Dave Gragg

A quick personal story about our next POTUS: I became friends with @KamalaHarris and @DouglasEmhoff in 2015 when she and I were both preparing to run for Senate. She won her race and I didn’t but we remained friends and I would visit her sometimes during trips to DC. We were friends, but not super close, which is pretty common for friendships in politics. In 2018, after I dropped out of the 2020 presidential mix and then out of public life for a while to go to the VA for PTSD therapy, she called and checked in on me regularly. She would sometimes call just to catch up, or sometimes she had a big speech or meeting coming up with a veterans or national security group and I’d be a sounding board. I don’t know how much she actually needed advice about that stuff when she asked for it, and I don’t know how much I helped, but her asking made me feel valuable at a time when I’d sort of given the world permission to forget about me, and I appreciated that gesture a lot. I remember once in 2020 I was standing in Costco when she called. She had her veterans policy person on the line because she wanted to run some language by me. Once that was done, she thanked that person and then politely asked they go ahead and drop off the line so she could catch up with me. She wanted an update on how I was doing and we talked for a couple minutes, then I told her I was thinking about doing some TV surrogate stuff for the campaign. It was kind of a big deal decision for me at the time because I’d been out of the mix almost 2 years by then. She then spent a couple minutes describing in great detail how to set up my home office to make cable hits easy and comfortable. I still use the ring light she suggested. Anyway, my point in sharing this admittedly uneventful and humdrum anecdote is that I’m excited about her not just because she’s smart and capable and hard working and believes in the right things. I’m also excited because - in my experience - she’s a downright decent person who shows people respect and makes sure they feel seen. And I’m not trying to do some humblebrag flex either because I’ll be the first to tell you we’re not close friends. We’re friendly acquaintances. But that’s my point. She is the type of person who is thoughtful enough to treat a peer like a peer even when they’ve tapped out and are - professionally - no longer really a peer. And that’s the kind of everyday decency I believe she’ll bring to the presidency.