Why Biden’s elevation of Kamala Harris puts a lump in my throat
Harris is smart, focused, deliberate, prepared and unafraid. Her direct and blunt questioning of Attorney General William P. Barr, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh bolstered her reputation for fearlessly holding the powerful accountable even in the face of condescending mansplaining. Undeterred, Harris used every interaction and every incisive question to show she was not one to be trifled with. And she never backed down from taking on President Trump.
Eight days before Harris ended her own presidential campaign in December 2019, I asked her if she thought Trump was afraid of her since he had yet to give her a sophomoric nickname. “Well, listen. What I know is this. I know he has a reason to be afraid of me. That I do know,” was her response before launching into a withering indictment against the president.
The national political stage and especially presidential politics have a tendency to flatten three-dimensional personalities such as Harris’s. Throw in actual or implicit racism and misogyny, and the image of Harris becomes unrecognizable. That the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee doesn’t make someone cry or give them a lump in the throat is more a reflection of the person for whom this is a problem. I have never been so afflicted.
Harris was just a year into her first term as California attorney general when we first met at the 2012 state dinner President Obama hosted for British Prime Minister David Cameron. We were seated at the same table and started up a conversation that picked up later that year at the Democratic convention in Charlotte where she spoke and has kept going through her successful Senate campaign in 2016 and unsuccessful 2020 presidential campaign. The same lump in the throat I got just knowing the Obamas were in the White House is the same one I got watching Harris rattle those Trump administration officials. Just wait until she takes the debate stage with Vice President Pence. “It’s on,” indeed.
People like to see some aspects if not all of themselves reflected in their elected officials. That’s especially so when said politicians run for national office. And in Harris I see someone who reflects the work-twice-as-hard values I was raised with and the tightrope demeanor demanded of a Black person navigating White spaces that I have had to learn. The way she moves, the way she talks and what she says with her words — or with her silence (and an arched eyebrow) — tells a story that many of us intimately know and are thrilled to see on such prominent display.
From the moment Harris ended her own presidential bid, she was the common sense choice to be the running mate of the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. When Biden committed to having a female running mate, all eyes turned to her. Even as the pool of prospective vice presidents filled with one impressive woman after another, Harris continued to stand out. She had run three statewide races and a presidential campaign and displayed a fearlessness that got her in trouble but didn’t stop her from getting the nod.
The American people, Democrats in particular, are so used to politicians eschewing common sense for the complicated solution that they gird themselves against disappointment by preparing to live with whatever decision is made. So, when a politician actually chooses the common sense solution, not only is it greeted with excitement but also a palpable sense of relief. That’s what happened when Biden chose Harris. But the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party did more than opt for common sense.
African Americans and Black women in particular have saved Democratic candidates in elections since Trump assumed office, and they saved Biden’s campaign. By not only entrusting a Black woman with such a historic role, but also putting her on the trajectory to becoming the nation’s first woman and second Black president, Biden validated their loyalty and decades of sometimes thankless and ignored work to help make this country freer and fairer for all. It’s enough to put a lump in your throat.
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