Smart Republicans could see a day like this coming — and tried mightily to prevent it — back in 2010.

That was the year Kamala Harris, a bright, young, charismatic prosecutor from San Francisco, ran her first statewide campaign, for California attorney general, and ultimately won. The race presaged the politics of 2020 and possibly 2024.

Republicans couldn’t have predicted 14 years ago that Harris would become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. But they could be certain that if she prevailed then, the state’s top law enforcement job would not be her last stop.

In California and other states, after all, the office is a stepping stone: AG stands not only for attorney general but also for aspiring governor. So many Republicans figured it would be easier to stop Harris’ rise before it began.

As Harris opens her presidential campaign, most polls show her trailing Republican nominee Donald Trump. It’s a familiar position for her.

Harris was the underdog when she ran for San Francisco district attorney against a well-known incumbent, Terrance Hallinan, in 2003. She won that race partly by running to Hallinan’s right. The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed her under the headline: “Harris, for Law and Order.”

But she couldn’t diverge too far from San Francisco’s liberal orthodoxy, and she also made a costly promise not to seek the death penalty if elected.

Three months after she took office, a man shot and killed a young San Francisco police officer, husband and father, Isaac Espinoza. True to her word, the new district attorney announced that she would not seek the ultimate punishment. The reaction was swift and brutal.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein spoke at the officer’s funeral and, with Harris seated in a pew at the front of the cathedral, said the cop killer should have been charged with a capital crime. The officers who filled the cavernous cathedral stood and applauded. Harris did not.

Prosecutors won a second-degree murder conviction and a life sentence. But Harris’ decision not to seek a death sentence reemerged in the 2010 campaign, and it probably will in 2024.

Harris was the underdog again in 2010, when she ran against Republican Steve Cooley, a three-term Los Angeles County district attorney who had spent most of four decades as a prosecutor. Some Democratic Party elders publicly predicted Harris would lose to Cooley — not unlike the Democratic pundits who have more recently questioned Harris’ ability to wage a national campaign.

Cooley was a prosecutor straight out of central casting, as Trump might put it, gray-haired and a bit rumpled, who gave the impression of having witnessed more than his share of crime victims’ pain. He was known for bringing successful cases against corrupt politicians and convicted killers alike.

The tea party movement helped Republicans seize control of the U.S. House and state legislatures across the country in 2010. They had legitimate hopes of making gains in California too, and the attorney general’s office was a prime target. A national political action committee spent more than $1 million attacking Harris’ handling of Officer Espinoza’s killing — hoping to stop her ascent before it started.

“If that is a byproduct of defeating her, we’re perfectly happy with that,” a spokesman for the PAC told me a few weeks before the election, which I was covering for the Sacramento Bee.

The Republican primary had also foreshadowed what was to come. Cooley faced a challenge from the right in the person of John Eastman, the former Chapman University law school dean who went on to play a key role in Trump’s failed effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Eastman’s donors included Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, who would be instrumental in Trump’s nomination of the Supreme Court justices who helped end federal abortion rights. That decision is central to the 2024 election, perhaps even more so given Harris’ likely nomination.

Although Eastman’s primary campaign failed, it didn’t leave the eventual nominee unscathed. Eastman had raised the prospect that if elected, Cooley would take his pension from Los Angeles County on top of his salary as attorney general, for a combined annual pay of roughly $425,000. During Cooley’s only debate with Harris, which I moderated, the Los Angeles Times’ Jack Leonard asked the Republican whether he would indeed take his pension along with his salary. Cooley answered that he had earned the pension and would take it “to supplement the very low — incredibly low — salary that’s paid to the state attorney general.”

Harris saw the answer for what it was — a little too honest — and let it stand. “Go for it, Steve,” she said. “You’ve earned it; there’s no question.” The exchange became fodder for a pointed Harris campaign ad.

In the end, the Republican wave of 2010 stopped at the eastern slope of the Sierra. Harris won by about 74,000 votes out of 9.6 million cast, the narrowest statewide margin that year.

A decade later, Eastman wrote a column questioning Harris’ qualifications for the vice presidency on the grounds that her parents were not naturalized citizens when she was born. A fringe theory, yes, but it caught Trump’s eye and is already being raised anew.

In the coming weeks, Harris will face all kinds of attacks. A few might be substantial, but my guess is that most will border on ridiculous. Can you imagine? The candidate laughs. And she dances!

During Harris’ runs for California attorney general and U.S. Senate, I saw firsthand what kind of candidate she can be: tough, formidable, disciplined. Without a doubt, Republicans should wish they had stopped her when they had their best chance.

Dan Morain is a former reporter for The Times and the author of “Kamala’s Way: An American Life.”

Vice President Harris has failed to address the root causes of illegal immigration after being trusted with the task by President Biden in 2021, according to the former Border Patrol union leader.

“It’s very disappointing,” Brandon Judd, who recently retired as president of the Border Patrol Union, told Fox News Digital. “We gave her the policies that she needed to implement. She refused to implement those.”

Judd’s comments come as Harris’ record on immigration and border security has faced increased scrutiny in the days after Biden’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse his vice president to replace him, with critics saying Harris has failed on one of the defining issues of the 2024 election.

Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s effort to combat migration in March 2021, a response to critics who were already noting the increased flow of migrants just months into his presidency.

THE MEDIA’S SUDDEN REJECTION OF KAMALA HARRIS’ ‘BORDER CZAR’ LABEL

According to a report from the Associated Press on the day of the announcement, Harris was tasked with overseeing diplomatic efforts in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Administration officials told AP that Harris would work to press those countries to better enforce immigration laws and secure their own borders while also being tasked with coming up with a long-term strategy to address the root causes of migration from the countries.

“The vice president has agreed – among the multiple other things that I have her leading, and I appreciate it – agreed to lead our diplomatic effort to work with those nations to accept returnees and enhance migration enforcement at their borders,” Biden said during the announcement.

“Needless to say, the work will not be easy,” Harris said at the time. “But it is important work.”

Later in 2021, Harris negotiated a memorandum of understanding with Mexico that saw the U.S. send $4 billion to help Central American countries address root causes of illegal migration, with private companies kicking in an extra investment of $5.2 billion to the cause.

But the vice president’s work on the issue quickly fizzled out, an NBC News report published Thursday revealed, noting that Harris visited Mexico in June 2021 to sign an agreement that resulted in $4 billion in direct assistance and $5.2 billion in private-public investment but has not visited the border or countries to its south since January 2022.

Since 2021, the Root Causes strategy has made no new commitments, the report notes.

Nevertheless, the share of attempted crossings by migrants from the Northern Triangle has dropped significantly since 2021. According to government statistics, migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador made up 41% of all Border Patrol apprehensions in 2021. That number dropped to 22% of crossings in fiscal 2023, the data shows.

AXIOS HIT WITH COMMUNITY NOTE AFTER CLAIMING HARRIS WAS NEVER ‘BORDER CZAR’

Despite the decrease in Northern Triangle crossings, illegal crossings overall reached all-time highs in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with migrants making their way from all over the world to the U.S. border. Thousands of those migrants were coming from China, with government data showing more than 30,000 Chinese migrants were arrested illegally crossing the southern border in 2023.

President Biden speaks with Customs and Border Protection officers during his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 8, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Judd, who worked as the union chief for most of the current administration, said the issues Harris identified were not the reason behind spikes in crossings.

“The major problem is the root causes she identified: political instability, climate and crime,” Judd said. “That was the same under President Trump, yet we did not see an explosion in illegal immigration under the Trump administration.”

The Trump administration saw a spike of its own in attempted crossings in 2018, eventually reaching a 12-year high in March 2019. The administration’s response to the spike led to a steady decrease in crossings for the rest of the year, a trend that accelerated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But those spikes reached new heights under the current administration, something Judd argued was because of the “magnet that [Harris] created, which is allowing people to be released into the United States.”

Harris has long advocated for more lax enforcement for undocumented migrants. While serving as California’s attorney general in 2015, she said an “undocumented immigrant is not a criminal.”

“I’m a career prosecutor. I’ve personally prosecuted everything from low-level offenses to homicides. Unfortunately, I know what crime looks like. I know what a criminal looks like who’s committing a crime. An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal,” Harris said, according to a report in Newsweek.

In a 2019 interview with NPR while serving as a California U.S. senator, Harris said she disagreed “with any policy that would turn America’s back on people who are fleeing harm.”

Vice President Harris (Leigh Vogel/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)

NEW YORK TIMES SPINS KAMALA HARRIS’ PAST WORD SALADS AS ‘CELEBRATORY ARTIFACTS’ WITH CANDIDACY UNDERWAY

“I frankly believe that it is contrary to everything that we have symbolically and actually said we stand for,” Harris said. “And so, I would not enforce a law that would reject people and turn them away without giving them a fair and due process to determine if we should give them asylum and refuge.”

During her run in the 2020 Democrat primary cycle in June 2019, Harris vowed during a debate that she would “immediately put in place a meaningful process for reviewing the cases for asylum.”

“I will release children from cages. I will get rid of the private detention centers,” Harris said during the debate.

When asked during that debate if an immigrant should be deported if their only offense is being undocumented, Harris responded “no.”

“They should not be deported,” Harris said.

Harris’ idea of looser enforcement eventually made its way to the White House, with Biden announcing in September 2021 that the U.S. would break from the aggressive approach to deportations of the Trump administration and instead only prioritize removing migrants who were deemed to pose a threat to public safety, according to an Associated Press report.

MSNBC, CNN LEFT ‘BLOWN AWAY,’ WITH ‘CHILLS’ AFTER HARRIS’ FIRST CAMPAIGN SPEECH: ‘JUMPING OUT OF MY SEAT’

Harris’ tone seemingly changed during a January 2022 trip to Honduras, her last to the border or countries south of it, where she told migrants not to attempt the journey to the United States.

“I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border,” Harris said at the time.

However, that now infamous line also sparked backlash from the progressive wing of her own party.

“This is disappointing to see,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on X, then-Twitter, in response to the Harris “do not come” line. “First, seeking asylum at any US border is a 100% legal method of arrival. Second, the US spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.”

The seemingly mixed messages from Democrats have come as border crossings reached an all-time high under Biden, though those numbers have dropped since peaking in December 2023, reaching a three-year low in June.

Biden has also taken more recent action on the border, announcing an order this year that suspended entry for some migrants attempting to cross the border.

Meanwhile, a White House official touted the investments the vice president secured in Northern Triangle countries, where Harris “continues to lead the effort to address the root causes of migration.”

“These investments are creating jobs and have connected more than 4.5 million people to the internet and brought more than 2.5 million people into the formal financial system,” the official told Fox News Digital. “Under the Vice President’s leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to implement the Root Causes Strategy. As a part of this strategy, the Administration is on track to meet its commitment to provide $4 billion to the region over four years and continues to work to combat corruption, reduce violence, and empower women.”

Vice President Harris speaks during a meeting with Guatemalan justice sector leaders at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

But Judd said Harris still lacks an understanding of the actual root causes of the migration crisis.

“Nothing has changed from President Trump to this administration,” Judd said of the situation in Central and South America. “Political instability was still there, the crime was still there, and the climate hasn’t changed from Trump to this administration, yet illegal immigration has exploded. … She has not addressed any of the root causes, and she refuses to recognize what the actual root causes are.”

Judd said the opportunity for jobs is the primary motivation for migrants to come to the U.S., and if some of Harris’ root-cause initiatives had been more successful, there would be less illegal migration. He also said Harris has failed on both the border security and root-causes fronts.

“If she would have dealt with what she identified, we would have less illegal immigration, but she didn’t even deal with those causes that she identified,” Judd said.

Those failures have caused angst among the members of the Border Patrol Judd used to represent, he added.

“They’re very frustrated that she’s now the nominee because every one of us, all Border Patrol agents, understand and recognize that she had the power to do what was necessary to secure the border,” Judd said. “She didn’t do it.”

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff shocked a couple thousand gay and queer Black men backing his wife, Kamala Harris, for president when he made a guest appearance on an organizing call Thursday evening.

Emhoff promised Harris would “be there” for the LGBTQ+ community moving forward — as she has been in the past.

“As it relates to this wonderful, beautiful community of Black gay men, she has always been beside you, with you, has had your back, and always will have your back, just like she’s going to have everyone else’s back,” Emhoff said.

Emhoff also told a story of being caught by surprise by President Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of the presidential race on Sunday, when he said he happened to be in Los Angeles with a gay couple — friends of his — after taking a one-hour SoulCycle class with them in West Hollywood.

“We’re out there having coffee, messing around and talking, and … people are coming up to me, so it’s now, like, after the announcement has gone out, and my friend’s partner said, ‘Um, you need to look at this,’ and I said, ‘What?’” Emhoff said.

What the friend was holding up was Biden’s letter to the country announcing he was dropping out.

“Of course I didn’t have my phone, so I ran and ran and got into our car, and of course my phone is just on fire, and it’s basically, ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ from everyone,” Emhoff said. “And of course, the first thing she said was, ‘Where the … were you? I need you.’”

Since then, Emhoff said, it’s been a “whirlwind.”

“We’ve just been hustling — I’ve barely even seen her or talked to her since this all happened,” he said.

Emhoff joined the call — touted as an organizing, fundraising and informational gathering for “Black Gay and Queer Men for Harris” — when there were about 2,250 people on the call. He spoke after several prominent Black queer men spoke, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon.

The call was one of many identity-inspired calls being organized in support of Harris, held just prior to another, larger, more star-studded call for the broader LGBTQ+ community organized in part by the Human Rights Campaign.

Emhoff was introduced by Dorien Paul Blythers, a former Harris campaign staffer and founder of the Los Angeles-based social impact organization Good Rebel, who has worked closely with Emhoff in the past.

Blythers said he knows Harris as a fighter — one who fights for marginalized communities, in particular.

“I like to think of her often as one of us — someone who is often underestimated, stereotyped and overlooked, when in fact, we know that we are exceptionally prepared, we’re incredibly dynamic and overqualified,” Blythers said.

He said while everyone on the call may love Harris, “there’s one person who I know loves her even more” — then introduced Emhoff.

“Hey everyone!” Emhoff said with a laugh.

Emhoff thanked Blythers, saying they used to “drive in the car together on the campaign trail,” when Emhoff had one staffer — and that was usually Blythers. He apologized for subjecting Blythers to “terrible ‘80s music” on those trips — and thanked him for being a leader.

“You’ve always been there for Kamala, and for me and our family,” he said. “And now, just like you’ve been there for her, she’s going to be there for you and the rest of us.”

Emhoff heaped praise on Biden.

“I love that man so much. He has been there for all of us. He’s been there for your community, my community, all of us,” he said.

“But now we’ve got to support Kamala Harris, because she has a vision for America that we all have a place in,” Emhoff said. “She is talking about the future, not the past. She’s talking about a world where there’s freedom, a world where we value everyone, a world where we stick up for people, a world where we fight against bullies — and we’re fighting against the ultimate bully right now.”

Emhoff said he is “in awe” of his wife now, “as her husband but as a proud American, as somebody who loves our country.”

He briefly mentioned Trump, but then said, “I don’t want to get into all that, because I heard the last speaker talking about the hellscape that our country will be [in] if somehow that guy who was a terrible president the first time somehow gets back.”

“We can’t imagine a future like that,” Emhoff said.

Before dropping off the call, Emhoff said he was going to “go upstairs” to see Harris — “because I haven’t seen her in four or five days, I’m going to give her a big hug, I’m going to say, ‘Go get some rest, honey,’ because we’ve got about 102-ish days left to save our country.”

The call was organized by civil rights lawyer Alphonso David, civil rights leader and Color of Change president Rashad Robinson, and journalist, professor and community organizer Emil Wilbekin. It was attended by men from across the country — with all of them dropping where they were dialing in from into the chat.

There was heavy representation from Atlanta, the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area, and New York, but also people from Florida and Louisiana and Arkansas.

Robinson said the call of gay and queer Black men tapped into something unique and important.

“I’ve been thinking so much about the connections between what we are facing in this upcoming election, and the story of Black gay and queer men,” he said.

“In so many ways, we have had to fight for our place at the table. We’ve had to fight to make sure our relationships are recognized and treated fairly. We’ve had to fight to make sure that we were fully integrated into the life of the community, all while sometimes doing so much hidden work and unseen work to make our communities beautiful, our communities whole, our communities excellent,” he said.

“We have had to be resilient through so many challenges the way our sister will have to be resilient throughout this election,” he said. “So we know what it looks like to fight. We know what it looks like to be the underdog — and what it looks like to win.”