In Kamala Harris, a sequel to Ronald Reagan?
In 1980, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan was elected the nation's 40th president. Blondie topped the music charts, the sequel to "Star Wars" packed movie theaters, and Kamala Harris was a 16-year-old finishing high school.
Nearly four decades later, Harris is a leading candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, the front-runner in California's March 3 primary and, as U.S. senator, the state's most serious White House contender since Reagan entered the Oval Office.
The differences are stark.
Reagan was a son of the American heartland, a California transplant, a Republican anointed by Southern California's conservative establishment. Harris is a California native, the daughter of immigrants - her father from Jamaica, her mother
