(Washington) President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race and endorse his running mate, Kamala Harris, gives Harris – already the first woman and first black person to serve as vice president – another chance to make history.
In a letter announcing his withdrawal, Biden thanked Vice President Kamala Harris “for being an extraordinary partner in all of this work.” He supported her in a separate social media post, along with a photo of the two on the White House grounds.
“My very first decision as the party’s nominee in 2020 was to choose Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it was the best decision I ever made,” he wrote in the post.
Before being chosen as running mate, Ms.me Harris had opposed Mr Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.
Mr Biden had pledged at the time to choose a woman as his running mate, as well as someone with experience who would be “in tune with [lui]both in personality and substance,” he said. Early in his career, Mr.me Harris served as a senator from California and as that state’s attorney general.
“I eat no for breakfast”
In his speeches and appearances at events, Mr.me Harris, who has long been seen as the embodiment of an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse country, has often alluded to her mother and the generations of women of all races who paved the way for someone like her. Her choice as vice president was also seen as an acknowledgement of the critical role played by black women in Democratic victories since 2016.
PHOTO EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Kamala Harris at the Essence Cultural Festival in New Orleans on July 6
This month, at the Essence Cultural Festival in New Orleans, Mme Harris made a striking appearance, confident and dressed in an electric blue suit. She spoke about the Biden administration’s accomplishments on issues like student debt and maternal health for Black women, but she also championed the idea of embracing your inner power and ambition, even when you don’t look like the other people in the room. “People in your life will tell you it’s not your time, it’s not your turn. It’s not your time. No one like you has done it before. Don’t ever listen to that,” she said, adding: “I like to say, ‘I have no choice but to do what I want.’ I like to say, ‘I eat no for breakfast.’”
News of Mr.me Harris has electrified the network of organizations that have been pushing for more women in politics and gearing up to support her. They say Mme Harris has a strong leadership background and aims to be a powerful voice at a time when democracy and women’s rights are under attack.
“This is a historic opportunity that could excite and mobilize young voters in a way we haven’t seen in a long time,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder and executive director of UltraViolet, which focuses on educating voters about digital misinformation.
The importance of this campaign cannot be overstated in a year when Republicans are targeting women.
Shaunna Thomas, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the UltraViolet Organization
Christina Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the political action committee EMILY’s List, which campaigns for abortion rights and has spent millions promoting Ms.me Harris said she struggled to break through because vice presidents tend to receive less media attention and because, as a woman and a Black woman, she faces criticism based on gender and race that other vice presidents have not faced.
“She’s been the subject of racist and sexist attacks that aren’t just about the administration and her work,” she said. She added that EMILY’s List and other organizations have been working to combat the negative attention since launching the #wehaveherback online campaign within hours of her being selected as the vice presidential nominee in 2020.
Target of Republicans
Last week at the Republican National Convention, Mr.me Harris has been a constant target. On panels and onstage, speakers have linked her to an administration that they say has led to rising crime and inflation. They have cast her as an accomplice to an aging and ineffective president. They have blamed her for record numbers of migrant crossings at the border, repeatedly calling her Biden’s “border czar.”
PHOTO ERIC RISBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Kamala Harris hugging her husband in January 2015, after her second swearing-in as California attorney general
According to Republican and Democratic strategists, these attacks on Mme Harris had several roles. Republicans already considered her as an option to lead the Democratic Party in the event of Mr. Biden’s withdrawal. In addition, Ms.me Harris has long been seen as a powerful figure who can energize groups in the coalition that are considered vulnerable: women, young people and nonwhite voters.
Mme Harris, a former San Francisco prosecutor, was elected in 2010 as the first black woman to serve as California’s attorney general. Her election to the U.S. Senate in 2016 made her only the second black woman in the chamber’s history.
The daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Mme Harris was chosen as her running mate at a time when many voters were demanding change and equality for black people, as civil rights protests rocked the country following the killing of George Floyd. But her extensive law enforcement experience — gained during the tough-on-crime era of the 1990s — was seen as a liability by Democrats pushing for sweeping criminal justice reforms.
Today, his career as a prosecutor could be an advantage, according to some Democratic consultants and strategists.
Anat Shenker-Osorio, a Democratic campaign consultant and communications researcher who has urged the party to elevate Mme Harris even before Mme Biden not stepping down, indicated potential confrontation between Mme Harris and former President Donald Trump could spark interest among voters who had planned to sit out the race.
“It’s almost Hollywood. Who takes on a villain who has been exposed as a convicted felon, except a prosecutor? Who takes on this villain who has committed a series of extraordinarily sexist acts, except a woman? Who takes on this villain who has made racism his day and his night and scapegoating his central premise and his promise, except a woman of color?”
This article was first published in the New York Times.
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Links with Montreal
Before becoming the first American woman, the first Black person, and the first person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris spent several years in Montreal, where she attended Westmount High School from 1978 to 1981.
She moved to the city as a teenager when her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher, worked at the Lady Davis Institute at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital. The young student enrolled in Westmount High School after first attending a French-language school.
The Dr Michael Pollak, who worked with Mme Gopalan in Montreal, described her in a note posted on the McGill University website as a “pioneer” who left a mark on the institution, helping to develop a method of evaluating cancerous breast tissue that became standard procedure at the Jewish General Hospital and other hospitals.
The Canadian Press