Kamala Harris’s Early ‘No’ on Wall May Give Her an Edge in 2020

  • Harris broke with party to vote against deal for Trump’s wall
  • The issue could be defining for her presidential aspirations
Kamala HarrisPhotographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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A little-noticed vote cast last year by Senator Kamala Harris angered her fellow Democrats, but it also gave her a way to stand out from the crowd on the key issue of immigration if, as expected, she seeks the party’s presidential nomination in 2020.

Defying President Donald Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in wall funding is a unifying message for Democrats with the 2020 campaign already under way. But in February 2018, Democrats were willing to grant Trump $25 billion to build a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for giving young undocumented “Dreamers” a path to citizenship.