In 2008, many Democrats wondered if Americans would elect a Black man to be their president. Sixteen years later, many are questioning whether Americans would elect a Black woman to be their president.
Democrats will decide at their national convention in Chicago next month whether to unite behind Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee — replacing President Joe Biden, who announced Sunday that he was withdrawing from his reelection bid.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
In 2008, nobody thought Barack Obama, a junior senator from Illinois, had a shot at the Democratic nomination for president. Then-Sen. Hillary Clinton had been ordained the standard-bearer. She had raised millions and had the backing of the much of Congressional Black Caucus and a large swath of Democratic donors. Yet she lost the nomination to Obama. His soaring oratory skills and storied life journey — the progeny of a white woman from Kansas and a Black man from Kenya — made him seem inevitable.
Biden’s once-in-a-generation political bombshell and his endorsement of Harris put the weight of history and destiny squarely on her shoulders. Before she even secures the nomination, she must select a running mate who will be willing to ramp up hard with her to win against former President Donald Trump in less than four months.
She is up to the challenge.
She has been a heartbeat away from the presidency for three and a half years and will be until January. She has foreign policy chops. She is well respected on the world stage. She has been vetted by the national and international media. She is the administration’s chief prosecutor on the issue of reproductive rights and gender equality.
She is ready.
But she is a Black woman in a country in which a not-insignificant segment of its population is hostile to women and to diversity. Can she overcome that? I don’t know. But it seems urgent that she does.
It was clear from the four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week that Republicans are running on a far-right MAGA agenda that demeans women and immigrants. Trump is promising mass deportations. The Project 2025 plan from his supporters, including many people who served in his administration, promises a drastic reduction in the federal workforce and requiring a loyalty oath in civil service positions; implementing a national abortion ban; restricting access to birth control; prohibiting in vitro fertilization; ending no-fault divorce; radically changing public education; and other horrible offenses to women and families. The Republican platform and the Project 2025 plans for a Republican administration should strike fear in the hearts of freedom-loving, patriotic and compassionate Americans.
Project 2025, the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation, is already causing some companies and universities to create government affairs succession plans on how they will manage a Trump administration.
Harris is almost uniquely qualified to mount the charge against this threat. She was a U.S. senator when Biden asked her to be his vice president. Before that, she was California’s attorney general and a prosecutor. She knows how to make her case to the American people.
Before that though, she has to make her case to Democrats. First is her selection of running mate.
To win 270 electoral votes, she would have to lock down a good portion of the white electorate. Obama got about 38% in 2012. Harris would have to match that, at a minimum. Biden was trending at 40%. Bill Clinton got more than that in 1996. Republicans still own the lion’s share of white voters. Harris’ running mate almost certainly would have to be a moderate white male, someone from Gen X or an older millennial. Andy Beshear is 46 and a two-term democratic governor in a ruby-red Kentucky. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, at 51, is a Gen Xer and Jewish. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she is not interested in being vice president. Neither is California Gov. Gavin Newsom. U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia would be a good pick, but his Senate seat is up in 2026, and sitting Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, would be an early favorite to win an open seat. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona would be a great choice, too. But his Senate seat is vulnerable, and Democrats need him in the Senate. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is term-limited; he could help rebuild the Obama 2008 coalition by flipping North Carolina back blue.
Harris also would need to solidify the Black base. In 2008, Obama got a historic 95% of the Black vote. Harris could do the same. She has the overwhelming support of Black women already, but she would need to fortify her support from Black men.
It’s a new day in Democratic politics. But if Harris is the nominee, Democrats can rally around her as their best hope to defeat Trumpism again — and possibly for good.
Sophia A. Nelson is a CNN contributor and the author of “Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama” and “E Pluribus One: Reclaiming our Founders’ Vision for a United America.”
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