however, she said she vows to sign Roe v. Wade protections into law.
“We each face a question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” Harris continued. “A country of chaos, fear and hate? Or a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law? We each have the power to answer that question. Because in a democracy, the power is with the people.”
Harris ended her speech by reminding her supporters that there’s a lot of work to do before election day.
“Yes, we will fight for freedom and we will fight for our future,” she concluded. “And as I say at every rally, when we fight, we win.”
The speech ended with uproarious applause, Beyonce’s “Freedom” playing from the speakers and the crowd lining up along the stage to greet Harris.
Outside the Fairmont, at the corner of California and Powell streets, landscape designer Stephen Suzman was still glowing after attending Sunday’s rally.
“I’ve known Kamala for 20 years,” he said. “I supported her when she was running for DA, I supported her when she was running for attorney general, I’m absolutely over the moon and thrilled that she’s running for president and I think she’s going to win. It’s so critical.”
Having come from South Africa, where he said he got involved in the fight against apartheid as young as 12, Suzman said he knows what fascist governments can do to people and he’s “scared and angry” that Trump — whom he described as “a greedy old man” — is “playing games with the most important democracy in the world.”
San Francisco resident and retired veteran Jim Martinez, another Harris supporter outside the event, wore a T-shirt that read “Kamala Harris for the people” and said he hopes she can resolve conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“I’m hoping that she can take care of the Palestinian crisis,” he said. “I’m giving her a chance to take care of this, get the hostages back home and get a two-state solution.”
Though Sunday’s event was set to draw no more than 700 people — a small crowd compared to the record turnout of 14,000 for the Harris-Walz rally in Philadelphia, for example — it was expected to raise millions of dollars.
The fundraiser came days after Silicon Valley raised a six-figure haul for the Harris-Walz campaign in a Zoom call led by venture capitalist Ron Conway and featuring LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman.
And it came about two months after former President Donald Trump raised $12 million from Republican donors at a fundraiser in San Francisco’s posh Pacific Heights neighborhood.