WASHINGTON – Before my Friday conversation with City Clerk Anna Valencia about her endorsing Kamala Harris for president and joining her Illinois leadership team, the last time I talked to her was in August, after the Pete Buttigieg campaign announced she would be introducing him at one of his Chicago fundraisers.
I contacted Valencia last month because I wondered if her speaking at a Buttigieg event meant if she was about to endorse the South Bend mayor. Turned out she was not.
I ended up writing in my Aug. 19 column that Valencia “will welcome Buttigieg, who she knows. Valencia told me she is “not endorsing anyone anytime soon.”
Valencia attended that Buttigieg “grassroots” low-dollar fundraiser at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Dr., but decided not to “welcome” him.
While Buttigieg often invites local officials to speak when he appears, the Bronzeville funder was his first event open to press coverage in Chicago.
Valencia realized if she shared the stage with him, a takeaway could easily be that she was backing him.
Given that, why the Buttigieg campaign announced that Valencia was going to speak at his event, well, snafu’s happen.
An endorsement is an explicit pledge, like a marriage vow. Valencia did not want to do anything that could be misconstrued.
Valencia told me on Friday she did not speak at the Buttigieg event because words have power and she wanted to “save her words for a candidate that she fully wanted to endorse.”
And she decided that it’s Harris, the California senator.
“I think Mayor Pete is the future of our party,” Valencia told me. “But I think Kamala Harris is the one to take Donald Trump all the way on.”
She also found Harris warm and charismatic, not unlike how people first reacted, back in the day, to Barack Obama.
The Illinois primary is March 17 and the window to start passing petitions to be delegates to the presidential nominating convention in Milwaukee opens Oct. 5.
On Friday, the Harris campaign rolled out an Illinois leadership team. She’s the first 2020 contender to do so; her team considers Illinois a key state.
Valencia told me she was connected to the Harris camp through a Chicago activist, Valerie Alexander, who comes from the Bill and Hillary Clinton political worlds. Alexander reached out to Valencia about a month ago.
“For me it’s compelling to see a woman of color go for the biggest office of our nation,” said Valencia, a Latina. If elected, Harris, an African American, would be the first female president.
“I was very interested in meeting and seeing Kamala speak. She was the last one I haven’t seen,” Valencia said. She had been at events with those at the top of her list: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Buttigieg.
Valencia was invited to meet Harris before she spoke at her Sept. 13 fundraiser in Chicago and hear the speech. “I was inspired by the crowd, the very diverse crowd.”
Harris followed it up with a call the next day to Valencia’s cell phone to lock down her backing. Harris told Valencia she would be “so happy” to have her on her team.
After a first-debate surge - stemming from her taking on Joe Biden - Harris is sliding in the polls and putting more focus on Iowa, the state with the first vote.
Valencia is a “get” for Harris because unlike other elected officials, she’s run statewide campaigns. She steered Sen. Dick Durbin’s 2014 re-election campaign and was a senior advisor for ex-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s final election in 2015.
Valencia said she also wants to hop over to Iowa to help.
Valencia is a campaign strategist and loves campaigns. She said she is “really excited to jump in with everything I have and make Illinois something for (Harris).”
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