Harris Remains an Inspiring Figure, Even After Election Loss

By ELWOOD WATSON

It’s been a few weeks since Election Day, and we’ve heard what pundits think cost Vice President Kamala Harris the election. Their hit list of topics included the uneven economy, high inflation, the Israeli-Hamas conflict, rising crime, extreme and excessive wokeness, and out-of-control borders.

Yet, there is another reason that hasn’t been discussed nearly as much in most quarters – the intersection of race and gender.

Harris would have been the first woman of any race and the first South Asian person to have been elected president of the most powerful nation in the world. Instead, she lost the election, as well as the popular vote, to Donald Trump, whose coalition transcended racial and gender lines in unprecedented ways as he made notable inroads with people of color and netted a larger share of women’s votes.

The nation was provided an opportunity to allow a biracial Black woman to move us forward beyond several years of Trump’s racist, sexist, and toxic style of grievance politics with a broad agenda steeped in hope, concern, and access. America, particularly the majority of White Americans, said: “No thank you.”

From the minute she was selected as vice president, Harris found herself in the line of political fire. Several Republican members of Congress referred to her as a “DEI hire,” which is a reference to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this instance, it was an assumption that Harris became the nominee only “because of her ethnic background,” as Republican Representative Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin dishonestly declared.

Former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne “Alternative Facts” Conway attacked Harris as lazy, commenting, “She does not speak well; she does not work hard; she doesn’t inspire anyone.” Republican Representative Harriet Hagemen of Wyoming declared, “Intellectually, [she is] just really kind of the bottom of the barrel.”

A September survey from the Associated Press/NORC Research Center showed 38% of voters think being a woman hurt Harris’s chances of winning, and only 13% of voters said being a man hurt the GOP nominee.

“We’ve come a long way in terms of making sure of equity in this country, but there’s still a lot of this bigotry in this country in terms of sexism, in terms of racism,” Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, who is Black, said before the election. “They still exist in a lot of communities, and we still have a lot of work to do here.”

For the second time this century, Americans rejected a woman to lead the nation. If they weren’t ready to trust a woman for the job, they were even more apprehensive to trust a woman of color. It is not accidental that, prior to this election, we have only had two Black women elected in the history of the U.S. Senate: Kamala Harris and Carol Mosley Braun of Illinois. A third, Laphonza Butler, was appointed by California Senator Gavin Newsom to fill the vacancy created by the death of Dianne Feinstein.

In the election, two more Black women won their Senate races – Angela Allsbrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester in my home state of Delaware. That will bring the total number of Black women who have served in the U.S. Senate to five.

In every speech, Donald Trump fueled the flames of sexism and racism, calling Harris a “monster,” “low-IQ,” “mentally impaired,” and “only pretending to be Black.” The best-selling merch at Trump’s rallies was a sweatshirt with the slogan: “Say No to the Hoe.” Additionally, as a woman of color and a biracial one at that, Harris has had to deal with the two-headed dragon of “Jim Crow and Jane Crow” a term espoused by pioneering legal scholar Pauli Murray.

At a moment’s notice, Harris had to revitalize a rapidly imploding campaign and rejuvenate a demoralized Democratic base that had fallen into despair due to Biden’s poor debate performance and sinking political standing. She remained devotedly loyal to her boss who had grown widely disliked, and who at times privately questioned her chances. She maintained the role of warrior for the administration despite a number of its members doing much to marginalize her. She rallied a party whose major leadership in midsummer discussed the possibility of bypassing her to put a White male at the top of the ticket.

During her concession speech at Howard University, her alma mater, Harris repeated much of the rhetoric she maintained on the campaign trail and called on her supporters to keep fighting. “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”

While she fell short of achieving her goal and becoming the first woman to be elected president of the United States, Harris did make history by shattering the once all-male door of the office of the vice presidency and has undoubtedly inspired other women of all backgrounds to consider pursuing the opportunity to run for the most powerful political position on the planet.

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. His columns are distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. He is also an author and public speaker.

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2024

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