Harris to smash political records
SITTING with her great-niece on her lap after US election day, Kamala Harris tells the fouryear-old that one day she could become President.
However, if her great-aunt continues her meteoric rise to fame, little Amara Ajagu will not be the one to create history as America’s first black female leader.
As Joe Biden triumphs 33 years after he first entered the White House race, Harris – his Vice President – will become the most powerful woman in the States.
Women’s rights activist Candice Worthington said: “Kamala has sent out the strongest message yet that one day, we will have equality in the White House.
“Fourteen previous Vice Presidents have gone on to become President but make no mistake, Kamala is not there because of her sex, she is there because of who she is and what she stands for. If not before, 2024 should be the year the world finally has a woman as the leader of the free world.”
Already, there have been concerns over Biden’s age and mental health, raising the prospect that Harris, 56, would take over if the President is unable to run the country. With a Jamaican father and Indian mother, she will become the first black Asian American and first woman to serve as Vice President.
And for the first time since Ronald Reagan, a Californian is on a major party presidential ticket – the first time for a Californian Democrat.
Harris’s rise to prominence in the Senate came as an adversary to Donald Trump, holding progressive left-wing ideas. As a charismatic black woman, she can also speak personally of the racial injustices that have surged to the forefront of America’s consciousness following the death of such people as George Floyd.
Harris is broadly aligned with the rest of her party in supporting police reforms but rather than openly call for defunding of law enforcement departments, as many liberal Democrats demand, she has spoken of “reimagining how we do public safety in America”.
She has backed contentious taxpayer-funded abortions, arguing they would save the lives of lower-income women, and proposed giving all workers six months of paid family leave for personal or medical issues.