The Kamala Harris I Know, and What It Could Mean for America

The Kamala Harris I Know, and What It Could Mean for America
PUBLISHED 7/23/2024 by A’shanti Gholar

I know what it is like to live at a time when our leaders haven’t looked like me. Having a woman of color at the top of the presidential ticket is historic.



Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Westover High School in Fayetteville, N.C., on, July 18, 2024. (Cornell Watson / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Sunday, President Biden did what he has always done: Put our country first. His decision to withdraw from the presidential race and immediately endorse Vice President Kamala Harris sends the message that America is ready for a woman of color in the Oval Office. Kamala Harris is no stranger to leadership or firsts. Over two decades ago, she co-founded Emerge, the nation’s largest network of Democratic women elected officials and candidates that I have the honor of leading today. In those two decades, Kamala Harris has gone from being the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as San Francisco district attorney, to the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president of the United States. Now, she’s earned enough delegate support to become a presidential nominee—another first for a woman of color—and could become the first woman president of the United States. The significance of this moment cannot be overstated.


I know what it is like to live at a time when our leaders haven’t looked like me. They haven’t shared in my experiences. They haven’t known my fight. But I also know this is changing … faster than ever. As a young Black girl growing up in Nevada, one who preferred to watch C-SPAN over Sesame Street, I didn’t see people who looked like me in politics. A Harris presidency would mean a lifetime of young girls and women knowing that the highest office in the land is within their reach. Elections are always about who voters think will most improve their lives, and so the next 100 days will offer voters a clear choice. But elections are ultimately about the future—and reveal who America wants to be.

As the leader of an organization dedicated to electing women at all levels of government, I know that voters are not only ready for a woman to lead, but they are hungry to end the divisive nature of our politics and for the leadership women in office bring. They support the vice president’s work on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, investing in our infrastructure, and creating jobs and an economy that works for the middle class, not just the 1 percent.

. . . .

At Emerge, we elect women of the New American Majority: Black, Brown and Indigenous women and women of color, as well as young, LGBTQ+ and unmarried women—a growing force in American politics. And it is happening. Nevada is the first state in the country to have a majority-woman legislature, because of Emerge alums. Across the way in Michigan, Emerge helped flip the House of Representatives in 2022, and now Democrats control both chambers of the Michigan legislature for the first time since 2008. And we have done the same in Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, Virginia and other states. But the work doesn’t stop once women are in office. Our alums are fighting for reproductive rights—see state Sen. Eva Burch in Arizona. They’re battling in tough races—see Susie Greenberg in Georgia. And they’re trailblazing in each new role they step into—see Speaker Joanna McClinton in Pennsylvania. For every caregiver with a daughter, every girl with a dream and every American who has hopes for the future, the upcoming election represents who we are, where we want to go, and who we want to be.

https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/23/kamala-harris-first-woman-president-usa/