Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Monday, first-term Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California, an outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies, launched her 2020 campaign for presidency.
"Let's do this, together. Let's claim our future. For ourselves, for our children, and for our country," Harris, who was born into a family of immigrants from Jamaica and India, said in a campaign video, its release scheduled to coincide with the program airing.
"The future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values. That's why I am running for president of the United States. I'm running to lift those voices, to bring our voices together," she said in her video address.
Harris's Baltimore-based campaign will focus on reducing the population's living costs and a middle-class tax credit, immigration and criminal justice issues, along with an all-embracing Medicare-for-all healthcare system. She has also voiced an intention to reject corporate political action committee money and root for criminal justice and reforms in the field.
Formerly California's attorney general and one of the earliest vocal critics in Congress of President Donald Trump's immigration policies, Harris has energetically lobbied a deal to protect from deportation US immigrants who came to the country illegally as children, a group commonly referred to as Dreamers. Kamala Harris came as a fifth member of a crowded battle for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump, the likely Republican candidate in the upcoming election.
Most recently, the 54-year-old was among the Democrats who aggressively questioned Brett Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about his views on abortion and on the special counsel's probe into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russians in the 2016 election.
However, Harris sparked controversy not long ago after she declined as attorney general to prosecute OneWest, the bank once headed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for alleged foreclosure violations. Also, she has been critizied for saying she was not aware of sexual harassment allegations against one of her top aides, who resigned in December after a California newspaper reported at length about a 2016 harassment lawsuit.