Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 09:43 pm
Washington, D.C. – As Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to be officially confirmed as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidency next week in Chicago, a question will loom: Is America ready to elect its first Black woman president? Harris, 59, seems convinced the country is prepared to make history anew.
Overcoming Doubt and Defying Expectations
Harris, who first threw her hat into the 2019 Democratic primary, has been no stranger to the cynicism that often meets the first of their kind. “My whole career, I hear people say, ‘It’s not your time, nobody like you has done that before,'” Harris said during her 2019 campaign. Yet Harris forged ahead, though her initial presidential candidacy didn’t gather significant momentum that compelled her to exit the race well before becoming Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick.
Poised for Yet Another Record Breaking
If Harris wins the election in 2024, she would be the first woman and the second Black-after Barack Obama-to have led the country. Her candidacy is a pathbreaker on many counts. Born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, Harris was the first woman to become attorney general of California and the first African American and Asian American to hold that position. She has already made history as the first female, African American, and Asian American Vice President.
Public Perception of Female Leadership
Recent reporting from the Pew Research Center suggests that a majority of Americans do not believe that gender has a bearing on whether or not a president can adequately execute his or her job. In fact, in a September 2023 poll, 60% of those polled believed a female president would handle pressure no differently than a male president; 27% believed she would handle the pressure even better.
Challenges in the Political Arena
But experts, including Regina Bateson, a political science professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said the problem can be far more insidious-and originate from within. Bateson uses the term “strategic discrimination” to describe how party insiders, delegates and donors may deny support to a candidate out of concern that voters will reject them because of bias. This happens most often in primaries, but Harris gets around this by entering post-Biden’s exit and thus taking his place as nominee without having to work towards proving her electability through the primary races.
Strategic Alliances and Building Trust
Teaming up with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Harris tries to reach out to voters of all persuasions. Her campaign has already seen some encouraging signs, such as the “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser, which reaped more than $4 million in a single Zoom event.
Operating under Criticism and with Bravery
As the campaign heats up, Harris has already faced criticism from former President Donald Trump, who called into question her racial identity. Always proud of her Black and Asian heritage, Harris shot back with divisive rhetoric against Trump, calling out his “disrespect and divisiveness.”
Controversy over Comments Follows
Besides Trump’s attacks, Harris’s campaign has had to function around the minefield of controversial comments by his running mate, J.D. Vance, once said to have disparaged members of the Democratic Party with incendiary comments. Comments like these, considering a country with historically low fertility rates, rise up in an uproar that has even forced Vance to make some clarification on the issue.
With Harris primed for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, it’s clear that she again stands at an historical crossroads, at once epitomizing both the challenges and opportunities of a country uncertain about what it will be and who will next lead it.