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With President Joe Biden stepping out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris may become the Democratic Party’s new nominee. Biden has given his “full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” while Harris stated her “intention is to win and earn this nomination.” However, it’s still uncertain if other Democratic politicians will challenge her at an open convention or through another selection process.
If selected, Harris would be a presidential nominee with deep roots in the Bay Area — she was born in Oakland — and a long-standing relationship with the tech industry. She served as San Francisco’s district attorney, then California’s attorney general, before being elected to the Senate in 2016.
Venture capitalists like John Doerr and Ron Conway were among her early supporters. As a presidential candidate, she quickly received an endorsement from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. Other industry figures, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, have been more cautious or have called for an open convention.
Critics within the industry have argued that Harris did not do enough as attorney general to curb the growing power of tech giants. However, she has also been a vocal critic of tech CEOs and has called for more regulation. As a senator, she pressed major social networks on misinformation issues. During the 2020 presidential campaign, while rival Elizabeth Warren called for the breakup of big tech companies, Harris advocated for regulation to ensure consumer privacy protection.
As vice president, Harris has spoken about the potential for regulating AI, emphasizing that she and President Biden “reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect the public or advance innovation.” Biden’s executive order called for companies to set new standards around AI development, and Harris described these “voluntary commitments as an initial step toward a safer AI future, with more to come.” She noted that without regulation and strong government oversight, some technology companies might prioritize profit over customer well-being, community safety, and democratic stability.
Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have expressed concerns about the Biden Administration potentially overregulating AI, which is one of their reasons for supporting Donald Trump.
Regarding the recent bill that could ban TikTok if its parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it, Harris stated, “We need to deal with the owner, and we have national security concerns about the owner of TikTok, but we have no intention to ban TikTok.”
Harris has been less vocal on cryptocurrency issues, though she would presumably support the Biden Administration’s crypto regulations.
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