Why Fear About Kamala Harris’ Candidacy Is Misguided

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

In a late-night defense of President Joe Biden’s candidacy last week on IG Live, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that for all the calls for him to step aside, some in the Democratic Party wanted Vice President Kamala Harris off the ticket, too.

“If you think there is a consensus among the people who want Joe Biden to leave, that they would support Vice President Harris, you would be mistaken,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I’m in these rooms, I see what they say in conversations. A lot of them are not interested in removing the president. They’re interested in removing the whole ticket.”

“If you 10,000% are super convinced that the candidate, or president, cannot beat Donald Trump, then do what you think is in your good conscience. But I have not seen an alternative scenario that, I feel, does not set us up for enormous peril,” AOC added.

I usually like what AOC has to say, but when I watched the clips of this, I remembered exactly why I never go on live – and why some conversations are best left ignored.

I have read about some big-money donors and self-serving members of Congress that AOC speaks of. That they ideally desire to run someone else against Trump besides a Black woman, but that was never going to happen and doubters have been living in a state of denial.

After that debate, it was a wrap for Joe, but based on reporting, Biden was in denial about it until this past weekend.

Still, after being explained that he stood a chance to lose to Donald Trump in a landslide, Biden made the choice to resign before the calls for him to step aside grew louder.

In that same Politico piece about how Biden chose to resign, the reporters note according to one Democrat familiar with private conversations, with respect to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Nancy made clear that they could do this the easy way or the hard way. She gave them three weeks of the easy way. It was about to be the hard way.”

Democrats were not going to allow Joe Biden to let Donald Trump and his cult win with a mandate so they nudged the exit door open before ultimately deciding to make clear this might get really embarrassing for him if he doesn’t take the hint.

To that end, now Joe can ride off as America’s selfless pa-pa or whatever  – at least if Kamala Harris wins. Despite the fear-mongering about Harris’ potential candidacy, actual voters believe she can win a general election.

The Harris campaign has raised $81 million in the first 24 hours since Biden ended his election. It is the largest amount of money raised in that period in presidential history. The campaign said it had 888,000 grassroots donors, 60% of whom donated for the first time this cycle.

Of that figure, a Zoom meeting hosted by the group “Win with Black Women” that drew 44,000 people brought in $1.6 million. Another call via the group Win With Black Men was held for Harris on Monday evening.

And AOC, who predicted chaos days ago if Biden bowed out of the election, has already endorsed Harris’ candidacy.

Though Harris said she wanted to earn the nomination, support for her is only growing and there has yet to be any challenger so her campaign operation, which she will inherit from Joe Biden, is in full swing.

Yet for all the excitement Harris’ candidacy has already ignited in the Democratic Party, some will stoke fear about her chances.

It includes coverage from outlets like the New York Times which found some Black voters to lament that they don’t think she can win because America is sexist and racist. Other ones find Black women to write articles about how they feel America can elect one, but just not Kamala Harris. And since everyone can play pundit, there are some skeptics on my feed so there’s likely some on yours too.

There will be more of all this in the coming months, but I hope it’s largely ignored. Much of this fear about Kamala’s candidacy – or any woman candidate, for that matter –  is rooted in the results of the 2016 presidential election.

It is understandable, but it is misguided.

Hillary Clinton was able to win the popular vote in 2016, which may not have decided the election, but a plurality of Americans said they believe a woman can be president all the same.

As for her electoral college loss, Hillary Rodham Clinton has a complicated history in American politics, to say the least, and her campaign was warned about waning support at the time in battleground states, but didn’t do anything about it. It did not help that in the final weeks of the election, the head of the FBI decided to hold a press conference over what proved to be nothing but politically damaging to her.

When it comes to Harris’ own 2020 failed presidential bid, much of the electorate felt that as a result of Clinton’s loss, only a straight old white man could win. But that opinion has sharply changed since then as Americans repeatedly said over the years in polling that they felt Biden was too old.

Harris is being judged by the failure of others while her critics ignore her sharpened political performance since 2020.

Kamala Harris’ ascension to becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president has been messy and unexpected, but it deserves the benefit of the doubt.

I would definitely worry how America might retaliate if a Black woman becomes president, but that can wait.

For now, Harris’ skeptics should look at the growing excitement about her campaign and “see what is possible, unburdened by what has been.”

(I had to.)

Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author of “I Can’t Date Jesus,” “I Don’t Want To Die Poor” and “I Finally Bought Some Jordans.”

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