William Shakespeare’s phrase, “Timing is everything,” is apt for this election period for Vice President Kamala Harris. No other time would she be uniquely positioned and overwhelmingly nominated as the Democratic nominee for the presidency. Kamala Harris’s life as Vice President took a 180-turn in 24 hours from her stumping for Biden in Provincetown on Saturday, July 20, to becoming the presidential nominee on Sunday, July 21, when the news broke of Biden leaving the race.
The Biden Victory Fund event at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum showed a forced enthusiasm about a possible November win with the Biden-Harris ticket. However, Harris was wildly welcomed to P-town with placards that read “VP-Town!” When the news broke that Harris was now on the top of the ticket, enthusiasm swelled, as shown by the car horns that blew down Commercial Street, the main drag, and people joyously applauding and screaming.
The news on July 21 that Kamala was running for President also took the nation by surprise. Both the Black Caucus and Asian American Caucus immediately endorsed Harris. Within 30 minutes of her announcement, One Silicon Valley, a software engineering consulting firm, raised more than $1 million.
Hours later that day, a national Zoom call from the D.C.-based Black women’s organization “#WinWithBlackWomen” had over 40,000 sistahs in attendance. In three hours, we sistahs raised over $1.3 million to support Harris, which TV personality Star Jones, the campaign chair, spearheaded. #WinWithBlackWomen is a national intergenerational and intersectional sisterhood of black diasporic women who leverage talent, influence, and networks to support Black women.
In Harris’s first TV interview on Aug. 29 with V.P. nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, CNN’s Dana Bash asked about the call she received from Biden stating he was dropping out.
“It was a Sunday, and he told me what he had decided to do. And I asked him, “Are you sure?” And he said, “Yes.”
Harris continued, “Well, my first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him to be honest. I think history is gonna show a number of things about Joe Biden’s presidency. It was transformative, be it on what we have accomplished around finally investing in America’s infrastructure, investing in new economics, in new industries, what we have done to bring our allies back together, and have confidence in who we are as America.”
The politics of being the first
When I heard the news of Harris running for President, I immediately thought about how my deceased Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would be proud of this moment. Chisholm was the first African American woman to campaign for the presidential nomination in 1972 on the Democratic ticket.
“I ran because most people think the country is not ready for a black candidate, not ready for a woman candidate. I ran because somebody had to do it first. In this country, everybody is supposed to be able to run for President, but that has never really been true,” Chisholm stated at the 1972 Democatric National Convention held in Miami Beach, Fla.
A woman of temerity and integrity, Chisholm’s slogan was “Unbought and Unbossed.” It was also the title of her 1970 autobiography. Confronted with racist and sexist opposition, Chisholm lost the nomination. In 2024, similar concerns arise for Harris, too.
When news broke that Kamala was in the race for the White House, Black Twitter was abuzz with exuberance and trepidation. “Much of Black Twitter is on board with Kamala as a candidate, but unsure if America feels the same way,” The Root reported.
“Okay, so now it’s Kamala. Every white person who wanted him to drop out needs to figure out how to defend a Black woman in person and online for the first time in their lives. That’s the job now. I’d like to see it, but I never have,” comedian and podcaster Akilah Hughes wrote on Twitter.
Prominent Democratic donor John Morgan of Florida emphatically stated he would not fundraise for Harris. “She would not be my first choice,” Morgan was quoted in The Hill. “The donors holding the $90 million can release those funds in the morning. It’s all yours. You can keep my million. And good luck,” he continued.
Harris is, however, Jim McCain’s first choice. Jim McCain is the son of revered deceased Republican U.S. Senator John McCain. Jim McCain has joined a growing list of lifelong Republicans endorsing Kamala.
Striking the right balance with white Americans — Republican or Democrat — is difficult in this polarized era, especially for a woman of color in power who identifies as black. The “angry black woman” trope hovers over all sisters of African descent. Harris is attacked for her laugh. She runs the risk of being perceived as too loud, too forceful, not knowing her place, not staying in her lane, and being arrogant, dipite the fact that she is the VP.
Must Harris struggle to avoid the misogynoir trope when asserting her power and authority? She mustn’t be a titular head for fear of being perceived as unqualified, tokenized, or a DEI hire. Research shows that Harris is one of the most targeted politicians on the Internet, and Fox News runs a constant thread of bogus articles about her.
Trump has vehemently stated Harris is way out of her lane and not qualified for the post, especially what he adjudges as a “black job.”
However, former First Lady Michelle Obama at the DNC on Aug. 20 clapped back with a takedown by turning Trump’s words on himself. “I want to know, who’s going to tell him, that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?”
On the first night at the DNC, Aug.19, former First Lady and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton spoke about America’s great potential to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling she couldn’t as a female, if we vote for Kamala as President.
“In 1984, I brought my daughter to see Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman nominated for vice president. If we can do this, Gerry said, we can do anything. And then there was 2016 when it was the honor of my life to accept our party’s nomination for President. And nearly 66 million Americans voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams.“
Job performance
Harris struggled to carve out a lane for herself in her early years, feeling the weight of being the first Black and Asian American VP. With a job performance approval rating no higher than 39 percent from multiple polls, she had to convince the American public for a second term.
Republicans have made Harris the face of Biden’s unfavorable immigration policy to win political ground in this election period. The intersexuality of her race and gender was weaponized to discredit her ability. It was unsurprising to women and people of color that Harris was appointed to fix immigration, which previous administrations couldn’t resolve and which set her up to fail.
I’m with her!
Harris’ blunders were magnified, and her victories muted. Harris has accomplished a lot since taking office. Alongside Biden, Harris helped America get vaccinated, rebuild an economy derailled by the pandemic, led Congress to protect voter’s rights by building a broad and diverse coalition, expand workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain, and staunchly advocated for women’s issues — reproductive justice since the overturn of Roe v,.Wade, maternal health, child poverty — and LGBTQ rights.
In her first public speech since her candidacy announcement, Harris said, “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. We here know when our middle class is strong, America is strong.”
In one day, Harris garnered more than half the delegates needed to win the nomination. She has reenergized the base and injected hope, focusing on working folks like me.
“Every day, in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge, and I said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people. My entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people,” Harris stated in her speech at the DNC.
Show up and show out this november
Obama was the President of hope and Kamala Harris is the presidential candidate of joy. The DNC was a joy-fest! Psalm 30, Verse 5, was recited several times during the DNC: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” This energy we derive from the joy of having Kamala as a presidential hopeful must be put into action. It can only work if we get to work. As Kamala says, “We’re a people-powered campaign. And when we fight, we win.” Our vote must show that the power of the people is far greater than those trying to seize our power.
Democracy can only begin to work when those relegated to the fringes of society can begin to sample what those in society take for granted as their inalienable right.
VOTE!
