Senator Kamala Harris, who was once seen as a top tier contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, dropped out of the race on Tuesday.
"I've taken stock and looked at this from every angle, and over the last few days have come to one of the hardest decisions of my life," the California senator wrote in a note to supporters. "My campaign for president simply doesn't have the financial resources we need to continue."
Harris spent the early days of her campaign as a promising candidate, rising as high as second place in the Real Clear Politics poll average in July, but has struggled with finances as well as reports of staff disorganization and infighting, according to the New York Times.
By November, she was polling in the low single digits and laid off her New Hampshire field team to increase her focus on Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses on February 3.
Though she had shifted focus to the Hawkeye State, she lacked the cash to run TV ads in Iowa, a state in which Harris had not run an ad in three months. Only recently, support for a super PAC made up of former aides to pay for advertising began to gain traction within the campaign.
Harris was one of seven candidates who had already qualified for the sixth debate, which will be held in her home state of California, before today's announcement.
The senator had started her campaign in front of a crowd of20,000 in Oakland, according to her campaign, and said she is withdrawing "with deep regret — but also with deep gratitude."
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The daunting task of paying back astronomical student loans may soon be less taxing, California Congressman Scott Peters tells told Cheddar Tuesday. Rep. Peters (D-Calif.) has received 99 co-sponsors on his bipartisan Employer Participation in Repayment Act, which would allow employers to contribute to their employees' student loan payments, tax-free.
The shocking rise in teen vaping is a public health crisis that the FDA has been slow to address, according to a nationally recognized cardiologist. Dr. Kevin Campbell, who is also CEO of Pace Mate, a digital cardiac monitoring service, said the recent study from the CDC that linked vaping to a spike in teen tobacco use shows that more serious steps need to be take. The first step? Get rid of the flavored nicotine "pods," which Campbell said are acting as a gateway for teenage beginner vapers to get hooked on nicotine.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2019.
There's a dearth of research to back up the abundance of miraculous health claims tied to CBD ー but that won't stop celebrities from endorsing it. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a component of cannabis or hemp with little to no psychotropic effects. It is purported to have an array of applications to treat everything from epilepsy to anxiety, pain, depression, and sleeplessness. When Congress and President Trump signed the latest version of the Farm Bill into effect, they also legalized hemp, and thereby CBD derived from hemp.
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are reportedly considering a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Resort in March to resume trade talks. But whether or not any major developments will result is a toss-up, former State Department Senior Advisor Christian Whiton told Cheddar.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat representing Illinois' 5th district ー who worked as a criminal defense attorney before his election to Congress ー said he's focused on the president's finances and foreign investments, like the Trump Tower Moscow project, and how that may have influenced the Trump campaign in 2016.
New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer is owning his status as one of the so-called "job killers" trying to chase Amazon out of Queens. "We should fight for jobs, but we should fight for jobs on our terms, consistent with our values," said Van Bramer, who represents New York's 26th district, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, and Woodside.
Sen. Kamala Harris, weeks into her campaign for president, not only acknowledged that she has smoked pot, but said she isn't opposed to federal legalization of marijuana. "I think it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy," Harris said, laughing, during an interview on the influential hip-hop radio show The Breakfast Club Monday morning.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Feb. 11, 2019.
