'Armor bearers:' Black women in Congress mobilize to boost Harris

Over a dozen Black female lawmakers who spoke with The Washington Post, several of whom have heard from Harris directly since Biden’s 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’s campaign. They are in both a celebratory and get-down-to-business mood, sporting pink and green — the colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Harris’s college sorority — 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.

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) referred to Black women in Congress as Harris’s “armor bearers.” And Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) described her congressional sorority as a “shield of protection,” explaining she considered herself a part of Harris’s “truth squad” against challenges to the vice president’s credentials and experience.

“As a Black woman, especially, I know what she’s going to have to deal with,” said Lee. “And we’re communicating that to everyone.”

Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), the former president of Emily’s List, said this isn’t Harris’s “first rodeo” and underscored the sexist and racist treatment Black women encounter on a daily basis. But she described the role of Harris’s cohort of supporters at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue as a regenerative force, ready to deflect the anticipated mudslinging and propel her forward.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/26/black-lawmakers-women-kamala-harris-congress-cbc/