Vice President Kamala Harris was born in Oakland and grew up in Berkeley and has a number of longtime friends in the Bay Area.
One of those is Derrick Johnson, owner of Home of Chicken and Waffles in Oakland, who says he’s been good friends with Harris for 44 years and believes she would make an excellent president.
They were just teens when they first met in the Bay Area for a fun day with a mutual friend.
“I had just gotten my car, I got a little sports car, an MGB, and at 16 all three of us were in my MGB went to San Francisco and we were jumping up and down the hills in my car and had a full day of fun,” Johnson said.
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Forty-four years later, he said he’s still close with the vice president -- they even call each other cousins.
“We do have a Kamala special which we have every October, that’s her birthday month, she is a great cook by the way. It’s a chicken lasagna and green salad,” Johnson said.
He said he’s ecstatic President Biden has endorsed the vice president and believes she has what it takes to be a great leader.
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“She was always the fair one and the logical one and always fun and down to earth. That really hasn't changed. That’s the person you see today,” Johnson said.
He said he has no doubt Harris is tough enough to take on former President Donald Trump.
“The gloves are off and she is gonna knock him out, period,” he said.
Harris was born in Oakland and lived in a home in Berkeley most of her childhood.
But after President Biden withdrew from the presidential race Sunday and endorsed his vice president, one of her first phone calls was to her pastor, across the Bay, in San Francisco.
“To ask that we would pray for her and her husband during the election,” Rev. Amos Brown of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, said.
He said he has known Harris for three decades.
“We often exchange words of wisdom and all we needed to say to her was, ‘we are with you, keep your eyes on the prize and don't let anything deter you from pursuing victory,’” Brown said.
He said he believes Harris has what it takes to unite the country.
“For one she is a decent person of integrity and what you see is what you get,” Brown said.
Johnson attended the vice president’s inauguration ceremony in 2020 and says he is hoping next year he can return to D.C. to watch his longtime friend be sworn in as the nation's first female president.
“Kamala brings joy. She has brought a lot of joy to my life and I believe she will bring joy to others around the country,” Johnson said.
