FFRF AF endorses Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid
The FFRF Action Fund is pleased to endorse Kamala Harris in her bid to be President of the United States of America.
Upon the launch of her presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris was quick to announce her commitment to defeating the extremist Project 2025 agenda, which contains provisions that would trample the separation between church and state and dismantle checks and balances. In her first campaign speech, Harris addressed the dangers and regressive provisions in Project 2025 and promoted her plans to unite the Democratic party against Donald Trump and his conservative, Christian nationalist allies.
Harris has proved to be a protector of the First Amendment throughout her career. As California’s attorney general, she filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to refuse Hobby Lobby’s request to deny women health care coverage for contraception because of religious beliefs. In 2019, while serving as a U.S. senator, Harris sponsored the Do No Harm Act, which seeks to limit the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) invoked in the Hobby Lobby case. The bill explicitly states that religious freedom claims cannot override federal protections against discrimination, health care provisions or labor and child welfare laws.
Additionally, Harris has been a longtime supporter of abortion rights. In 2019, she co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, which seeks to safeguard abortion rights, and reaffirmed her opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of federal funds for abortion health care for low-income individuals. While on the campaign trail for President Biden, Harris made abortion rights the main topic of a popular signature stump speech. She notably became the first-ever vice president to make an official visit to an abortion clinic when she toured a Minnesota Planned Parenthood facility in 2024.
Harris has also been a longstanding advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. While campaigning for California attorney general in 2010, Harris highlighted her opposition to Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot initiative that sought to revoke marriage equality in the state. “Prop 8” was later overturned in court, but the ballot measure’s fate might have been different had Harris lost the race.
A native of California, Harris earned an undergraduate degree from Howard University and a law degree from the University of California. She has a varied background, with one parent who practiced Hinduism and the other Christianity. She is married to a Jewish man, although she identifies as a Black Baptist. She served as district attorney of Alameda County before being elected as San Francisco’s district attorney in 2004. Harris was elected California’s attorney general in 2010 and served until 2017, when she was elected a U.S. senator. In 2020, Harris became the first ever Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to run for vice president on a major party ticket in the United States.