Kamala Harris’ estranged father did not attend last week’s Democratic National Convention, according to media reports.
Donald Harris, 86, has had a long-estranged relationship with the Vice President and Democratic Party presidential nominee – evident from Kamala’s acceptance speech on Thursday, August 22, where her father was almost seldom mentioned.
“At the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ But my father would say, as he smiled, ‘Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you,’” Harris said in her only mention to her father. “From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless.”
It is unclear whether Donald was not invited to the DNC, or chose not to attend.
Born in Jamaica, Donald and Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, divorced in 1971 when the now-Democratic nominee was only eight years old. The 86-year-old has since stayed largely out of the political spotlight with his daughter’s rise to prominence, and his views have been described as “combative Marxist economist” by the Economist.
“He is a clear writer. There are few compound nouns or sentences that run for paragraphs. Yet he is still a Marxist and his writings are sprinkled with obscurantist theorizing. Republicans who have mocked Ms. Harris for word-salad speeches will find precedent in her father’s writing,” the Economist wrote of Harris’ father.
Donald Harris was born in 1938 in Jamaica, and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of London before moving to the U.S., where he completed a doctorate in economics at the University of California in Berkeley in 1966.
Most recently, Harris and her father cashed in 2019 when the then-Sen. for California joked about smoking marijuana during her college days in an interview with Charlamagne tha God. Her father’s grievances at the comment caused him to respond to the “fraudulent stereotype” of the country in Jamaica Global – and he denounced her campaign.
In response to the article by the New York Post, social media users noted the “Marxist” connection to a candidate her political opponent calls “Comrade Kamala”.
Others noted a similar theme emerging to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns.
