VP Kamala Harris rallies for Karen Bass for LA Mayor at UCLA

VP Harris at UCLA rally for Karen Bass

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff were at UCLA Monday for a rally in supporting Rep. Karen Bass' mayoral campaign.

LOS ANGELES - Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to a cheering crowd at a Get Out The Vote student rally at UCLA Monday, one day before the midterm elections, urging attendees to head for the polls while also enthusiastically backing mayoral hopeful Rep. Karen Bass.

"I'm back in L.A., because I do love L.A.," Harris told the crowd. "And I know Karen Bass. I've worked with Karen Bass. When I was in Sacramento and she was in Sacramento, I saw how she would tirelessly fight for the people of this region, the people of our state and the people of our nation. Karen Bass has a long history of always being on the side of people, fighting for the people."

Bass also spoke to the crowd, urging them to vote and to encourage their friends and neighbors to do the same.

"So what I need you to do is call, text, email, direct message all your friends to tell them you don't even have to leave your house," she said. "You can just put that ballot in the mail. ... We need to have all of that vote in because it is time for a new L.A. It is time for a new direction in our city."

Bass is squaring off against billionaire businessman Rick Caruso in Tuesday's election.

Harris arrived at Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force 2 Sunday afternoon from Chicago, where she spoke at a Democratic Party of Illinois rally.

The trip is Harris' third to Southern California since late August. Harris, who owns a home in Brentwood, was also in the region Oct. 15-18 for a visit to Los Angeles that included a discussion on efforts to protect reproductive rights.

Rick Caruso makes final appeal to voters ahead of Election Day

Los Angeles will soon have a new mayor; it's a tight race between Karen Bass and Rick Caruso.

"Harris is back again in Southern California, as if she doesn't have anything more important to do," Hallie Balch, the Republican National Committee's California and Nevada director of communications, told City News Service.

"Sending the vice president the day before the election won't inspire voters to head to the polls when she's tied to a failing administration that has made life harder on all Californians."

Bass spent the weekend meeting with her supporters during a bus tour through Los Angeles. She stopped at a dozen locations to greet Get Out The Vote volunteers, and was joined by community leaders Alfre Woodard, Kim Whitley and Yvette Nicole Brown.

Harris is making a final round of stops to support woman candidates before Election Day on Tuesday.

"Over the next four days, Vice President Harris will continue to do what she has been doing and that's uplifting candidates up and down the ballot who are as equally committed to protecting reproductive rights and are committed to building on the progress the administration has been to bring the economy back," a White House official told CNN on Sunday.

Harris appeared with Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Illinois for an Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Fund event in addition to attending rally for Illinois Gov. J.B. Prtizker on Sunday.