Big Names From the Bay

The Bay Area: home to Silicon Valley, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the top public university in the world! But quite unknown is how the Bay Area was also home of two  important Democratic politicians who got their start here. This fun article will be looking at those two important Democrats.

Gavin Newsom

Born in 1967, Gavin Newsom spent much of his early life in San Francisco. He graduated from Redwood High School in Marin County in the class of 1985. He quickly went on to major in political science at Santa Clara University and received his bachelor’s degree in 1989. He first worked for a small retail wine shop that, over the next few years, grew into the winery, restaurant, and hotel managing business called the PlumpJack Group. Newsom would not become involved with politics until 1995, when he volunteered for the Willie Brown for San Francisco mayoral campaign. Brown was successful and appointed Newsom to the Parking and Traffic Commission after his election. 

In 1997, Brown appointed Newsom to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Newsom was reelected several times until 2003, when he successfully ran for Mayor of San Francisco. He would go on and make national news in 2004 with his support of same-sex marriage and lead San Francisco to become one of the first California cities to issue same-sex marriage licenses. 

His political influence quickly snowballed into becoming the Lieutenant Governor of California from 2010 to 2014. Finally, Newsom successfully ran for the governorship of California in 2018 and became the 40th Governor of California. Today, Newsom is gaining traction, possibly with a run for the presidency with his recent fight for Proposition 50 that sought to balance Texas gerrymandering with redrawn districts for California. Only time will tell what our successful, born-and-bred Bay Area governor will go on and accomplish with the end of his governorship in 2026. 

Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris was born in our very own Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. Harris’s father, Dr. Donald Harris, is a Stanford economics professor, while Harris’s mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, was a cancer researcher. Both of her parents met each other during their time as graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Harris would go on to say that her parents' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement in the Bay Area would go on and inspire her for the rest of her life. 

As Harris grew up and was inspired by her parents, she pursued higher education. First, she attended Howard University, and during her time there was part of the debate team and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Then, in 1989, she graduated with her Juris Doctor from UC Law of San Francisco. 

Her first foray into politics was with the local Alameda County District Attorney's Office, and in 2003, she became District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Just seven years later, Harris would become California's Attorney General, making her both the first woman and African American to be elected to that position. After her seven-year career as Attorney General, she was sworn in as a US senator for California in 2017, becoming the second Black woman to be elected to the US Senate. 

Just two years later, she would announce her candidacy for president in the 2020 election. Ultimately, Harris became the first woman of African American and South Asian descent to become the Vice President of the United States. Even after her unsuccessful presidential bid during the 2024 election, her political career should be remembered as being one of many firsts, and one that will inspire the next generation of leaders not just in the Bay Area but throughout the entire nation.