Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, CLEVELAND, Ohio-U.S. Sen Kamala Harris, the only Black woman to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, has suspended her presidential campaign after fundraising difficulties and consistently low poll numbers in recent months, the senator polling at just 2-4 percent in some polls, a drop from when she surged to second place at 22 percent and within five percentage points of Democratic front-runner Joe Biden following her spectacular performance during the First Democratic Debate in Miami, Florida in June.
The decision by the junior senator to drop out of the race for president means that she will not participate in the upcoming Sixth Democratic Debate in Atlanta, Georgia, and it comes as a surprise to many Washington D.C. political insiders.
She was one of six candidates to qualify for the sixth debate.
Harris, 54, told supporters in an email that she could no longer afford the pursuit of the presidency due to a lack of money but that she will continue to fight.
“My campaign for president simply doesn’t have the financial resources we need to continue,” Harris wrote. “But I want to be clear with you: I am still very much in this fight.”
Her departure leaves U.S. Sen Cory Booker, a former Newark, New Jersey mayor, as the only Black in the crowded race to win the Democratic primary.
Booker has not yet qualified for the sixth debate, and may not qualify at all, sources said, the five other qualifying candidates to date of whom are Biden, U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer.
The Democratic nominee, whomever it may be, will take on President Donald Trump for the November 2020 election.
A California attorney general turned U.S. senator, Harris took on Biden during the first Democratic debate on race, saying he has fraternized with segregationists and that he should not have opposed public school busing plans, busing a 1970s, 80s and 90s phenomenon that is obsolete in terms of associated desegregation court orders, which are persona non grata too.
A former U.S. senator from 1973-2009 who served two terms as the vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, Biden said in response that he opposed busing only as ordered by the Department of Education, an intriguing and likely calculated response, pundits said.
"Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?" asked Harris during Thursday night's debate before a televised audience.
Biden shot back.
"I did not oppose busing in America," said Biden, a former U.S. senator who served with Obama for two consecutive four-year terms as his vice president, from 2009-2016. "What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education."
And while Harris may have surged in the polls regarding her dispute with Biden on race during the first Democratic debate, some Democratic voters, mainly Whites, simply did not like her attacking Biden, her supporters saying she did what debaters do to win.
Black political pundits said Harris had an uphill battle from the get go because she is both Black and female, which is double jeopardy relative to a run for president in America, a country that has never entertained a woman for president, not to mention a Black woman.
Despite her general appeal and good looks, and her commitment to the Black community on public policy matters, she could not gain inroads into the Black community like Biden, who enjoys widespread support from Black voters, particularly among older Blacks.
Hillary Clinton tried twice, losing the Democratic primary to Obama in 2008 and the general election to President Trump in 2016, Trump a Republican and a billionaire real estate mogul.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurban
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