{"id":10504,"date":"2020-08-12T06:40:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T13:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10504"},"modified":"2020-08-23T04:10:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T11:10:34","slug":"news-aanaysis-in-kamala-harris-a-choice-at-once-safe-and-energizing-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10504","title":{"rendered":"“News Analysis: In Kamala Harris, a Choice at Once Safe and Energizing”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Martin<\/span> and Astead W. Herndon, Agust 11, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

Her selection as Joe Biden\u2019s running mate was conventional by some political standards. But it was historic most of all, and especially sweet for many Black women.<\/p>\n

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\"Joseph<\/picture><\/div>
Joseph R. Biden Jr. with Senator Kamala Harris last September after a Democratic presidential primary debate in Houston.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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WASHINGTON \u2014 In naming Kamala Harris<\/a> as his running mate, Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a groundbreaking decision, picking a woman of color to be vice president and, possibly, a successor in the White House someday. Yet in some ways, Mr. Biden made a conventional choice: elevating a senator who brings generational and coastal balance to the Democratic ticket and shares his center-left politics at a time of progressive change in the party.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Unlike Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who selected veteran Washington hands as their vice presidents, Mr. Biden, 77, is opting for a time-honored model in which running mates are not just governing partners but political understudies of sorts. Pegged as a rising star for a decade, but with less than four years of experience in the Senate \u2014 she was 8 years old when Mr. Biden was first elected to the chamber \u2014 Ms. Harris, 55, reflects a traditional archetype in an election year that has been anything but normal.<\/p>\n

She is also a thoroughly establishment-friendly figure, as is Mr. Biden: Both have hewed closely to their party\u2019s mainstream for years, shifting left with the times but always with an eye on the broader electorate and higher office. He long said he wanted someone \u201csimpatico\u201d with him and, in Ms. Harris, he found that person, at least when it comes to ideology.<\/p>\n

Progressive Democrats now find themselves led by two moderates with relatively cautious political instincts, even as activist energy courses through the party and left-wing challengers unseat some incumbents. The mostly young protesters filling the streets of nearly every American city to denounce police brutality and President Trump are represented by two figures who have offered sympathetic words and proposals but whose careers have been shaped by their relationship with law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Kamala Harris Is Biden\u2019s V.P. Pick. Here\u2019s What to Know About Her.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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\u201cShe\u2019s not of the far left of the party, she\u2019s a former prosecutor,\u201d Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor and Homeland Security secretary, said of Ms. Harris. \u201cAnd when you\u2019re a prosecutor, you have to make some tough calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may repel some younger liberals, Ms. Harris\u2019s history as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general may be more asset than liability for more moderate voters, as it has been for Ms. Napolitano and so many women in politics who began their ascent as prosecutors.<\/p>\n

That law enforcement pedigree, which Ms. Harris also shares with Mr. Biden\u2019s late son Beau, is only part of the reason he turned to her, though.<\/p>\n

A HISTORIC DECISION<\/em><\/p>\n

How did Joe Biden settle on the California senator<\/a> as his running mate? Listen to \u201cThe Daily.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He also chose her to help inject excitement into his campaign, which is leading in the polls but mostly because he\u2019s the genial alternative to the most divisive president in modern history who is presiding over a pandemic and economic collapse.<\/p>\n

Having started his career in a capital consumed with Watergate and controlled by white men, Mr. Biden also turned to Ms. Harris to bring a fresh perspective to the West Wing should they win \u2014 a similar calculation, but with the roles reversed between ticketmates, that propelled him to the vice presidency 12 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr. Biden spurned those progressives who wanted their consensus-oriented standard-bearer to elevate a liberal like Senator Elizabeth Warren, instead picking a prominent leader from the demographic that resurrected his campaign in the Democratic primary. By doing what Hillary Clinton did not do four years ago and choosing a Black running mate, he may give the party\u2019s most loyal voters a reason, beyond animus toward Mr. Trump, to work for and elect the ticket.<\/p>\n

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Ms. Harris comes to the ticket having started her career in the crucible of San Francisco politics, won statewide office in America\u2019s largest state and sought the presidency herself. She has a relationship with many party donors, lawmakers and activists. She has been scrutinized far more than some of the runners-up, who have either never been elected outside a House district or had never been on a ballot at all, as was the case with Susan E. Rice, the former national security adviser.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is not to say that Mr. Biden simply made a politically safe choice.<\/p>\n

Mr. Biden is now taking direct aim at Mr. Trump\u2019s brand of racial grievance politics by making his political partner the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. In doing so, he passed over candidates like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan who might have been more appealing to some white moderates and even Republicans in traditional battlegrounds like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\"Senator<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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Senator Harris in June at a news conference on Capitol Hill.\u00a0She is known for being extraordinarily effective when she\u2019s well-prepared.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Anna Moneymaker\/The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ms. Harris is also, like Mr. Biden, a candidate some Democrats may be glad is running in a coronavirus campaign free of rallies and short on spontaneity: While she can be extraordinarily effective when she\u2019s well-prepared, Ms. Harris is less formidable and at times gaffe-prone when she\u2019s off script.<\/p>\n

Most consequentially of all, though, is what Mr. Biden\u2019s decision may mean to the future of his party. Even though some of his own advisers expressed unease about any running mate who might quickly begin eyeing a future presidential bid, even in 2024 if he does not run again, Mr. Biden decided to give Ms. Harris a head start on becoming the country\u2019s first female president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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No other aspiring president in the Democratic Party will enjoy the sort of platform of Ms. Harris, should she become vice president. Were Mr. Biden to win, she would be the only figure under 70 among the party\u2019s leaders in the House, the Senate and the White House.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that Biden didn\u2019t buy into this criticism of Harris being too ambitious,\u201d said Ms. Napolitano, alluding to caricatures that infuriated many women but which made some of Mr. Biden\u2019s supporters, and even staff members, leery of her.<\/p>\n

In some respects, the Biden-Harris pairing represents the fulfillment of what many party activists hoped and expected would be their 2020 ticket, which they continued to whisper even in the tense days after the first Democratic debate last year when she sharply criticized him over his 1970s-era opposition to school busing.<\/p>\n

Across the spectrum of the Democratic Party \u2014 former elected officials, grass-roots activists, swing-state moderates, and even much of the progressive wing \u2014 the reaction was largely a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

Many were energized about the selection of Ms. Harris, and at minimum, they felt she fulfilled many of the requirements their slice of the electorate preferred. More controversial picks were avoided. The overarching rule of \u201cdo no harm\u201d was satisfied.<\/p>\n

And for Black women in politics, Ms. Harris\u2019s elevation was especially sweet \u2014 even if they acknowledged the somewhat conventional nature of her selection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOftentimes do-no-harm choices are not exciting \u2014 this is an exciting one,\u201d said Leah Daughtry, a decades-long veteran of Democratic campaigns, sharing that women were calling her in tears. \u201cShe is the stand-in for Black women. We are on the ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But by choosing Ms. Harris, Mr. Biden also stamped out the final hope of progressives who held out hope that recent victories in New York City, St. Louis and Chicago would force Mr. Biden to choose someone with left-wing bona fides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Throughout their careers, both Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have been pushed by the left, particularly on criminal justice, health care and the economy. Their responses have mirrored each other also: casting themselves as uniters at the center of the party. Their challenge now will be to unite a Democratic coalition that can bring in some of the voters Mr. Trump has put off, while motivating young people and progressives who may not see this ticket as representing their ambitions.<\/p>\n

The length of Mr. Biden\u2019s selection process had given a range of groups the opportunity to publicly lobby for their interests since March. None were louder than Black Democrats who angled for the selection to be a Black woman, a chorus that particularly intensified after the start of protests over racial inequality.<\/p>\n

At times, it seemed Mr. Biden was being pulled in opposing directions: a governing pick ready to lead at any moment and one whose life experiences spoke to the country being torn apart by race and racism. In Ms. Harris, Mr. Biden and Democrats believe they have both.<\/p>\n

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Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., said Mr. Biden\u2019s selection proved that he is prioritizing the Black electorate in the general election, and rewarding them for supporting him in the primary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt will energize Black voters because they can now see themselves in the ticket,\u201d Mr. Johnson said. \u201cBy supporting Biden in the primary, the question was now how will they be reflected in his administration. And what V.P. Biden is saying is we\u2019ll have a voice at the highest levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader and television show host, called Ms. Harris a \u201cgreat selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Sharpton, who said he talked to Mr. Biden \u201cthree or four times\u201d during the vice-presidential selection process, said he believed that the national conversation about racial inequality pushed Mr. Biden to select a Black woman. He credited public pressure campaigns with creating an environment in which a non-Black woman would be seen as a slight.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou had intergenerational and cross-the-board press on him,\u201d Mr. Sharpton said, bringing up Representative James E. Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black Democrat in Congress. \u201cIf you have everyone from Clyburn and the Black caucus, to Sharpton and civil rights guys, and even the cultural figures and Black women, it clearly had an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But the reaction was strongest among Democratic women, who have known for months that Mr. Biden would select a woman as a running mate \u2014 but were nonetheless excited about the announcement. In Ms. Harris, the party has someone who made outreach to women a key aspect of her presidential run.<\/p>\n

Nse Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project, the organization seeking to flip the Southern state by registering new voters, said that \u201cwe all know that Black women have been the backbone of the Democratic Party and our leadership has gone uncredited for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n

She invoked the name and words of Shirley Chisholm, the New York congresswoman who was the first Black woman to mount a national campaign for president. When Ms. Harris announced her presidential run in 2019, she chose the same week of Ms. Chisholm\u2019s announcement as a homage, basing her color scheme and logo after her political hero, whose famous mantra was \u201cunbought and unbossed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nearly 50 years after Ms. Chisholm\u2019s run, Ms. Harris carries Black women a step closer to the Oval Office \u2014 and reflects the evolution of Black Americans from political outsiders pounding on democracy\u2019s doors to consummate insiders ushered into the clubhouse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cShirley Chisholm is smiling today,\u201d Ms. Ufot said. \u201cThis is only the beginning, as there are many more of us bringing folding chairs to the table of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Jonathan Martin is a national political correspondent. He has reported on a range of topics, including the 2016 presidential election and several state and congressional races, while also writing for Sports, Food and the Book Review. He is also a CNN political analyst. @<\/span>jmartnyt<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Astead W. Herndon is a national political reporter based in New York. He was previously a Washington-based political reporter and a City Hall reporter for The Boston Globe. @<\/span>AsteadWesley<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Martin and Astead W. Herndon, Agust 11, 2020 Her selection as Joe Biden\u2019s running mate was conventional by some political standards. But it was historic most of all, and especially sweet for many Black women. Joseph R. Biden Jr. with Senator Kamala Harris last September after a Democratic presidential primary debate in Houston.Credit…Ruth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10504"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10539,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504\/revisions\/10539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}