For the first time in our history, a Black/Asian woman is competing for the nation’s highest office. In announcing that he would not seek reelection, President Joe Biden also announced that Vice President Kamala Harris is the party’s standard bearer for the high office. But no sooner than the announcement was made, things got ugly.
Personal attacks on Harris’ race and gender by Republicans began almost immediately. Harris is of Indian and Jamaican descent. Her parents were also immigrants.
Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett, ever eager to get face time, both to please the ex-president and roll out the latest Republican talking point, was first to try out his party’s chief barbed criticism, questioning to even be considered.
Passing a CNN camera, Burchett shared exactly how his party wants Republican voters to view Harris, a former San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General, U.S. Senator and Vice President.
Burchett hand-stamped Harris a “a D.E.I. hire” an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. D.E.I., a regular conservative cudgel, is more accurately, an organizational framework used in government, academia and business to ensure full participation of all people, especially those who have been historically underrepresented. Other Republicans have also echoed Burchett.
“One hundred percent…she was a ‘D.E.I. hire,” said Wyoming’s Harriet Hageman. Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a G.E.D. certified high school dropout, also joined her colleagues in questioning Harris’ legitimacy. One inner circle Trump ally took the Harris attack even deeper in denouncing her.
“She’s a DEI hire, right? She’s a woman, she’s colored. Therefore, she’s got to be good,” said Trump confidant Sebastian Gorka in dismissing Harris. ‘Colored,’ of course, is a once accepted descriptive reserved for Black people but now rightly considered crude and offensive.
But while Harris’ choice as party nominee changed the race—cutting or erasing altogether the ex-president’s lead in key swing states—it also ignited a firestorm of both excitement for Harris and denunciation of Donald Trump and other Republicans using D.E.I. as a lowest common denominator personal attack.
“These vile attacks are deeply offensive,” said Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper. The Jeffco Commissioner said labeling Harris as a ‘D.E.I.’ hire reduces her and all women to second-class status. Those attacking her because “she’s not White or male,” said Dahlkemper, “underscores what’s at stake this November.” Harris, she said, is perfect contrast to “a felon who foments hate and division.”
Dahlkemper’s take, reflected those of thousands of women across the state and millions of others nationwide. “There is this notion that we are at a place,” said Colorado Board of Education member Rhonda Solis, where “we don’t have racism, women are equal, and we don’t need affirmative action.” It also shows “the true character of some people and the work we still need to do.”
As the first Latina to serve on the state Board of Education, Solis said, diversity is actually woven into our state’s history. “I have to remind people that the Colorado Constitution was written in three languages,” English, Spanish and German.
Janae Passalaqua, a Pueblo high school culinary arts teacher and businesswoman, says she was shocked to hear the Republican messaging and weaponizing D.E.I.
“People who have an open mind learn a lot more, absorb a lot more,” she said. “Every person has something you can learn from,” Passalaqua said. Someone, especially a man “who says that he doesn’t respect women…it just makes my heart hurt, it’s very sad.”
Following Harris selection, fundraisers across the country were held, volunteers were signing up to work for the presumed Democratic nominee and an estimated 40,000 new voters were registering all within the first 48 hours of the Harris selection. The internet and major newspapers were also weighing in positively for the freshly minted presidential candidate. They were also taking aim at the Republicans and their D.E.I. labeling of Harris.
“The Trump campaign is gaslighting DEI efforts that help level the playing field not only for people of color but for White women,” wrote longtime San Antonio-based opinion writer and podcaster, Elaine Ayala. “The attacks on DEI mirror attacks on voting rights, reproductive rights, constitutional rights, every right that benefits all of us.”
While the D.E.I. attack seemed to be backfiring, Trump added his own touch to the Harris attack, defending his purposeful mispronouncing of her name and also calling her a “bum,” a characterization denounced even by Republicans.
But while the Republican firestorm attacking Harris on race and gender was getting mixed reviews, excitement elsewhere over her candidacy was generating buzz.
Within the first 24 hours of President Biden’s announcement that he would not be a candidate and offering his endorsement to the Vice President, the money spigot went from trickle to torrent. The Harris for President campaign announced more than $81 million was raised by days end. In the first three days a grand total of $126 mil- lion was raised. By week’s end it had soared to more than $200 million.
Zoom gatherings among African American, Hispanic and White women, despite internet glitches, raised the bulk of the funds. There were also similar electronic fundraisers held by Black men and “White Dudes for Harris” that raised several million dollars, as well.
When the D.E.I. attacks seemed to have been panned more than praised, Trump moved in a different but still foreboding direction in trying to define his new opponent.
Using Harris’ one-time home, San Francisco, a popu- lar dog whistle used to convey progressive politics, Trump warned a mostly Christian audience that a Harris election would mean a large-scale appointment of “hard-core Marxists” to an expanded Supreme Court. The Constitution, he said, would be shredded and bring an end to religious liberties. It was a remarkable but baseless comment.
Still, despite a vigorous and coordinated attack on Harris by Trump and his people, it seems to not have had the desired effect. Polls show that the lead he once held over Biden—as much as five points nationwide—had essentially disappeared.
A recent Reuters poll showed that at the end of Harris’ first week as a candidate, she had actually pulled ahead of Trump by two points. The Trump camp attributed it to early excitement and predicted once the initial euphoria settles, they expect Trump to regain his lead.
Harris spent her first week speaking to standing-room-only crowds of mostly women in Michigan and Wisconsin, two states that Democrats almost certainly must have to win the election. In both appearances, she used a crowd-pleasing line that not only underscored her experience as a prosecutor but hit just the right note with her audience.
“Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” Harris said before pausing to punctuate what the crowd knew was coming. “So, hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
