The Story:
Senator Kamala Harris (D – Ca), who has been running for President since January of this year, tweeted Tuesday, “with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude” that she is suspending her campaign. The timing was a surprise to many, but Harris’ campaign has been in disarray for weeks.
Background:
In the first Presidential debate of this campaign cycle, in June, it was Harris who confronted front-runner and former Vice President Joseph Biden on the matter of his one-time opposition to court ordered school busing as a means of racial desegregation. Her support in both polling numbers and campaign contributions rose immediately after that debate, and she was briefly considered part of the top tier of the crowded field.
The Thing to Know:
In the following months she dropped back into the second tier, in part because of the rise of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D – Mass.), but also in part because of an effective attack upon her from Tulsi Gabbard, a Congresswoman representing a district in Hawaii. In a late July debate Gabbard charged that Harris, as a prosecutor, had “blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row until the courts forced her to [disclose it].”
The failing polls produced internal campaign disarray, and that in turn eventually produced a sense in the candidate that it was futile to continue.
