With the recent news of President Joe Biden withdrawing from the presidential election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as his pick, the world witnessed history in the making. Following in the footsteps of Shirley Chisholm, Harris is once again blazing a trail. Harris not only holds the distinction of being the first woman vice president and the highest-ranking woman in history but also the first woman of color to hold the office. Now, she is poised to secure a major party nomination.
Harris polls better against Trump than prospective male candidates: She won a SurveyUSA ranked-choice voting poll in 2020 about who Biden should pick as VP and was the top choice among voters to replace Biden in a recent FairVote poll. She’s been vetted on a national ticket that beat Trump and is ready to step in as president. Congressional leaders Jim Clyburn, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi have given their support.
Democrats are, in fact, well-positioned to win, as Trump is no electoral juggernaut. Most 2016 primary voters voted against Trump, and nearly 10 million votes twice lost him the popular vote to Democrats. Republicans in the 2018 midterms took a beating and lost the House and Senate by the end of his presidency. In 2022, Republicans lost ground in the Senate mainly because voters seemed ready to move on from his grievances, extremism and chaos. Across 47 credible polls in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin swing states with Senate races, Democratic candidates haven’t trailed once. As reproductive freedom becomes a pivotal campaign issue, and women are set to outnumber men among Democratic state legislators, the party has a woman at the helm.
A former prosecutor, Harris would present a powerful contrast that will expose his unpopularity—and the concerns most swing voters have about his 34 felony convictions, positions on reproductive freedom and promise to dismantle democratic institutions. Harris is experienced, but 19 years younger than Trump, who would become our nation’s oldest president if elected and serving a full term. As Ohio’s Tim Ryan argued in recently endorsing her, “She would energize the Black, brown and Asian Pacific members of our coalition. (Read Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit, Charlotte, Miami and Milwaukee.)”
Democratic women keep defeating Republicans in battlegrounds. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer won in 2018 and 2022 by an average of 10 percent. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs defeated Kari Lake to become the state’s first Democratic governor since 2009. Gov. Laura Kelly twice won in the heavily Republican state of Kansas, while Gov. Janet Mills won twice to become Maine’s first woman governor and first Democrat since 2010. Democratic women keep winning tough Senate races, including Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow.
Many of these women would also make excellent presidential candidates in the future and potential vice presidential candidates on a ticket with Harris. However, none have yet had the national exposure that Harris has garnered. Since Biden endorsed her as his pick and exited the race, Harris has raised a record-breaking $100 million. She can build upon Biden’s legacy, advocate for fixing democracy, and lead a party a century after women earned suffrage.
President Biden passed the torch to Vice President Harris—now it’s her turn to run.
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