THE BUZZ: HOME STATE HERO — Since her rapid rise to the top of the ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris has been lambasted by the right as a radical California liberal who wants to bring San Francisco politics to the White House. But on Thursday night, she leaned into that record. The VP formally accepted the Democratic nomination in Chicago last night, ending the convention with a 45-minute speech that touched on her roots in Oakland, growing up as the daughter of a single mother, and her rise through the meat grinder that is San Francisco politics — casting herself as a populist prosecutor who went to court “for the people.” The speech was meant to act as a formal introduction to Americans as presidential candidate, but she also used it to defend her ties to the Golden State, which has been used as a constant cudgel against her. Even her VP pick Tim Walz, despite his thoroughly Midwestern credentials, has been painted as California-esque by Republicans. Harris portrayed herself as a defender of women and children in Oakland as a prosecutor, who also went after big banks and drug cartels as California’s attorney general. She sought to depict herself as a no-nonsense, fierce lawyer pursuing criminals — a contrast to the weak-on-crime narrative the Trump campaign has tried to craft. “I will tell you, these fights were not easy, and neither were the elections that put me in those offices,” she said. “We were underestimated at practically every term, but we never gave up.” California’s elected Democrats also spent much of the convention defending their state, particularly San Francisco, which has served as a consistent punching bag for conservative media. San Francisco Mayor London Breed turned her trip to the DNC into a PR blitz to combat the “doom loop” narrative about the city. On Tuesday night, Breed and tech billionaire Chris Larsen hosted a party to tout the city’s successes, a lavish soirée where she hailed it as a hub for tech innovation while delegates rocked out to a performance by The Killers. The next morning, Breed dismissed the city’s critics during an interview on Bloomberg radio: “When you come to San Francisco, people are always like, 'what is everyone talking about?'" Breed and Harris both have a strong stake in defending the city’s reputation. Breed faces her own tough reelection fight in November, and Republicans are eager to tie Harris to their caricature of San Francisco as a dystopia of lawlessness. It’s likely to be a continued line of attack from Republicans. In fact, just a few minutes into Harris’ address Thursday night, the Trump campaign issued a press release claiming Harris “destroyed San Francisco.” California’s Sen. Laphonza Butler, who advised Harris’ 2020 presidential bid, told POLITICO on Thursday that she didn’t think the VP should be worried about accusations of being a lefty liberal from California as she courts average voters. “I think the most important thing that the vice president can do … is tell the American people, including those blue collar workers, who she is, what they have in common, and what she intends to do to help to make life better for themselves in their community,” Butler said. GOOD MORNING. Happy Friday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at lkorte@politico.com and dgardiner@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @Lara_Korte. WHERE’S GAVIN? In Chicago after the DNC.
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