Harris is a sitting senator who was competent during the debates she participated in during the 2020 Democratic primary process, so she is unlikely to make huge gaffes that raise questions about why Biden selected her (in the way that Palin became a problem for John McCain in 2008). I would expect Harris to follow the same pattern. Research suggests that the electoral impact of vice presidential candidates is fairly limited. So here’s what’s not clear: We don’t know if Harris will help or hurt Biden win the general election. The implications of Harris’s selection, however, become more complicated when you look at Harris specifically, as opposed to the selection of a Black woman more generally. Val Demings and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. Karen Bass, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Rep. That list includes former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, Rep. I could have made the preceding three points - the history of the selection, the power of Black voters and the loss for the Left - and even used nearly the exact same words in some of those sections if Biden had selected one of the other Black women who was reportedly being considered for vice president. With Harris’s selection, their wish was granted. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black Democrat in the House - pushed for Biden to pick a Black woman as his running mate. Black voters in South Carolina and then other states, particularly in the South, strongly supported Biden and played a key role in his winning the nomination despite lackluster showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.Īfter it was clear Biden would be the party’s nominee, a lot of prominent Black Democrats - mostly notably Rep. It’s another illustration of the power of Black Americans in the Democratic Party.Ī clear plurality of Black voters favored Biden throughout 2019, helping keep the former vice president near the top of polls through most of the Democratic primary race. They may also rarely in the future have a ticket of two white people (as in 2016 with Clinton and Tim Kaine) or two men (as in 2012, with Obama and Biden). This vice presidential process, with Biden committing to choosing a woman fairly early on and then choosing a Black woman, suggests the Democrats may rarely in the future have a ticket of two white men. Democrats last had an all-white, all-male ticket in 2004, with then Sens. Harris’s selection is the latest sign of the increasing diversity of the Democratic Party. history to be vice president or president. If she and Biden win the November election, she would be the first Asian American, the first woman of any race or ethnicity and the second Black person in U.S. They met as graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley, in the 1960s.) Harris is just the second Black person (after Barack Obama) and the fourth woman (after Democrats Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008) to be on a presidential ticket for one of the two major parties. (Harris’s mother was born in India, her father in Jamaica. Harris is the first Asian American and the first Black woman in American history to be a general election candidate for president or vice president for either of the two major political parties. It’s a historic choice, with the potential for even more history to be made. Here’s a look at what this choice means and … what it doesn’t. Former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced Sen.
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