Harris advertises that she always works at McDonald's. Will it help?

Lyndon Johnson herded goats. Richard Nixon plucked chickens. And Bill Clinton has food in stock.

Many presidents had modest jobs early in their careers. If elected in November, Kamala Harris would join that list with one of her own: McDonald's servers.

The vice president said in recent years she worked at McDonald's while in college, “making french fries and ice cream.” That she and her campaign even mentioned this seems to be an acknowledgment of a powerful group of voters whose support she is trying to win.

At some point, as McDonald's franchises popped up across the country and the brand became dominant, it became impossible to ignore the menial, dead-end aspects of working for the chain. In the 1980s, the term “McJob” entered the pop culture lexicon as a derogatory word. Merriam-Webster still defines it as a “low-paying job that requires few skills and offers little opportunity for advancement.”

For Harris and her deputies, however, it was something to brag about. Unlike previous presidents, some of whom rarely if ever spoke about their humble professional beginnings, Harris' campaign has always made a big splash at the Golden Arches. In August, an ad was released that said the vice president “worked at McDonald's while in college,” a reference to her time at Howard University in the 1980s, adding, “Kamala Harris knows what it's like “Being middle class.”

At the Democratic National Convention, several speeches drew attention to the vice president's background in fast food. Clinton, known for his love of McDonald's, joked that if elected, Harris would break his record “as the president who spent the most time there.” And Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett brought up the burger giant while attacking former President Trump: “One candidate worked at McDonald's while attending an HBCU. The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”

At a time when Democratic Party candidates regularly lag behind Republicans in winning the support of working-class voters, the Harris campaign's decision to tie the candidate to a brand that is… popular with large swaths of the population, a wise decision could make it more understandable, several observers told The Times.

“It’s a smart way to appeal to the working class [voters] … who have probably worked in worse places than McDonald's,” said David Garrow, author of “Rising Star,” a biography of Barack Obama. “There is certainly an aspect of class appeal.”

It's also a gesture perhaps intended to deflect attention from Harris' status as a California liberal, said Emily Contois, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

Harris is trying to “appeal to voters from across the country,” Contois said, adding that McDonald's has a “nationalist undertone” that could also help. “Pretty much every American has eaten there.”

But the topic was not without danger.

Aug. 10, 29, the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news website, published a report questioning whether Harris had worked at McDonald's, saying the job was not listed on a resume she submitted year after college, and pointed out that biographers had also not mentioned the work. Trump's campaign seized on the story and demanded that Harris prove that she had worked for the chain.

Trump said the vice president lied about working at McDonald's during a campaign event last week and repeated the claim the next day during a news conference at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes.

“She never worked at McDonald's,” he said. “It's a lie. They went in, investigated, and the fake news won't cover it. …She never worked at McDonald's. She said she stood over those fries while they were frying them and they were so hard [work]. She’s a liar.”

In a statement to the Times, Harris campaign spokesman Rhyan Lake pointed to the vice president's “civic roots” and said they are “an important reason she is fighting to lower the cost of living and ensure every American has the opportunity.” “Not just to get over, but to move forward.”

“It’s not surprising that Trump doesn’t understand this, considering he wants to skyrocket middle-class costs in order to distribute more taxpayer money to billionaires,” Lake said.

McDonald's did not respond to requests for comment.

After the Free Beacon report was published, a former Republican congressman reached out to X to make light of the story. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois noted that he “worked at Hardee's and literally hasn't told anyone until now.” It's not in my book either. “Still worked there.”

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A job at McDonald's represents a striking contrast to Harris' reputation as a foodie. She is a seasoned restauranteur in L.A. and beyond and an expert home cook – a pastime she has made part of her political persona.

“One of the things I enjoy most — and just keeps me grounded — is cooking a family dinner on Sundays,” she said in an Instagram video posted in July.

Contois sees the mentions of McDonald's and Sunday dinner as different parts of the same overarching strategy to help the candidate connect with voters. She said Harris' McDonald's experience will reach “a different audience than those who pay attention to the fact that she … makes killer fried chicken.”

Harris' McDonald's stint gives her something in common with a sizable portion of the electorate: The fast-food company said one in eight Americans worked at the chain. Additionally, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff mentioned in his convention speech that he had also worked there and laughingly explained that he had once been named Employee of the Month at his branch.

As with Crockett's pointed remarks, other Democrats have held up Harris' time as a French fryer – her campaign said she worked at a McDonald's in Alameda, California in the summer of 1983 – comparing her life experience to Trump's.

“Can you just imagine Donald Trump working at McDonald's and trying to make a McFlurry or something?” Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz requested an audience in August. “He couldn’t operate that damn McFlurry machine.”

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Some 21st century presidents have had jobs in the restaurant industry, including Barack Obama. As a teenager, he ate ice cream at a Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu. In recent years, Obama has spoken about the job – including in a 2020 speech in which he attacked Trump.

In the final year of his presidency, Obama wrote on LinkedIn that the ice performance taught him the value of “responsibility.” Hard work. Juggling job, friends, family and school.” However, Obama did not make his Baskin-Robbins experience part of his campaign message.

That may have been strategic, Garrow said. “He wanted to present himself as one of the 'best and brightest,' rather than just a common rabble holding mundane jobs,” Garrow said of Obama's first presidential run.

Jerry Newman, on the other hand, believes that a candidate can advertise a fast food job. The author of 2006's “My Secret Life on the McJob,” which chronicled his undercover work in the fast food industry, said these employees learn the importance of reliability, working under pressure and being a team player – Basic principles of every blue-collar job.

Harris, he said, “can indicate that she certainly reinforced these things during her time at the chain, if she didn't already learn them.”

If working at McDonald's or Baskin-Robbins is now cause for celebration, it's a shift that may reflect changing views about the value of blue-collar work at a time when many Americans identify with the label “working class.”

According to an August survey by the Pew Research Center, 54% of Americans said they would be described as working class “extremely or very well.” It also found that 62% of Republicans described themselves this way, while 48% of Democrats did.

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It was 96 degrees on a weekday afternoon, and the parking lot of a McDonald's on Vine Street in Hollywood shimmered with heat. The restaurant's patio offered 21-year-old Ashley Zamarripa some shade. She said she didn't know Harris once worked at McDonald's and felt it made the vice president more “confidential.”

“When I hear about Harris, who had a job that a normal person has — I work in retail — I can relate,” she said.

Not everyone found Harris' backstory a big plus. A man with a scraggly beard and cut-off sweatpants who declined to give his name said he didn't think the candidate's time in the fast-food business was “meritorious.” After all, he noted, many people have to do hard work to survive.

But Rod Hubbard, who works in private security, said: “If someone in her position had been in my shoes, that would resonate with me.”

With a wry smile, Hubbard explained that he had a good sense of what Harris might have gone through at McDonald's because he once worked at Burger King. “It means she understands hard work,” he said. “She was there, like many of us.”

Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts and researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.