Kamala Harris’ Mentor, Former Boyfriend Reportedly Worried She Might Have ‘Hillary Syndrome’

Willie Brown, former San Francisco mayor and ex-boyfriend of now-Vice President Kamala Harris, said that Harris might be unlikeable, contracting “Hillary Syndrome,” according to an interview with Politico released Wednesday.

Brown expressed concern over Harris’ likeability to voters, invoking comparisons to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and claiming it may be unfixable, according to Politico. Harris’ currently sits at a 51.2% disapproval rating, according to 538 polling averages.

Clinton struggled with her image during the 2016 election, hitting a 56% disapproval rating in August of that year, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. Her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State under the Obama Administration affected her image with voters, with 50% of Americans seeing the incident as a “major problem,” according to an Associated Press poll in July 2016.

Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg Institute of Public Opinion in Pennsylvania, told The Sacramento Bee that Harris has problems with likeability as a candidate.

“The very nature of the vice presidency presents a challenge in terms of connections with the public, and when you add in the intersection of Harris’s gender identity, multiracial background and California roots it seems a barrier to broad public acceptance is created,” Borick told the Bee. “These factors, along with her personal style, don’t easily mesh with many Americans’ comfort zone and Harris ultimately emerges with a classic likability problem.”