My Interview with Kamala Harris

A couple of months ago, when there was an opening in the Democratic ticket for the presidency, I started phoning up people who had worked with Kamala Harris, from her earliest days in the Bay Area. As it grew clear that she was going to be the presidential nominee, I went with a notebook to some rallies. At some point, after I had spoken with a couple of her very close friends, her press office got in touch with me, and bit by bit I worked on closer access. I interviewed the Vice President last week, in Ripon, Wisconsin—the only interview for print, I believe, that she has sat for since the start of her candidacy. Annie Leibovitz came along that day to shoot some photographs, and the result is a Vogue cover, out today, and my eight-thousand-word profile of the woman who hopes to be the next President of the United States.

The piece, I hope, is vivid and personal in the way Vogue profiles try to be, but also offers a fresh window onto the Vice President as a political actor. Personally, I was most interested in what I understood the least, which is how she thinks and works—two factors that, more than any well-laid plans, could be expected to shape the contours of her presidency. I took versions of that question and others to a couple dozen of her current and former colleagues. One thing that emerged was that Harris is very much a San Francisco creature; her distinct approach to elections—and to governance—developed in an effort to make progress in that political environment. I take a close look at her techniques of coalition-building and “coming up the middle,” two strategies much in play over the past two months.

There is also lighter material, such as an important, multi-sourced account of the Second Gentleman being stuck in a Los Angeles SoulCycle class during the most crucial moment of his wife’s career. It turns out life goes on alongside history.

“Vice President Kamala Harris on Her Race to the Finish,” Vogue, October, 2024: https://www.vogue.com/article/kamala-harris-digital-cover-october-2024-interview

Yours,
Nathan