Is Kamala Harris the new Tina Turner?

Kamala Harris wants you to know how much she loves Tina Turner. She loves her so much that she has wonderfully unique and joyous memories of listening to the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll’s most famous hits growing up. “When I was a child, my mother would play “Proud Mary” on repeat as I danced around our living room, singing along into my toy microphone at the top of my lungs,” Harris wrote.

Harris revealed this moment of rare vulnerability in a tribute to Turner published in Rolling Stones Tuesday. And reading Kamala’s tribute, Cockburn can’t help but think she considers herself the heir to Turner’s legacy. The constant sexism and racism that Turner overcame in the music industry must have inspired a young Harris’s calls for “Fweedom.” 

And as for vocal talent, they both have plenty. “Through her music, she told stories of love and loss, of triumph and pain, and she told them in ways that people around the globe could understand and relate to,” Harris wrote. Through her cackle, Harris has given a voice to the thousands of phonies and megalomaniacs hoping to achieve political success.

There are some differences though. As one Twitter user pointed out, “Tina Turner was the victim of an abusive husband who cheated on her, Kamala Harris slept with a married man who helped her political career.” 

The tribute would not have been a classic Kamala without a “what can be, unburdened by what has been” moment. Nor would it have been one without some sage wisdom from Harris’s mother. “Growing up, my mother often told me, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you are not the last,’” she recalled. Somehow this advice is pertinent to Turner’s international fame. 

“The joy she shared with us will live on in her music for as long as we continue to sing and dance along to it,” Harris ends her tribute. Cockburn doesn’t quite believe that Harris is as full of joy as she contends, but that doesn’t mean she’ll stop cackling any time soon…