“We need to have a better vision for this country,” Sen. Kamala Harris told about 200 activists inside a community college auditorium in suburban Des Moines. | Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo Elections Harris makes a big first impression in Iowa The California senator previews her likely 2020 campaign.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Kamala Harris swears she’s “not bullshitting” when she says she’s squarely focused on the midterm elections.

But even before she arrived here Monday, there were signs of the California Democrat’s heightening preparation for a 2020 presidential run. In recent days, an adviser told POLITICO, Harris sent $25,000 to the Democratic parties in all four early nominating states: Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire.


Then Harris crossed into this first-in-the-nation caucus state for the first time this year, stumping for Iowa Democrats and previewing the contours of her own likely campaign.

“We need to have a better vision for this country,” Harris told about 200 activists inside a community college auditorium in suburban Des Moines, railing against Republican economic policies that she said have hurt working Americans.

Framing an alternative — as she did in Wisconsin over the weekend — Harris touted a $6,000 tax break that she proposed last week for families earning up to $100,000 annually, a ready-made message for her effort to connect with Democrats in the Midwest.

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“This is the moment in time that is requiring us to fight for the best of who we are,” Harris said Monday. “And the stakes are high. I don’t have to tell you what’s happening here in Iowa, where they’re privatizing Medicare, where we know that just in a very short period of time, people’s premiums are going to go up at least threefold.”

She said, “We are better than this.”

Harris’ arrival in Iowa came relatively late, months after lower-tier contenders began swarming into Iowa and two weeks after Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) drew standing ovations at the state Democratic Party’s premier Fall Gala event. Locals noticed that Harris' camp began making calls to the state about her plans to travel here just as anticipation for Booker’s speech was building.

Scott Brennan, an Iowa Democratic National Committee member and a former state party chairman, said Monday that Harris “and a number of other [potential candidates] have kind of gotten a late start” fundraising for Iowa Democratic candidates.

But he said that, of top-tier candidates, “Everybody started late this cycle. … Those folks haven’t come in nearly as early as folks did, certainly, in the '08 cycle.”

Brennan said Harris has “ground to make up, but she’s not very far behind yet.”

Harris’ Iowa itinerary has taken on significance for national Democrats as a measure of Harris’ mettle in a high-pressure campaign. Harris’ 2016 Senate run was a blowout, and the lack of a competitive race — coupled with her home state’s reliance on TV advertising — has left her largely untested in retail politics at the highest level.

“The realities are that when somebody has as little experience as she has on a nationwide stage, the question is what happens when she gets punched in the gut?” said Darry Sragow, a longtime Democratic strategist in California. “What happens when she’s in tough situations? How does she handle the give and take of running for president of the United States? The question is how does she behave in the heat of battle, and that we may wind up getting to see.”

Harris was joined in Iowa by the full force of an organization that would likely form the core of a 2020 campaign. Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, was on hand, as well as Harris’ sister Maya Harris and Harris’ communications director, Lily Adams — both veterans of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Juan Rodriguez, who managed Harris’ Senate campaign, flew out from California for the visit, and Sean Clegg, a senior adviser, was expected to join Harris in Iowa later Monday.

Harris demurred when asked about running for president, urging Democrats to “please vote in the next 15 days, and get all your friends to vote.”

But when someone in the crowd at the community college yelled, “Run for president, Kamala!” the crowd cheered.

Jeff Link, an Iowa Democratic strategist, said Monday that local Democrats’ anticipation for Harris was on par with that for Booker. Following her community college visit, Harris was expected to attend a meet-and-greet in Warren County before traveling to a rally in Polk County with Deidre DeJear, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state.

Harris is expected to stump for Democrats in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Iowa City on Tuesday, and she is also fundraising for Democrat Cindy Axne, who is bidding to unseat Republican Rep. David Young in a competitive race.

Harris has said she will “seriously take a look at” 2020 after the midterm elections.

But her advisers have already begun discussing a rough strategy for running in 2020. Harris, like former President Barack Obama in 2008 and Clinton in 2016, would rely heavily on a competitive showing in Iowa and a win in South Carolina, but with the early primary in her home state of California offering a potentially massive delegate haul.

The success of high-profile women and nonwhite Democrats in the primary elections this year appear to have bolstered Harris’ prospects as a candidate who could appeal to female and black voters critical in the Democratic presidential primary.

But national Republicans have moved to weaken Harris by emphasizing her progressive pedigree and her home state’s leftist politics, especially in the Midwest. The Republican National Committee dubbed her “California Kamala” when she traveled to Ohio this month, and when Harris campaigned alongside Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin on Sunday, Jess Ward, campaign manager for Baldwin’s Republican challenger, Leah Vukmir, called Harris and Baldwin “two radical peas in a pod.”

Harris, addressing reporters before stumping for Wisconsin Democrats in Madison on Sunday, said she does not know what implications the midterms might hold for the presidential primary.

“I honestly don’t know,” she said, adding that with volatility in American politics recently, “It’s very difficult to predict what anything now is going to tell us about 2020.”

“Honestly, I’m not bullshitting you,” Harris said, before turning to a group of college student journalists in the room. “Excuse my language."

She added, "I really, I don’t know what this all means for 2020. It really is far off.”