Vice President Kamala Harris Makes Fundraising Stop In San Francisco Amid Protest

Seven hundred people packed into a ballroom at the iconic Fairmont Hotel Sunday to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris at a fundraiser that reportedly hauled in more than $12 million for her presidential bid and attracted some of the region’s biggest names in politics, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor London Breed.

It was Harris’s first visit back to the city where she got her start in politics since her presidential campaign unexpectedly launched three weeks ago.

“We will win this election,” said Harris as she stood in front of a blue “Harris- Walz” sign, flanked by the U.S. and California flags. “And we do not have a day to waste.”

In attendance was a long roster of elected officials including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and Rep. Barbara Lee — and other civic and business leaders, like Giants President Larry Baer and former Walt Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg is a co-chair of Harris’ campaign.

Harris acknowledged Newsom and Breed from stage, as well as Reps. Barbara Lee and Jared Huffman — and Oakland congressional candidate Lateefah Simon, who’s running for Lee’s seat.

But the vice president spent much of her speech stressing what’s at stake this November and didn’t hold back when discussing her opponents and their plans. She framed it as a fight for freedoms — to vote, to be safe from gun violence, to love freely, and to have control over one’s own body.

“The reality is that if Donald Trump were to win this election, he would sign a national abortion ban,” she said. “If a national abortion ban is in play, California, and many other states that have protected that right, will not be immune.”

Harris promised to put “middle class families and working class families first,” declaring “when the middle class is strong our whole nation is strong.”

“And what we know is, while we are focused on a future with optimism and with a sense of yes, ambition, about what is possible, Donald Trump has a different plan,” she said. “Just look at his Project 2025 agenda.”

Harris was referring to the 900-page Project 2025 plan created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which calls for consolidating presidential power, sidelining critics and pursuing a long list of rightwing policy priorities. Democrats have seized on the plan while Trump has tried to distance himself from it. 

Turning toward Pelosi, who was seated in the audience, Harris went on, to laughter, “Nancy, I just joke sometimes that — can you believe that they actually put that thing in writing? I mean they had the gall to put it, like — it’s bound, and then they distributed it.”

Tickets for the event ranged from $3,300 to $500,000. In addition to the who’s who of Bay Area Democratic politicians and donors, it attracted dozens of wealthy Democrats eager to support a potentially history-making presidential ticket.

Attendees began showing up hours before Harris took the stage, lining up in the fog along California Street for the security queue. The crowd milled around under giant crystal chandeliers, sipping coffee and mimosas while they waited for the event to begin.

Harris was introduced by Pelosi, who praised Harris and stressed the work ahead.

“She makes us all so proud. She brings us so much joy,” Pelosi said. “Personally, I know Kamala is a person of great strength, great faith. … She knows the issues. She knows the strategy. She has gotten an enormous amount done working with Joe Biden.” 

Holly Ward attended the fundraiser and said afterward she was particularly struck by one thing Harris said:

“We’re voting for a country of freedom and compassion and the rule of law. And I just thought, that’s right. No one is above the law,” Ward said.

Also in attendance: San Francisco Board of Supervisors President and Mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin. He went to elementary school with Harris in Berkeley more than 50 years ago.

“She has laid out a very clear case for what is before American voters and what the choices are, and has clearly shown that she is strong enough and smart enough and experienced enough to lead America forward and not go backward,” he said after the event. 

Meanwhile, over 100 protesters marched from Union Square up the steep hills to the Fairmont calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and a cease-fire to what they repeatedly referred to as the genocide in Gaza. Protesters, shouting chants through bullhorns, accused Harris of being a “killer” for her and Biden’s ongoing support of Israel.

Rami Abtel Arim, a Palestinian and a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, said the Biden Administration’s recent approval of $3.5 billion in aid to Israel is a consistent pattern seen “throughout the last 10 months of this genocide.”

“Our demands are unignorable. We’ve been in the streets for 10 months. Every massacre, every time hundreds of Palestinians are killed, we’re in the streets demanding an arms embargo,” he said. “At every single rally, [Harris] says she wants a cease-fire, but her words are empty. Her promises are empty, unless she completely cuts ties with Israel.”

In Arizona on Saturday, Harris told protesters at her rally that “now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done.”

On the microphone Sunday before marching to the hotel, Omar Khoury — also a Palestinian and a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement — said while Harris was fundraising with tickets up to $500,000 “our working class and poor people are suffering.”

“How can they say they care about the working class people when we know the true agenda behind Democratic establishment, behind the Republican establishment, and behind the U.S. Empire as a whole. It’s shameful,” Khoury said. “So we’re here after 300 days of genocide to show that whether it’s Kamala Harris in office or anybody else who’s supporting the Israeli genocide, we are the people, and we hold the U.S. empire to account.”