Kamala Harris Takes Historic Role as Biden’s No. 2 With Call for Change
Kamala Harris introduced herself to the nation with a retelling of how her upbringing led her to become Biden’s running mate.
(Bloomberg) -- Kamala Harris introduced herself to the nation with a personal retelling of how her upbringing led her to become Joe Biden’s running mate, capping an evening that highlighted the importance of women voters to Democratic hopes of defeating President Donald Trump in November.
Harris embraced her place in history as the first Black and Indian-American woman on a major presidential ticket, highlighting female leaders who she said “inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on.”
“We’re at an inflection point,” Harris said in remarks delivered live -- but with no audience because of Covid-19 -- in a Wilmington, Delaware, auditorium. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. We can do better and deserve so much more.”
She also spoke of her personal experience with the nation’s long struggle to win civil rights for people of color -- another key constituency for Democrats -- saying Trump’s presidency has thrown into stark relief how that work must continue.
“There is no vaccine for racism,” she said.
The remarks came during an evening designed to celebrate women and to showcase Harris, 55, as a full partner to Biden, a 77-year-old White man who she could find herself succeeding as president someday if Biden wins in November.
Trump was able to defeat the party’s 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton, by winning a majority of White female voters to achieve a narrow Electoral College victory -- underscoring the importance of female votes this year for Democrats. In case any Democrats needed reminding, Clinton appeared by videotape to say, “And don’t forget: Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose. Take it from me.”
Harris will be called upon frequently to assail Trump on the campaign trail, a traditional role for a running mate. But during her acceptance speech on Wednesday night, she largely steered clear of such attacks because she was preceded by former President Barack Obama, who lit into Trump with some of the most biting criticism of his post-presidency.
Obama said Trump has “no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”
The former president evoked his own historic election and the nation’s history of slavery and segregation to argue in emotional terms that failing to vote would be disservice to America’s “quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.”
“Do not let them take away your power,” Obama said, appearing to hold back his emotions. “Don’t let them take away your democracy.”
Clinton also drew comparisons between her own historic presidential run and Harris’s selection as the party’s vice presidential nominee. Americans have already known her as a senator from California as well as that state’s attorney general.
“Tonight, I am thinking of the girls and boys who see themselves in America’s future because of Kamala Harris -- Black woman, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and our nominee,” Clinton said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was even blunter in her assessment, saying she had seen firsthand Trump’s “disrespect” for women.
“Disrespect written into his policies toward our health and our rights, not just his conduct,” Pelosi said. “But we know what he doesn’t -- that when women succeed, America succeeds.”
The night opened with images of mothers and their families, including a woman whose son was left paralyzed by a stray bullet, and an undocumented North Carolina immigrant with her children. Other speakers, like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, used their time to highlight Biden’s plans for issues like child care.
“It’s time to recognize that childcare is part of the basic infrastructure of this nation -- it’s infrastructure for families,” Warren said.
Harris spoke in deeply personal terms about her own upbringing.
“My mother instilled in my sister, Maya, and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong Black women and she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage,” Harris said. “She taught us to put family first. The family you’re born into and the family you choose.”
The decision to focus on women’s voices on the penultimate night of the convention underscores how important they are to Biden’s hopes of unseating Trump in November.
While Biden and Trump split male voters 46% - 46% in a CBS News poll released earlier this week, the Democratic nominee held a 56%-39% lead with women – accounting for his 10-point overall advantage. That’s better than 2016, when Clinton won women overall by 13 percentage points but narrowly lost white women to Trump.
Female voters also helped Biden clinch the Democratic nomination, with exit polling showing that women broke disproportionately his way while top rival Bernie Sanders garnered more votes from men in the early competitive contests. Biden pledged during a March 15 debate against Sanders that he would pick a woman to be his vice president, a promise he fulfilled when he selected Harris earlier this month.
Trump has sought to erode Biden’s advantage in recent weeks with presidential actions targeting the former vice president’s support, particularly among women living in the suburbs.
On Tuesday, Trump announced a posthumous pardon for the women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony, who was convicted of voting illegally before women won the right to vote. And Trump has sought to appeal to so-called “security moms” with ads that argue, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Still, Trump’s conception of female voters risks appearing anachronistic. Earlier this month, he argued on Twitter that “suburban housewives” would be supporting him because of his repeal of an Obama-era regulation on access to affordable housing.
Trump was looking to appeal to a vision of the suburbs that is increasingly outdated.
On Wednesday night, the president took to social media to attack the Democrats and their ticket. In one tweet, he revived Harris’ criticism of Biden over race during a debate. In another, he took aim at his predecessor, again accusing him, without citing evidence, of spying on his 2016 campaign.
It’s a contrast that Democrats might welcome. In a Washington Post-ABC News survey last month, three-quarters of suburban residents -- and 78% of women -- said the president generally crosses the line in terms of what’s acceptable when responding to those who criticized him.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.