Harris Snubbed by Hometown Publication in 2024 Election

With Harris having been a California Senator, a San Francisco DA, and the California AG, I would have thought an endorsement by the left-leaning LA Times would have been automatic.

After all, the paper endorsed Barack Obama during his campaigns as well as endorsing Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden against Donald Trump.

However, the Times has decided to sit this one out, in what has to be a striking blow to Harris’ pride.

No Decision

For those of you unfamiliar with how the Times rolls in election, it had not endorsed a candidate in roughly three decades when it endorsed Barack Obama.

The paper had announced after Watergate that it would not be endorsing presidential candidates any longer.

The Times supported Nixon throughout his career, so it is understandable why it pulled back after that scandal.

However, in 2008, the paper got back into the game, going in a completely different direction, supporting Obama, then Clinton, and Biden in 2020.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shion purchased the paper in 2018, and according to reports, he has instructed the editorial board to stay out of this election.

Max Tani (Semafor) reported, “[A]ccording to two people familiar with the situation, executive editor Terry Tang told editorial board staff earlier this month that the paper would not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election this cycle, a decision that came from the paper’s owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a doctor who made his fortune in the healthcare industry.

“The paper did not explain its decision, though it noted at the bottom of its online endorsement page that ‘the editorial board endorses selectively, choosing the most consequential races in which to make recommendations.’”

Dr. Soon-Shion has overruled his editorial board previously when it wanted to endorse Senator Elizabeth Warren in the primary race in 2020.

He informed the board that the paper would not be making an endorsement in the primary but did allow the paper to endorse Joe Biden in the general election.