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 Pictured is United States senator and former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-CA)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publsher, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND, Ohio-U.S. Sen Kamala Harris of California, the only Black woman to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, though she suspended her campaign late last year, is at the top of the list for possible selection as the vice presidential running-mate for Democratic presidential front-runner former vice president Joe Biden.
Hailing from the nation's post populous state with ties to San Francisco, If she is selected, and subsequently honors the request, she would become the first Black woman to run on a major party ticket in America for president.
Of course Biden must win the nomination for any such possibility to materialize.
He committed to a female running-mate during the 11th Democratic Debate on March 15 in Washington, D.C., and he is likely the presumptive nominee over U.S. Sen Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who lags behind substantially in pledged delegates.
U.S. Rep Marcia Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat whose 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, endorsed Harris for president, an indication that the congresswoman is also on board in supporting her as Biden's running-mate as well.
Other women on Biden's short list are purportedly former presidential candidates U.S. Sens Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Atlanta state legislator Stacey Abrams, who is Black, Latina Congresswoman Catherine-Cortez-Mastro, and Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Both Klobuchar and Harris, a former California attorney general, have endorsed Biden over Sanders, a socialist Democrat who lost the nomination in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, Clinton then losing the general election to incumbent President Donald Trump, a Republican
Biden served as vice president under former president Barack Obama, a Democrat and the nation's first Black president.
The Democratic nominee will take on President Trump for the Nov. 3 general election, absent any delays.
An Obama-Biden ally, Harris suspended her presidential campaign last December after fundraising difficulties and consistently low poll numbers in the months leading up to her departure, 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 Biden following her spectacular performance during the First Democratic Debate in Miami, Florida last June.
Harris, 55, 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.”
The junior senator raised eyebrows when she took on Biden during the first Democratic debate on race, saying he has fraternized with segregationists and that he should not have opposed court-ordered public school busing plans, busing a 1970s, 80s and 90s phenomenon in place to seek to remedy racial disparities and intentional discrimination against Black children in America's general largely Black public school districts.
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, 77, 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 of significance, she could not gain inroads into the Black community like Biden, who enjoys widespread support from Black voters, particularly among older Blacks and southern voters.
Running for vice president is a different animal, pundits have said, and Harris fits the profile that U.S Rep James Clyburn wants on the ticket, a woman and "preferably an African-American woman."
A seasoned and respected congressman, Clyburn is Black too, and is credited with reviving Biden's then failing campaign by endorsing him for South Carolina's primary, which Biden won, and never looked back, his campaign saying also that he did not necessarily expect to win in the earlier primaries like in Iowa and in New Hampshire, White voters territory without a doubt.
And while Harris has some baggage as a former California attorney general from 2011-2017 and Biden wants to distance himself from criticism regarding the 1994 anti-Black crime bill he backed as a then U.S. senator when Bill Clinton was president, pundits say she has the stamina, stage presence and campaign experience to walk with Biden on the campaign trail, and to compliment the Democratic ticket as a candidate for vice president.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
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