Above all, Vice President Kamala Harris needs voters to avoid looking too closely at Vice President Kamala Harris.

With that in mind, the periodic re-emergence of 90-year-old former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who had a romantic relationship with Harris in the mid-1990s despite an age difference of over 30 years between them, cannot work to the advantage of the vice president and presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

“She’ll deport my a**,” Brown joked in a lengthy sit-down interview with Jonathan Martin of Politico.

Brown meant, of course, that Harris would deport him if she wins the presidency.

After all, in her role as President Joe Biden’s “border czar,” she has shown no interest in deporting anyone, least of all an elderly black man who was born in Mineola, Texas, in 1934.

Still, Harris’ sudden presidential campaign, begun under strange circumstances and driven by identity politics, has brought renewed attention to Brown.

In fact, according to Martin, the former mayor has received 48 media inquiries since Harris’ presumptive elevation to presidential nominee.

The Brown-Harris relationship itself has no importance 30 years later. Indeed, one suspects that most Americans would regard that relationship as none of their business.

What does matter, however, is that Harris unquestionably benefited from the former mayor’s political patronage.

Brown, who also had served as speaker of the California Assembly, gave Harris several lucrative positions.

Whatever the reason for Brown’s patronage, at the very least it reminds voters of how Harris launched her government career. And those reminders come with questions about opportunism and merit.

“I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker…And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco” – Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, on dating Kamala Harris while he was married and… pic.twitter.com/gwtMpafIxL

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) July 26, 2024

In other words, what exactly has she earned? The vice presidency? Her catastrophic 2020 presidential campaign ended in December 2019. The 2024 presidential nomination? She received no votes in the primary. Democratic voters have never chosen her, and yet here she stands.

Questions of that nature also raise the issue of authenticity.

Thus far, Harris has built a biographical campaign around identity politics. For some reason, Democratic voters seem to regard things like race and ethnicity as defining.

But she has not appeared truthful, even about her own heritage. Nor has she maintained the same accent when speaking to all audiences.

Worst of all, perhaps, Brown’s public appearances link Harris to San Francisco.

Democrats want voters to see Harris as an identity politics success story. Republicans want voters to see a San Francisco liberal with loony California ideas. In that sense, Brown helps Republicans.

Furthermore, when they finally get around to examining the vice president’s policy positions, voters will discover a radical leftist trying desperately to backpedal from past statements.

With the cynicism of a career politician, Brown even told Martin that Harris should keep her policy statements vague, for “if she keeps people continually guessing then she can adjust the interpretation of your guess every time she sees you.”

In other words, aim for maximum dishonesty. But every Democrat seeking or holding public office learned that lesson long ago. So Brown cannot help her even there.

In sum, whether raising questions about the vice president’s authenticity or simply reminding voters of her San Francisco connections, Brown amounts to a 90-year-old albatross around Harris’ neck.

Small wonder he jokes that she might deport him.

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Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.

Michael Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in History and has taught at multiple colleges and universities. He has published one book and numerous essays on Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the Early U.S. Republic. He loves dogs, baseball, and freedom. After meandering spiritually through most of early adulthood, he has rediscovered his faith in midlife and is eager to continue learning about it from the great Christian thinkers.