IF THE Democratic Party were a business, investors would mutter that it has a succession crisis. Its presidential nominee is 69 years old, and its leaders in Congress—Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid—are both 76. That pin-up of the campus left, Senator Bernie Sanders, is 75. The young thruster set to lead Senate Democrats after January, Charles Schumer of New York, is 65. Nor is the galaxy of Democrats outside Washington thick with dazzling stars: after several bruising elections, the party currently holds just 18 out of 50 governors’ mansions.
Talk to thoughtful Democrats about the future and one name inspires more hope than most: Kamala Harris, the attorney-general of California and, barring a meteor-strike between now and November 8th, that state’s next member of the Senate. Insiders noticed when Ms Harris, 52, was endorsed by President Barack Obama, even though, under a run-off election system used in California, her opponent is a long-serving Democratic congresswoman, Loretta Sanchez.
Ms Sanchez has ascribed this snub to race solidarity between her opponent and the president, sniffing: “She is African-American,...Continue reading
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