The Halo Of Harris's Rise And Fall Stalls Women Of Color’s Path To The Presidency
It was not meant to be this way. When President Biden picked Kamala Harris as his 2020 running mate, the world was changing rapidly.
Four years after the first Black man, Barack Obama, stepped down from the White House, during which time he ushered in so much change that some of it can never be uncorked, Harris's selection as the first Black woman vice presidential candidate was a trailblazing moment.
Relegated to the shadows of the Biden presidency for nearly 3½ years, Harris rose to prominence when Biden, who had always believed he had a better chance of winning than she did, reluctantly withdrew from the race and anointed her as his successor, perhaps in a passive-aggressive move to stick it to the coup architects. In a matter of days, most Democratic leaders agreed to support her, and in less than a month, she became the Democratic Party nominee.
This was the first time in American history that party leaders selected a nominee outside of a nominating convention. It was the first time in American history that someone who had never won a single vote or delegate became a major party's presidential candidate overnight.
The average American voter saw that Harris was appointed to a position of immense power because no one votes for the vice presidential nominee on a presidential ticket. When the 2020 election was called for Biden-Harris, almost overnight, Harris moved into Number One Observatory Circle on the grounds of the United States Naval Observatory, the official residence of the United States Vice President since 1974.
Harris became one of the lucky 49 people in American history to enjoy all the trappings of being the U.S. Vice President. She joined the likes of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Al Gore, whose names are forever enshrined in history.
Harris traveled around the world on Air Force Two, a highly secure and customized aircraft. She became accustomed to traveling in a motorcade with specialized vehicles protected by the United States Secret Service. She had a team of advisors, aides, and other staff members who assisted with policy, scheduling, and public relations, most of whom worked a stone's throw away at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (next to the White House) and in the U.S. Capitol.
As Vice President, Harris became President of the United States Senate, catapulting into a role of authority to preside over sessions and cast tie-breaking votes. This was an impressive promotion for someone serving as a junior senator from California only a few months prior. Harris also represented the United States in high-level international meetings, summits, and ceremonies.
However, voters understood that Harris was experiencing all the above privileges primarily because she identified as a Black woman. Voters knew how South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn had rescued Biden's disastrous candidacy in the 2020 primaries by demanding that Biden elevate Blacks and other minorities to positions of power should he win the presidency. The Biden administration became America's first DEI government where identity mattered more than competence.
To millions of voters, including intellectual leaders of the Civil Rights movement, America had "turned a page," a theme to which Harris turned when she became the 2024 nominee. Americans were willing to elevate a Black woman to the second-highest office in the land; ascending one more step could happen if Americans voted in their collective guilt, addressed centuries of the country's discriminatory past, and made Harris the first Black woman president.
In their haste to see this momentous spectacle, Harris's supporters forgot that competence matters more to voters. Voters could not risk a Harris presidency, for what they had seen her do as vice president was a disaster. Harris failed miserably as the drug czar, the one role she assumed to help address the root cause of unprecedented illegal migration. Her economic stewardship with President Biden was so off that even Biden's chief economist conceded that he was "confused, guilty, and facing a moment of 'cognitive dissonance'."
On November 5, Harris lost so overwhelmingly that she left the Democrat party utterly rudderless. Trump soundly defeated Harris in the six states that had moved to the Blue column in 2020 (Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan). Harris lost the Senate for the Democrats, who now only have a 47-53 margin in the chamber. The GOP retained the House, as well as the majority of the state governors' mansions, and control of the state legislatures. It was a rout that brought to memory Jimmy Carter's electoral performance in 1980.
In the future, women of color who want to ascend to the White House will always have the specter of the Harris campaign over them. If an incumbent vice president, who instantly assumed Biden's impressive campaign infrastructure and donor network that forked over nearly $2 billion, couldn't defeat an outsider candidate like Donald Trump, what would a woman of color do to win against a traditional GOP-MAGA candidate with a less complicated history?
There's also the issue of the bench, which we count to be three. Two Black women, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, just won six-year terms to the United States Senate. Other than Michelle Lujan Grisham, the New Mexico governor whose term expires in 2026, no women of color occupy governors' mansions. Most Americans have not heard of these women. Michelle Obama could announce that she would run in 2028 and instantly win the name-recognition game, but she has repeatedly turned down a chance to run for office. Besides, by then, it would be 12 years since she was last in the White House, and the country would have moved on past the Obama years.
The ongoing underrepresentation of women of color in American politics will likely extend for years. Worse, it may take decades for a woman of color to ascend to the White House after winning a competitive primary. Thanks to Kamala Harris.