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5 Ways Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris is a Winner
By Jennie L. Ilustre
Kamala Harris became the nation’s Vice President-Elect when unofficial count showed Joe Biden had topped the required 270 Electoral Votes to win this year’s presidential elections. Incumbent President Donald Trump got 232 Electoral Votes.Biden garnered a total of 306 Electoral Votes. On December 14, the presidential electors will cast their votes for the official count.
Vice President-Elect Harris is the daughter of immigrants. Her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, was an American originally from India. She was a world-renowned biomedical scientist, according to an article in Town and Country magazine. The same article described her father, Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican American, as “an award-winning Stanford professor.” Kamala was born in Oakland, California.
It has been a rapid, historic rise for Kamala (the name means lotus flower in Sanskrit). In 2011, she made history as the first female, first Asian American and first black Attorney General of California. In 2017, she took her oath of office as U.S. Senator, becoming the first American of South Asian descent and the second black to do so. As Vice President-Elect, Harris is the “presumed frontrunner“ for the 2024 presidential election, according to David Axelrod, former President Obama’s political strategist.
- Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris made history on three fronts.
Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) President and CEO, said in an email: “I’d like to congratulate Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ for her historic victory! She will be the first Asian American, first Black and first female to become Vice President in our nation’s 244-year history.”
Kamala’s historic achievements are made more meaningful, she added, with this year‘s 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. This amendment guaranteed and protected women’s right to vote under the Constitution.
“Last Saturday (November 7), when the results of the election were called, I noticed women and girls of all ages crying tears of joy seeing Vice President-elect Harris take the stage in her suffragette white suit,” she noted.
- Vice President-Elect Harris helped Joe Biden win. She galvanized the participation of Asian Americans, resulting in increased voter registration, voter mobilization – and a huge voter turn-out.
An unprecedented 61% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders voted for the Democratic Party’s Biden-Harris ticket.
Remarked Neha Dewan, National Director of South Asians for Biden: “South Asians for Biden is elated to celebrate the hard-fought victory earned by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris in this election.”
Dewan added: “Early indications are that our diverse South Asian community played a pivotal role in this victory by not only voting in unprecedented numbers, but also by undertaking the work of organizing the community to make this outcome more likely…This election has made clear that South Asians are an influential force to be reckoned with in American politics.”
“This is truly a remarkable win for the future of America, our democracy, and the entire South Asian community,” Dewan noted. “That the Biden-Harris ticket unseated an incumbent president is a historic feat and represents a convincing repudiation of President Trump and his abhorrent worldview.”
Dewan expressed profound gratitude “to the Biden campaign, and the AAPIs for Biden team led by Amit Jani, for ensuring that our voices were heard in this election.”
- As Vice President, Kamala would insure that immigrants in general, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and other minorities are assured of a seat at the table.
Irene Bueno, partner at NVG Consulting based in the nation’s capital, said in an email interview: “Kamala Harris and I went to law school together so I am proud she is now Vice-President Elect Harris. She made history on three fronts: as the first female, the first Asian American, and the first African American who is a daughter of immigrant parents to become our country’s Vice President.”
“Her personal and professional background brings a unique perspective to governing our country,” she pointed out. “She understands first-hand the issues that impact communities of color and will address those issues.”
Some of these issues were underscored in the following statement emailed by Asian Americans Advancing Justice affiliates in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. “We will work closely with the new administration and the new Congress to ensure the federal government makes strides on issues most important to our communities – such as protecting and expanding family-based immigration, defunding immigration enforcement, protecting and expanding voting rights, eradicating racial profiling and more – to create a society that accepts, respects and celebrates our differences.”
National Director of South Asians for Biden Dewan stressed, citing their community’s voter engagement and turn-out: “Notably, because of these efforts, our community will have direct representation in the executive branch with Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, who will be the first Black and Indian woman to hold her office.”
- Kamala’s historic achievements are a source of inspiration–not just in America, but also for everyone, everywhere.
Her victory inspires girls and women, immigrants, and indeed, anyone with a dream, that nothing is impossible.
“Kamala Harris’ election as the first female, first American of African and Asian descent to be elected as Vice President in our country, is very historical,” noted Migrant Heritage Commission Executive Director and Virginia lawyer Arnedo S. Valera. ”It’s a categorical affirmation once again that this great nation is a country of possibilities and opportunities.”
“When she made her first public remarks wearing a white pantsuit, it was highly symbolic of female power, and the suffrage movement for women’s constitutional right to vote 100 years ago,” he stressed.
NVG Consulting partner Bueno said in an email interview: “Kamala is an inspiration to girls, including girls of color like my 17-year-old Asian American daughter, that they can be whatever they want in this country. Kamala has inspired girls across the country that they can be anything they want to be, regardless of their racial or ethnic background.”
Kamala’s triumph also inspires other women and minorities in general, to pursue public service, whether in elective or appointive posts.
APAICS President & CEO Xuan-Trang Mielke, said in an email: “Identity plays a crucial role in today’s politics and Vice President-elect Harris’ victory is an inspiration to all women, especially women of color.”
She added: “With the centennial of the 19th amendment, her election is a fitting way to continue the work of bringing gender equity to elected representation. This joy and camaraderie inspires me to continue APAICS’ critical work with the Women’s Collective to encourage AAPI women to pursue public service.”
“Vice President-elect Harris has always been a great friend to APAICS and our initiatives, and we hope that she will continue to advocate for AAPI communities including for greater representation at all levels of government,” she concluded.
- Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris is the presumed frontrunner in the 2024 presidential elections.
President-Elect Joe Biden will be 78 years old when he is inaugurated as the nation’s 46th President on January 20 next year. During the primary, he said that if elected, he would consider a one-term presidency. If and when that happens, it would pave the way for Harris to make a run for the presidency. Harris is 56 years old.
David Axelrod, former President Obama’s political strategist, declared in a November 7 CNN interview with Anderson Cooper that Harris is the “presumed frontrunner“ for the 2024 presidential election.
In India, zeenews.india.com reported that Harris’ uncle G. Balachandran told WION on November 7, when news came out that Biden-Harris won: “Hopefully in 2024 we will have an Afro-American woman president that is Kamala.”
