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 favorite in California’s March 3 primary and, as a U.S. senator, the state’s most serious White House contender since Reagan entered the Oval Office. …
Together, they bookend 40 years of dramatic political and demographic transformation in their home state (along with five more “Star Wars” sequels). In their own way, Reagan and Harris both embody the California of their time and, more broadly, changes across America. CONT.
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times