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Vice President Kamala Harris has not always enjoyed the privilege of residing in the upper echelons of society. She once also belonged to the community inhabited by 41 million Americans who have worked in the Golden Arches. A community that has also included stardom personalities such as Jeff Bezos, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pharrell Williams, Shania Twain and former vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
During the current U.S. presidential campaign, the Democratic candidate thus brought to light one of her pasts unknown to most people: her work for McDonald’s. The vice president revealed that she had worked for a summer ‘making fries and ice cream’ for the fast food chain. Because McDonald’s is also part of Kamala Harris’ story.
Harris premiered an ad last week highlighting her time at the Golden Arches. In between nostalgic footage of old family photos, the voiceover narrator read: ‘She grew up in a middle-class home. She was the daughter of a working mother. And she worked at McDonald’s while she was in school.’
That mention is presented as a political act to appeal to working class voters, with Harris highlighting her humble origins added to her extensive resume that includes jobs as a senator, vice president and even avid cook.
Kamala thus generates a great impact with which to empathize with American society. According to the fast food chain, one in eight Americans has worked at McDonald’s at some point in his or her life. Not only in its restaurants in particular, but in the service sector in general, which is the largest part of the U.S. economy. Moreover, synchronically, he generates a radical contrast with his Republican opponent Donald Trump as a person who inherited all his wealth, as collected by Tim Walz.
‘Can you imagine Donald Trump working in a McDonald’s, trying to make a McFlurry or something,’ Walz asked, ‘He couldn’t ma
That speech would likewise be invoked by Harris in 2019, when he joined a strike by McDonald’s workers in Las Vegas protesting for higher wages. ‘I was a student when I worked at McDonald’s,’ he would declare to the crowd. ‘There was no family that depended on me to pay the rent, put food on the table and pay the bills at the end of the month. But the reality of McDonald’s is that most people who work there today depend on that income to support a home and a family.’
