INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
immigration policies, launched her 2020 campaign for White House on Monday in an appearance on ABC's "Good Morning America."Harris, 54,
daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, enters race with potential advantage of being Democratic candidate who looks most like
party's increasingly diverse base of young, female and minority voters."Let's do this, together
For ourselves, for our children, and for our country," Harris said in a campaign video that was released to coincide with her television
appearance.The announcement falls on US Martin Luther King Jr
Day holiday honoring slain civil rights leader, and day was selected as a reminder of aspirational fight for progress, an aide said.The
former California state attorney general has become popular with liberal activists for her tough questioning of Trump administration
appointees and officials, including Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, during Senate
hearings.Her campaign will focus on reducing high cost of living with a middle-class tax credit, pursuing immigration and criminal justice
changes and a Medicare-for-all healthcare system
She has said she will reject corporate political action committee money.Kamala Harris' campaign will be based in Baltimore, with a second
office in Oakland, California
Her slogan will be "For People," in a nod to Harris' roots as a prosecutor, aides said.She will hold a launch rally in Oakland before end of
month.As one of earliest congressional critics of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, Harris has pushed hard for a deal to
protect from deportation those immigrants who came to country illegally as children, a group known as Dreamers.Harris is fifth Democrat to
enter what is shaping up to be a crowded battle for nomination to challenge Trump, likely Republican candidate.She and other Democrats will
have to navigate party's debate about whether an establishment figure who can appeal to centrist voters or a fresh face who can energize its
increasingly diverse and progressive base offers best chance to beat Trump in 2020.Harris, who made history in 2016 as first black woman
Senate from California, has embraced party's diversity ahead of a Democratic nominating campaign where minority voters and liberal activists
are expected to have an outsized voice.Former prosecutorShe has pushed back against critics of "identity politics," who she says are using
term as a pejorative to marginalize issues of race, gender and sexual orientation."It is used to try and shut us up," Harris told a
conference of liberal activists last summer.The former San Francisco prosecutor drew notice when her rapid-fire grilling of Sessions during
a 2017 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing caused him to complain."It makes me nervous," Sessions said.Kamala Harris' slogan will be "For
People," in a nod to her roots as a prosecutor, aides saidIn September, she was among a handful of Democrats who aggressively questioned
Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about his views on abortion and on special counsel probe into potential Russian meddling
in 2016 election.In Senate, she has introduced a bill to give lower-income families cash payments and tax credits to help battle wage
stagnation and rising housing costs, and has been a strong advocate of criminal justice reforms.Harris launched a book tour in early January
to promote a memoir, making a series of media appearances that helped bolster her visibility ahead of her campaign announcement.Her campaign
could be aided by schedule for state-by-state party nominating process that is scheduled to begin in February 2020.The kickoff state of
Iowa, which launched Barack Obama's presidential bid in 2008, has a strong base of liberal activists, and race will then quickly move to
more diverse states such as Nevada and South Carolina
Her home state of California also has moved up its primary to increase its influence.But political foes will pore over her record in
California, where she has come under scrutiny for declining as attorney general to prosecute OneWest, bank once headed by Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin, for alleged foreclosure violations.Harris, who voted against Mnuchin's confirmation as head of Treasury, has said she
"followed facts" in declining to prosecute.She also has been criticized for saying she was not aware of sexual harassment allegations
against one of her top aides, who resigned in December after a California newspaper asked him about a 2016 harassment lawsuit
Xavier Becerra, who replaced Kamala Harris as attorney general, settled lawsuit in May 2017 for $400,000.
