Harris's struggles nationally play out in her home state

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Five months out from California's primary, just four months before the first ballots go out in the mail, Harris has fallen to the middle of the pack in a state where she has won three big, expensive races. A run of early endorsements, including one from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), has not translated to popular support. Democratic nervousness about the candidates dominating their primary — former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — has not translated into support for any candidate in the middle of the pack.

The candidate most obviously struggling in that arrangement is Harris, for whom a potential advantage — a delegate-rich early primary in her home state — has yet to pan out. This week, as the senator appeared on the cover of Time magazine, a new poll from the Public Policy Institute found just 8 percent of California Democrats supporting her run for president.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents around 15,000 California nurses, endorsed Harris in her 2016 Senate race; last month, its members voted to support Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

After a spectacular start, a rally in her hometown of Oakland that remains the largest single gathering for any 2020 Democrat, Harris has slipped behind in California for the same reasons she's struggled nationally. Other campaigns plunged into the state and organized early; other candidates proved more compelling to Democratic and labor groups. Liberal voters who pay close attention to the primary were deluged with early, negative stories about Harris's time as San Francisco district attorney; other voters often didn't realize she was their senator.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paloma/the-trailer/2019/10/06/the-trailer-harris-s-struggles-nationally-play-out-in-her-home-state/5d97fea5602ff16116ea47b8/