That Time it Finally Happened
In the summer of 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom Party to the Democratic National Convention and demanded a seat. Scared of her influence, President Lyndon Johnson called a press conference at the same time she was to make her case for seating in front of the credential committee so it would not be televised. She worked tirelessly in Mississippi because, as she famously said, she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” In 1972, Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the House of Representatives, ran for president. She was blocked from participating in televised Democratic primary debates. She amassed 152 delegates, but without major party support, she was forced out of the race and into supporting Governor George McGovern. The same year Shirley Chisholm won her first election to the New York state legislature, 1964, Kamala Harris was born.
On August 11th, 2020, my older daughter turned nine. We celebrated her birthday in quarantine style - with a neighborhood birthday parade and take out tacos. August 11th is the day I became a mom; the day my daughter was drug into the world and then almost got kicked out of the nursery for being too loud; the day each year I pause and think about the innumerable ways I think she can change the world. Now, though, August 11th will have another cause for celebration: the day a woman of color was chosen by a major party to be the Vice President of the United States. I did a lot of crying on August 11th, 2020.
When the news alert flashed across my phone, I was taken back to November 8th and 9th of 2016. The forecasts said it would be a close election, but we would inaugurate the first woman president in January 2017. The night of the election, at our campus watch party, as we began to color in the electoral map in blue, it felt like it was going to happen. But then, we colored more of the map red, and then more red, and then more red. In the morning hours of November 9th, Donald Trump was declared the winner, and I spent the day crying. I cried with my students who were devastated and scared for their lives and their families’ lives; those who were faced with the realities of a nation that would elect a candidate who ran on an openly racist, sexist, homophobic, and xenophobic platform. Then we cried watching Hillary Clinton concede saying, “To all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable, powerful, and deserving of every opportunity in the world and every chance to pursue your own dreams.” Almost four years later, many of those girls and young women have fought to ensure this country is one where that is in fact true. From the women’s marches, to the 2018 midterm elections, to the record-breaking number of women running for office in 2020, women are not backing down. Progress.
At the same time, there were six women and six people of color running for president in this cycle. But in the end, one-by-one, they suspended their campaigns as the electability cycle trapped them. We are more divided than ever. Pressing societal issues are more divisive than ever. The realities of systemic racism and sexism are front and center during the COVID crisis (as I wrote about for CTC in May) and the country’s overdue reckoning with police brutality and systemic inequity (as I wrote about for CTC in in June). Hours after Sen. Harris’ candidacy was announced, the President of the United States called her “nasty” repeatedly at a press conference. The NRA tweeted a picture of Sen. Harris aging her significantly and portraying her as an unkempt, angry Black women. Sen. Harris is too Black to be a citizen, but not Black enough to be called the first Black woman to be chosen as a vice presidential candidate. The debate over Sen. Harris’ “blackness” has played out in the media, and in the DISGUSTING comments below online media stories.
The question asked when candidates from minoritized communities run is: can they win? Are they electable? I referenced the electability trap earlier for presidential candidates, but immediately after Sen. Harris was announced as the pick, the question was whether her presence on the ticket would HURT Vice President Biden’s chances of winning. Is her lack of electability enough to take votes away from Biden? I have many things to say about this, but I will stick to three:
1. The political science literature is clear that VP candidates do not have an electoral effect EITHER WAY. While the VP candidate can create enthusiasm about the presidential candidate by changing the way voters see him or her, mobilization of voters who wouldn’t have voted otherwise, or de-mobilization of voters who were going to vote, is unclear.
2. This question was not asked of John McCain and Sarah Palin until we learned more about her and questioned her intellectual and experiential fitness.
3. The Republican Party’s strategy to call into question Sen. Harris’ “blackness” is a racist attempt to depress Black turnout by pegging Sen. Harris as a phony.
At the end of the day, those who argue choosing Sen. Harris will “sink” Vice President Biden’s chances because she had a failed presidential campaign have very selective memory. Many nominees choose primary opponents as their running mate (Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew; Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush; John Kerry and John Edwards; Barack Obama and Joe Biden). The argument that her campaign did not get enough traction, and therefore, not only can she not win an election, but is not qualified to serve, is all coded racism and sexism. What they are really saying is, “If Black people and women didn’t want you, then…”
With an uphill battle ahead of her, then, what is the impact of Sen. Harris’ historic selection? First, it is time. It is time that race and gender are necessary “ticket balancers” for the Democratic Party moving forward. Along with age, region, policy area credentials, and ideology, the ticket should reflect the experiences of those in the party. The Democratic Party has rested on the shoulders of Black women for decades. From organizing, to fundraising, to sending a Democrat to the Senate from Alabama, the Party owes its electoral and policy successes to Black women. It is time the ticket looks like who it represents.
Here’s what’s more: the role model effect. When women run, it inspires civic engagement and political ambition for young women. Numbers are important, yes, but it is what women do in office that matters. Research shows that not only do women legislators work harder for their constituents, but the issues on which the focus are more likely to help women and mothers. With Sen. Harris on the ticket, it models civic engagement, political ambition, and leadership to girls and young women of all races and ethnicities. For girls and young women of color, though, it is even more impactful. To see a multiracial women, a daughter of immigrants, one with a first name that is often mispronounced, promising to “represent people like my mother. People who politicians often overlook or don’t take seriously,” demonstrates likeness, representation, and possibility. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says women who serve in elected office always have a “why.” There is something or someone that motivates them to run, to serve, and to work hard to make progress. We have never had a women even Oval Office-adjacent to put her “why” into motion. It is not just about the symbolic and even descriptive representation of Sen. Harris’ presence; it is the substance.
On Wednesday night, Sen. Kamala Harris will be officially nominated by the Democratic Party to be the Vice President of the United States. The same institution that would not seat Fannie Lou Hamer. The same institution that would not let Shirley Chisholm debate. Sen. Harris often talks about how her mom would say to her and her sister, “Don’t just sit around and complain about things. Do something.” On Wednesday night, as I watch Shyamala Gopalan Harris’ daughter get closer to shattering that highest, hardest glass ceiling, I will watch with my own August 11th girl thinking of Hillary Clinton’s words. Thinking of Fannie Lou Hamer’s words. Thinking of John Lewis’ words: “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society."
Author: Suzanne Chod