When then-Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) called Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) in January 2019 to tell her she planned to run for president, the veteran Florida lawmaker with a penchant for festive headgear started screaming with excitement before Harris could finish her sentence.<\/p>\n
But as soon as Wilson hung up, another call came in \u2014 this time, from Joe Biden. When Wilson didn\u2019t pick up \u2014 \u201cI knew what he was going to ask,\u201d the congresswoman explained \u2014 Biden then texted her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so sorry,\u201d Wilson, sporting a hot pink pantsuit and bedazzled cowboy hat this week on Capitol Hill, recalled texting Biden back at the time. \u201cI love you. You know that, but I have pledged my support to my sorority sister and friend Kamala Harris, and maybe one day, you, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five years later, Biden did just that \u2014 endorsing Harris, now his vice president, to succeed him \u2014 after dramatically announcing Sunday that he wouldn\u2019t run for reelection in November. And so have most of the 30 Black women in Congress, who now stand as something of a national firewall for her candidacy with Harris poised to become the first Black woman to lead a major party ticket and competing to become the country\u2019s first Black female president.<\/p>\n
Over a dozen Black female lawmakers who spoke with The Washington Post, several of whom have heard from Harris directly since Biden\u2019s decision to exit the race, described a fierce and personal commitment to an intense three-month sprint to organize and mobilize voters on behalf of Harris\u2019s campaign. They are in both a celebratory and get-down-to-business mood, sporting pink and green \u2014 the colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Harris\u2019s college sorority \u2014 in the Capitol halls; privately pressing holdout colleagues to endorse Harris, and preparing to hit the trail and speak out against the racist and sexist attacks they, too, have been the target of.<\/p>\n
Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) referred to Black women in Congress as Harris\u2019s \u201carmor bearers.\u201d And Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) described her congressional sorority as a \u201cshield of protection,\u201d explaining she considered herself a part of Harris\u2019s \u201ctruth squad\u201d against challenges to the vice president\u2019s credentials and experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Black woman, especially, I know what she\u2019s going to have to deal with,\u201d said Lee. \u201cAnd we\u2019re communicating that to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), the former president of Emily\u2019s List, said this isn\u2019t Harris\u2019s \u201cfirst rodeo\u201d and underscored the sexist and racist treatment Black women encounter on a daily basis. But she described the role of Harris\u2019s cohort of supporters at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as a regenerative force, ready to deflect the anticipated mudslinging and propel her forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack women know that our first task is to make sure that we are the hands at her back, knowing and giving her the energy to continue to walk through every name that she is going to be called, every derogatory comment that is going to be said, every sexual and sexist innuendo that is going to be made,\u201d Butler said. \u201cWe are the hands in her spine, helping her to continue walking because the destination of a country that offers a vision for future generations is worth every bit of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Harris succeeds in ascending to the presidency, Black women will be a big part of why. In 2020, exit polls showed 90 percent of Black women voted for Biden, by far the highest of any one group of voters. In this year\u2019s race, they are expected to once again play a pivotal role in key swing states.<\/p>\n
At the Congressional Black Caucus\u2019s news conference formally endorsing Harris on Tuesday, lawmakers were visibly emotional as they thanked Biden for what they described as the most transformational administration in American history \u2014 and for tapping two Black women for high-profile jobs: Harris and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.<\/p>\n
Rep. Robin Kelly\u2019s (D-Ill.) eyes welled up with tears as her colleagues expressed their gratitude, touted the accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration and trumpeted Harris\u2019s qualifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m heartbroken for him,\u201d said Kelly, acknowledging there was not unanimity among House and Black Democrats over whether Biden should step aside. \u201cBut there\u2019s that sense, of course, of a lot of pride that a woman of color\u201d could be the next president of the United States, Kelly added. \u201cBut push all that aside, a qualified, brilliant woman, too. I don\u2019t want that to be lost. There\u2019s a lot of firsts, but she\u2019s qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the intraparty disagreement over Biden\u2019s potential exit from the race extended beyond loyalty to Biden, and into concern for Harris\u2019s future. Just two weeks earlier, Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.) stood up before her colleagues during an all-caucus meeting to argue that putting the vice president atop the ticket at this point in the election cycle would be setting Harris up for failure, according to two people familiar with the discussion.<\/p>\n
Those fears, however, quickly dissipated as Harris rolled out her campaign, electrifying some voters in a way that has drawn frequent comparisons by Democratic lawmakers to former president Barack Obama\u2019s historic 2008 campaign. During the CBC news conference, members made the case for Harris, ticking off her accomplishments in a bid to counter GOP attacks that Harris is unqualified to serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is ready, prepared, experienced, and a global leader as I said earlier \u2014 and people forget that,\u201d said Lee, who was the first Hill lawmaker to endorse Harris for president in 2019. \u201cThere\u2019s some that try to challenge her on all sorts of credentials. We say nuh-uh. She\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also looking for tangible ways they can help the campaign.<\/p>\n
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) \u2014 who was the first person to visit Harris in her ceremonial office as vice president \u2014 said she had already spoken with Harris campaign manager Jen O\u2019Malley Dillon. And freshman Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.), clad in an ombre pink pantsuit on Tuesday despite being a member of a rival sorority, said that Harris surprised her with a call Sunday to thank Crockett for her work on the campaign so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of thrown off that she called me on the big day \u2014 of all people,\u201d said Crockett. \u201cI\u2019m not a caucus chair. I\u2019m not capable of raising tons and tons of money. But it speaks to how much she thinks of individuals and the fact that she called a freshman \u2014 I\u2019m sure there are plenty of people that would have never thought to call me, but she did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black female lawmakers are also bracing for what they believe will be a pitched fight against racist and sexist attacks on Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India. Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) said in an interview Sunday that Democrats felt they needed to support Harris \u201cbecause of her ethnic background,\u201d after conceding it would be \u201cmore difficult to beat somebody who is not Joe Biden.\u201d Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) referred to Harris as a \u201cDEI hire\u201d in an interview on Monday, using the initials for diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And an old clip of JD Vance attacking Harris for being \u201cchildless\u201d quickly resurfaced.<\/p>\n
House Republican leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), warned lawmakers this week to avoid attacking Harris on her identity and instead focus on her policy record.<\/p>\n
Black female lawmakers also made clear that they expected others to uplift and amplify Harris, too. After more than 40,000 people surprisingly joined a Zoom meeting hosted by the collective Win With Black Women hours after Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday, raising $1.6 million, over 20,000 Black men rallied the following night to tout Harris\u2019s record. Soon enough, Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, organized a virtual meeting calling on White women to show up for Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not just the responsibility of the Black community to defend this woman. \u2026 We have a collective responsibility to tell allies to step up and fight for her because she\u2019s fighting for all of us,\u201d said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.).<\/p>\n
Privately, some Democratic lawmakers \u2014 including Black Democrats \u2014 have expressed concerns about whether the country is ready for a Black woman president, invoking Hillary Clinton\u2019s failed 2016 bid against Donald Trump. Those concerns grated on other members who have faced questions about their viability in their own races.<\/p>\n
The doubts have persisted, despite hurdles overcome by Black women who came before them, Beatty noted, naming Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress; and Fannie Lou Hamer, a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee community organizer who co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate when people say, are we ready?\u201d said Beatty, arguing that while there was obviously more progress to be made, Black women throughout U.S. history have consistently cleared hurdles. \u201cWe have a hurdle, we jump over it \u2014 and I think this is another hurdle that we will jump over.\u201d<\/p>\n
After recounting her text to Biden five years ago, Wilson felt inspired to text him again this week, thanking him for his \u201chistoric\u201d presidency, including paving the way for Harris and Black women to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t say who would be president, I didn\u2019t say who would be VP, but one day that the two of you will be together on the same ticket,\u201d she said, joking that she manifested Biden and Harris as a political partnership. \u201cI hope he understands how many people in this country love him and appreciate everything he has done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When then-Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) called Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.) in January 2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}