By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, the only Black female U.S. senator and the only Black woman to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, campaigned in the largely Black city of Cleveland Saturday afternoon with 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L Fudge by her side.
Meanwhile, President Trump also visited Ohio Saturday, holding a campaign rally in Circleville where he promoted his conservative-leaning political platform and literally called for a federal law that would subject activists to 10 years in prison for damaging a monument or statue.
Harris' visit to Northern Ohio comes as a heightened coronavirus pandemic sweeps the country and the Nov. 3 presidential election, where President Trump and Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden will square off, nears.
Her motorcade left the Burke Lakefront Airport in downtown Cleveland at 12:34 pm and traveled on Euclid Ave through nearby parts of the city, her caravan stopping at ZanZibar's, a soul food restaurant on Prospect Avenue.
There, the junior senator and Congresswoman Fudge, who endorsed Harris in the primary, stepped from Harris' campaign bus to applause from a few spectators.
A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus whose largely Black congressional district includes Cleveland, Fudge wore a mask and practiced social distancing, and so did Harris and her entourage.
Harris asked ZanZibar's owner, who had several to go bags available for the Harris team, how business was going during the pandemic.
"How are you doing?" asked Harris.
"We have been primarily surviving," the Black restaurant owner said in response.
She took photos as select media, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, stood nearby and photographed her too,
Harris' motorcade also stopped in the middle of East 30th, facing a line of early voters at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections
She addressed the crowd over a cordless mic before walking up and down the stretch of East 30th between Euclid and Chester and waving at voters.
Early voting in the pivotal state of Ohio began Oct. 6.
"It's Kamala, and I came to Cleveland to say thank you! Thank you for voting and voting early. Your vote is your voice, your voice is your vote. There is so much at stake," she said
She continued.
"Don't let anyone ever take your power. The power of your voice is so important. You are going to make the difference. You are going to make the decision about your future, about your family's future. It is through the voice of your vote. And you have the power"
She delivered a speech at Cuyahoga County Community College's campus near downtown Cleveland at 3:15pm to an outdoor crowd of supporters.
At Tri-C she spoke on a variety of issues, including tax cuts, free college, the economy, neighborhoods, voting, and the pandemic.
She said "it is here in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County that you make the decisions, that you are part of the leadership that decides who will be in the White House."
Congresswoman Fudge is something to recon with in Washington, D.C., Harris said.
"Everyone recognizes that Marcia Fudge is a leader nationally," said Harris
The federal lawmaker's previously scheduled visit to Cleveland for Oct 16 was cancelled after two of her staff members contracted the coronavirus, though neither Harris nor Biden has come down with the virus.
Cleveland sits in Cuyahoga County, the state's second largest county, and a Democratic stronghold.
The county is roughly 29 percent Black.
Harris is the first woman of color to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America, and pundits say she is a welcome addition to Biden's presidential ticket.
A former vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, Biden leads President Trump in the polls nationally, and practically all of the swing states.
But the two candidates are neck and neck in Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes up for grabs.
A former California attorney general, Harris is a native of Oakland who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.
She became the fourth woman to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America behind vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton a presidential candidate that year.
