Kamala Harris suspended her campaign (12/3) just weeks before the Iowa caucuses. The New York Times ironically wrote a devastating article about her campaign just a few days before she made the disappointing announcement to drop out of the race. To add insult to injury, one of her former aides, Kelly Mehlanbacker wrote a damning resignation letter than somehow leaked to the media. Mehlanbacher mentioned that “while she no longer had confidence in the campaign or its leadership,” she still felt that Senator Harris was the strongest candidate to win the General Election 2020. So strong that she ended up joining Bloomberg’s campaign right around the time her letter leaked. Hardly a coincidence.
How did we get here?
When a Black woman makes the decision to run for any political office in America I believe she does so with a certain level of understanding that is unique and quite different than her White counterparts. Kamala Harris had never lost a race – only the second Black woman in US history to be elected to the US Senate. It’s fair to say she has successfully calculated political and personal risk time and time again, faced immeasurable odds, and won.
But ask any presidential historian, and they’ll quickly tell you that nothing can prepare you for a presidential run.
Did Senator Harris have to deal with racism AND sexism? Of course. Could she have also run a better campaign? The answer to that question, unfortunately, is YES as well. However, that second question quasi-argument, which seems to be of major debate amongst liberals, becomes a moot point when you consider the fact that EVERY candidate in the race has also made strategy mistakes in regard to their campaign, especially the front runners, Biden, Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg. (If we agree with that, then why was she being held to a different standard and penalized more than them?)
Factor in the mainstream media and it’s inevitable huge role in national elections… they purposely erased her from polls, allowed other campaigns to steal her slogans AND data without holding them accountable, refused to interview her in primetime slots on issues relative to 2020 (healthcare, immigration, trade, etc), and wrote article after article focusing solely on controversies, hearsay, and the negatives of her career as an elected official. Such attacks are hard to counter, and eventually, it’s too much and you’re left with no other decision but to exit the race.
The Good: While Kamala Harris is suspending her campaign, it’s plausible to accept the moral argument that she picked up the torch Shirley Chisholm (1972) and Carol Moseley Braun (2004) dropped and carried it further down the political path for Black women who will come after her and run for Commander-in-Chief. That’s important and should not be overlooked. While this is the first time she’s ever lost a race, she is still politically young. If she chooses to run for president again, she has the time and now the experience to tweak her strategy and message. Hillary Clinton, Biden, Romney, as well as most presidential candidates, also lost their first bid for the White House. While her supporters might not be in favor of her taking a cabinet position for Biden, I mean whoever the presumptive Democrat nominee is, maybe Vice President, AG, or Secretary of State, it’ll give her the inevitable experience and exposure needed in case she does plan to run for president in the future.
The Bad: The critiques for Senator Harris were many, and came from all directions. Many point to her initial statements and mishaps on her healthcare plan, her record as a DA in California, even allegations of her having an affair with Willie Brown, the Democratic speaker of the California State Assembly at the time when she was 30 and he was 60. While many applauded her brilliant performance in the second debate, they cringed at her not so good performance in the next debate highlighted by Tulsi Gabbard attacking her criminal justice record in California. Gabbard telegraphed her attack a week prior to the debate and Senator Harris was still not prepared. Rumblings of strategy missteps, turmoil within, and inconsistent messaging didn’t help her campaign.
What’s Next: With Kamala dropping out of the race, and neither Corey Booker or Julian Castro having qualified for the next debate, there will be no people of color on the Democratic debate stage next week. For a party that can’t do anything without the support and backing of their diverse base, that says a lot. You’ll have mumbling Joe Biden, whose latest gaffe includes talking about kids touching his hairy legs in a pool, Pete Buttigieg, who literally drops the ball every time he’s asked about race and is currently polling at 0% with Black voters, and Bernie Sanders, who thinks that if Black men just respected the police they wouldn’t get shot in the head. All of these men have been given the benefit of the doubt, time and time again. No obituary articles and plenty of primetime interviews with softball questions. A spade is a spade, Kamala wasn’t afforded the same luxury or grace.
Against all odds, campaigns are tough and candidates make mistakes… let’s see how she does the next time around, I’m sure she’ll be back.
Similar Read: Kamala or Bust?