Women of color celebrate Kamala Harris in rise to top of ticket

Vice President Kamala Harris' ascension to the top of the ticket following President Joe Biden's decision to exit the presidential race has reinvigorated Democratic voters, especially women of color, across the key battleground state.

"I'm more excited now just given the fact that I've had quite a few people reach out to me letting me know that they're for Harris all the way," said Jasmine Flores, 31, of Erie County, who recently became the co-chair for the Latinos Con Harris Coalition.

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That excitement is due in part to having a fresh face atop the Democratic ticket. Harris, 59, is about two decades younger than former President Donald Trump, the man she'll face in the general election if she is officially nominated, and also the man she replaced on the ticket, Biden, who left the race as questions about whether he was healthy enough to serve another four years intensified following a disastrous debate performance in late June.

But it's also because Harris looks to make history as the first female president, just as she did four years ago when she became the first female, first Black person and first person of South Asian descent to become vice president.

Harris still needs to capture the nomination, but several states' Democratic delegations, including Pennsylvania's, have pledged their support to the former California attorney general, giving her enough votes to do just that when the party holds its convention Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. She'd be only the second woman to clinch a major party's nomination, behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

"That night will be a night to remember for young Black girls everywhere, young little girls everywhere, regardless of color," said Pike County Commissioner Christa Caceres, 53, the only Black woman to ever hold her respective office, about the final night of the convention, when Harris would deliver her acceptance speech. "Women — single, divorced, married — we looked at what happened with Hillary, and now we can look at Kamala and say, 'Wow, this might be it.' And I think we are actually knocking on the door of history this time."

For Caceres, this moment elicits thoughts of Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman in Congress in 1968 and the first woman and first Black person to seek either of the two major political parties' nomination for president in 1972.

Renewed enthusiasm

Flores, who was the first Latina and youngest person ever elected to Erie City Council, said the likely nomination of Harris is bringing some voters into the fold who had been sitting on the sidelines.

Flores said her phone has been ringing since July 21, when Biden withdrew.

"These are people who were hesitant on voting, people who I've been having the conversation with for the last couple of months leading up (to Biden's withdrawal) and they just weren't confident in Biden as the nominee," Flores said. "They love the work he's been able to do, but they thought it was time for a (successor) to step in. So I've had many people reach out to me who want to now be involved."

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That's been the case across much of the country.

Harris raised a record $81 million in the 24 hours following Biden's announcement and $200 million in the first week. In that same period, 170,000 new volunteers across the country signed up to help the campaign, including 100,000 in the first day, making it the best 24 hours for volunteer recruitment in every battleground state, including Pennsylvania, according to the Harris for President campaign.

Between July 21 and July 26, more than 8,000 Pennsylvanians signed up online to volunteer, according to the campaign.

Beaver Falls Mayor Kenya Johns — who is the first Black female to ever serve as the city's mayor and who is now, at only 32, running for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives — has been approached by people who want to knock on doors for Harris and who've made their first ever contribution to a political campaign.

"It's pretty cool to see just the shift and change in such a short amount of time," Johns said.

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'A pivotal moment'

Harris personifies the American dream, Johns said. She's smart, educated, understands the challenges communities face and how the decisions government makes can impact people, she added. Harris has worked her way to the top from an assistant district attorney to attorney general to the U.S. Senate to the vice presidency.

Biden's immediate endorsement of Harris was a pivotal moment, Johns said. It was the catalyst for the party — including several officials viewed as potential future presidential candidates themselves — to rally around Harris, who has received enough support from delegates to secure the nomination and stave off the potential for an open convention.

"He knew that the future was safe in her hands," Johns said. "He knew that our country would be OK with her, and not just OK, but it would thrive and go far beyond what even he could do."

Harris was the natural choice to succeed Biden given that she serves as his No. 2 already, appeared on primary ballots with him and could seamlessly inherit the campaign's coffers, Caceres said. Even though there are other "outstanding" potential candidates, she said there is no one more qualified than Harris

'A driving force'

"We're talking about a former prosecutor who became attorney general of California, who then became a U.S. senator, who is now in the second highest seat in the United States, so who else could step in?" said Caceres, whom Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed as chair of the Pennsylvania Citizen Law Enforcement Advisory and Review Commission. "Even though there were numerous folks who I think would be outstanding candidates, who in that short window of time would actually be able to bond and earn the trust of the American people in significant numbers to really cross the finish line? I think there was a lot of pragmatic thinking and also logical thinking."

Had Biden and Democrats not rallied around Harris, it would have likely unnerved a major voting bloc within the party — Black women, who were key to both Biden's primary and general election victories four years ago.

According to exit polls, 90% of Black women backed Biden in 2020, while 79% of Black men voted for him. And 69% of Latino women supported the Biden-Harris ticket four years ago, compared to 59% of Latino men, according to CBS exit polls.

Overall, women backed Biden over Trump 57% to 43%, but Trump carried both white men and women, according to the exit polls.

"We are a driving force in the political realm and certainly in Democratic politics," Caceres said. "We make things happen, and I think a lot of people are aware of that. There was potential for calamity, but it was averted."

Though they have consistently and overwhelmingly voted Democrat, Trump has been able to grow his support among Black voters, men especially. He continues to attempt to siphon off more of those votes, but Harris' candidacy could make that difficult. Caceres expects that she'll be able to bring those voters back into the fold.

Can Kamala Harris win the presidency?

Harris was among a crowded field of Democrats to run for president in 2020, but her campaign failed to gain traction and she dropped out of the race before any primary votes were cast.

So can she beat the former president in November?

"Absolutely," Johns said. "People are tired. We're tired of division, we're tired of people pitting our neighborhoods against each other. She's bringing hope that we can come together and be bipartisan and be one, united country."

Flores noted that Harris now has nearly four years of serving as vice president under her belt, on top of her already lengthy resume. Plus, with reproductive rights, including access to abortion, being one of the top issues in the race, Harris can connect with voters in a way that others can't.

"I think the only person who can advocate properly is a woman who has the anatomy and who identifies as a woman and who knows what we need to be able to maintain our health," Flores said.

Flores is eager to watch Harris take on Trump in a debate, framing it as "the prosecutor versus the felon," referring to Trump's conviction in New York on 34 felony charges for a hush-money scandal. Trump recently appeared to back off of a commitment to debate.

Harris' candidacy 'powerful moment in America'

Doreen Stratton, 83, of Doylestown, is a third-generation member of one of the first Black families in the predominantly white Bucks County community. Her family relocated from Reading in the 1880s. Stratton has done extensive research on her family's history. She's also active elsewhere in her community, including as a member of the local Democratic Party's committee.

She's heard the recent remarks from Republican lawmakers who have referred to Harris as a "DEI vice president" or "DEI hire," referring to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and dismissing Harris as someone who was chosen only on the basis of her gender and race.

Stratton urges people, especially people who claim to know nothing about Harris, to do their homework. Those people, she said, "may have had a very narrow window of information that is going into their heads."

"As far as I'm concerned, she is probably one of the most qualified people to be considered to become the president of the United States," Stratton said. "This is such a very powerful moment for everyone in America, for women of color and for people who, like me, have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This is important for them as well. This is part of our history. It's part of our legacy. I am totally behind supporting her."

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Matthew Rink can be reached at mrink@timesnews.com or on X at @ETNRink.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Harris candidacy reinvigorates Pa. Democratic voters, women of color