Oakland Native Kamala Harris Gets Groundswell of Support in Bid for U.S. President
By Post Staff
In a one-two punch kicked off by President Joe Biden’s announcement last weekend that he would not seek a second term, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris made history again when Biden designated her to replace him on the ticket this fall.
The Oakland native, Howard University graduate, and AKA soror who became the first Black female elected to the office of California attorney general and then U.S. senator became the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history when she was elected four years ago.
By Monday night, she had secured the support of nearly 2,000 Democratic delegates, meeting the minimum to clinch the nomination for the highest office in the land the DNC convention next month.
She is the first Black woman and first Asian to be on the road to the White House.
On Sunday, a pre-scheduled Zoom call with ‘Win With Black Women,’ a group of activists and influencers, drew an audience of 44,000 that raised $1.5 million for Harris’ campaign, setting a fund-raising record, which was nearly matched the next day when 53,000 joined a Win With Black Men virtual event and raised $1.3 million.
Latinas, Asian and white women were also holding virtual events to back Harris this week, while GOP leaders have had to chastise their cohorts about making racist, sexist and misogynistic statements about her.
Her candidacy brought a resurgence of enthusiasm in the presidential race as poll after poll showed that Biden had an uphill road to victory against Republican nominee, former President Donald J. Trump.
Besides the necessity to continue galvanize support by touting the victories of hers and Biden’s Administration, Harris has to find a running mate that can seal the deal in November.
According to CBS News, multiple sources say “that the list of candidates includes several governors: Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Tim Walz of Minnesota, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Biden Cabinet members Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also being considered, along with among others.
Many California office Democrats swiftly supported Harris as well. Among them were Sen. Alex Padilla; Reps. Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Barbara Lee; and mayors Karen Bass and London Breed, of Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively.
Lee, who supported Harris four years ago when Harris was running for president herself, said “Vice President Harris is the best person to communicate the Biden-Harris administration’s wins of the last four years, unite the party, and remind people what is at stake with a Donald Trump presidency. I was an early supporter of Vice President Harris when she ran for Senate in 2016 and for the presidency in 2020. President Biden knew she would be equipped to be a great president, that’s why he chose her to run alongside him.”
On Sunday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed called on city leaders to unify around Harris, saying civil rights for LGBTQ people, women and people of color are in peril if Democrats lose the White House.
“We cannot mess around with this opportunity; there is so much at stake,” she said. “I wish I could travel to battleground states and just go across the country and help elect Kamala Harris and whoever the vice presidential nominee will be so that we can continue to move our country, and especially our city here locally, in the right direction.”
Wikipedia, Politico, CBS News, KQED, The American Presidency Project, YouTube and X were sources for this report.
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