Kamala Harris tied the California recall to threats from GOP legislation across the country as she campaigned for Gov. Gavin Newsom in her home state of California on Wednesday.
'You have to understand that this recall campaign is about California, and it's about a whole lot more,' the vice president told a crowd in her native Bay Area, pointing to a recent Texas abortion law and recent voting restrictions in Georgia.
'They're thinking that if they can get this done in California … they got to understand what's happening right now,' she said.
'What's happening in Texas, what's happening in Georgia, what's happening around our country with these policies that are attacking women's rights, reproductive rights and voting rights, workers' rights -- they think if they can win in California, they can do this anywhere.'
The vice president said she'd seen clips of Abbott talking about the new Texas abortion bill that bans the procedure after 6 weeks of pregnancy.
Abbott said Tuesday that he would 'work tirelessly to eliminate all rape from the streets of Texas' after the bill did not make abortion exceptions for rape or incest.
'To speak those words—that were empty words—that were false words that were fueled with not only arrogance but bravado … That is not who we want in our leaders. We want in our leaders someone like Gavin Newsom, who always speaks the truth,' Harris said.
'We are here today to say we fight for Gavin Newsom. We fight for our country. We fight for the values we hold dear. We fight for working people. We fight for organized labor. We fight for Dreamers. We fight for women. We fight for voting rights,' she said.
Newsom, too, sought to capitalize off the Texas law, decrying in his own address 'what's happening to those women in Texas.'
'Larry Elder’s running away with it guys,' Newsom said, arguing that his most formidable opponent was celebrating the abortion restriction.
'We are here today to say we fight for Gavin Newsom. We fight for our country. We fight for the values we hold dear. We fight for working people. We fight for organized labor. We fight for Dreamers. We fight for women. We fight for voting rights,' Harris concluded in her support for the California governor.
Harris and Newsom, before either held elected office, had overlapping roles in San Francisco and Sacramento. They have also both been supportive of each others' campaigns.
The two were sworn in on the same day in January 2004 when Newsom became San Francisco's youngest mayor in more than a century and Harris made history as California's first Black district attorney.
Now, as Harris rose to the vice presidency, her ally is facing a recall election in the state where she got her start in politics.
