Op-Eds
July 24, 2024
Excerpted from Kamala Harris: Carrying the Torch of Leadership by RepresentWomen's Cynthia Richie Terrell, published in Ms. magazine on July 24, 2024.
With the recent news of President Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his pick, the world witnessed history in the making. Following in the footsteps of Shirley Chisholm, Harris is once again blazing a trail. Harris not only holds the distinction of being the first woman vice president and the highest-ranking woman in history but also the first woman of color to hold the office. Now, she is poised to secure a major party nomination.
Harris polls better against Trump than prospective male candidates: She won a SurveyUSA ranked-choice voting poll in 2020 about who Biden should pick as VP and was the top choice among voters to replace Biden in a recent FairVote poll. She’s been vetted on a national ticket that beat Trump and is ready to step in as president. Congressional leaders Jim Clyburn, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi have given their support.
Democrats are, in fact, well-positioned to win, as Trump is no electoral juggernaut. Most 2016 primary voters voted against Trump, and nearly 10 million votes twice lost him the popular vote to Democrats. Republicans in the 2018 midterms took a beating and lost the House and Senate by the end of his presidency. In 2022, Republicans lost ground in the Senate mainly because voters seemed ready to move on from his grievances, extremism and chaos. Across 47 credible polls in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin swing states with Senate races, Democratic candidates haven’t trailed once. As reproductive freedom becomes a pivotal campaign issue, and women are set to outnumber men among Democratic state legislators, the party has a woman at the helm.
Read the complete article here.
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