Kamala Harris is probably not what Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had in mind when campaigning for women’s suffrage in the mid-1800s. While they weren’t particularly keen on Black people voting, they sought to break down a long-standing barrier in civic participation. Harris has shattered barriers they’d have never imagined, and now she is poised to become the first woman to be elected President of the United States.
Harris is the first woman, Black person and individual of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. She has made a favorable impression among Democrats since accepting the nomination. A July poll from the AP-NORD Center for Public Affairs Research found that six in 10 Democrats believe Harris would do a good job in the Oval Office. She has risen to great prominence as the White House’s most outspoken advocate for abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She has also played a key role in reaching out to young people and voters of color.
Steeped in activism
On Tuesday, Harris will seek to avoid the fate of Hubert Humphrey, who as vice president won the Democratic nomination in 1968 after President Lyndon Johnson declined to run for reelection amid national dissatisfaction over the Vietnam War. Humphrey lost that year to Republican Richard Nixon.
Harris, 60, is a native of Oakland. Her parents were civil rights activists. Her hometown and nearby Berkeley were at the heart of the racial and social justice movements during her youth as Harris was both a product and a beneficiary of this period in American history. Harris has often spoken about attending demonstrations in a stroller and growing up around adults “who spent full time marching and shouting about this thing called justice.”
Early on, Harris believed that working for change inside the system was just as important as agitating from the outside. There is a long and proud history of women working from both the “inside” and “outside” to bring about change.
There have been 32 women who have either run for president or were selected as a running mate. Here is a brief look at some of the more prominent names going back almost 150 years:
Surprising list of women presidential candidates
Victoria Woodhull ran in 1872 as a candidate of the Equal Rights Party against Republican Ulysses S. Grant and Democrat Horace Greeley. In addition to being the first female presidential candidate, she also ran the first woman-run financial firm on Wall Street with her sister.
Lena Springs in 1924 became the first woman to be nominated for vice president by the Democratic Party.
Charlotta Spears Bass was the first Black woman to run for vice president in 1952 as a candidate with the Progressive Party. She was the editor and publisher of the California Eagle, located in South Los Angeles, which was one of the oldest and most influential Black newspapers in the U.S.
Margaret Chase Smith was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, thereby becoming the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party’s convention. While the nomination went to Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, Smith went on to become the first woman to serve both in the House of Representatives and the Senate. She held office for 34 years.
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm ran her campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1972. She became the first African-American woman to serve in Congress (1969) and continued to do so for 14 years.
Patsy Takemoto Mini’s 1972 presidential run focused on her opposition to the Vietnam War. Serving in Congress for 36 years, she championed the rights of women and people of color. Most notably, she co-authored the Title IX Amendment, which continues to prohibit gender discrimination in federally funded education.
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard used her platform as the 1980 presidential nominee of the Citizens Party ticket to discuss environmental issues.
Geraldine Anne Ferraro was the first woman to be nominated for the vice-presidential spot by a major political party when she became the running mate of former Vice President Walter Mondale during the 1984 election.
Lenora Branch Fulani became the first woman–and first African-American–to appear on the presidential ballot in all 50 states in 1988. Her campaign with the New Alliance Party emphasized issues such as racial equality, economic justice, and the empowerment of marginalized communities. She ran again for president in 1992.
Elizabeth Hanford Dole sought the Republican nomination for president in 1999. Throughout her career in the federal government, she served as Secretary of Transportation under President Ronald Reagan, Secretary of Labor under President George H.W. Bush, and was elected Senator of North Carolina.
Carol Moseley Braun
Carol Moseley Braun ran for president in 2004. She was the first African-American woman to serve in the Senate, where she sponsored progressive education bills and campaigned for gun control. She also served as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand for two years.
Sarah Palin ran as Sen. John McCain’s VP in the 2008 presidential election. She spent three years as governor of Alaska, founded a political action committee and functioned as an unofficial spokesperson for the Tea Party movement.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was the democratic nominee for the 2016 presidential election. Previously, she served as U.S. Secretary of State, a U.S. Senator from New York and the First Lady of the United States.
Like the aforementioned candidates known for their distinct political ideologies, Harris could fit a description of a number of “types” of Democrat: centrist, moderate, progressive, liberal, establishment or even “outsider.” Harris has often banked on her “smart-on-crime” identity but that [recognition] has never effectively captured her way of thinking or how she would govern as president. That might be by design.
Framing herself as a pragmatist
“Policy has to be relevant,” Harris told the New York Times in 2019. “That’s my guiding principle: Is it relevant? Not, ‘It’s a beautiful sonnet?”
Harris’ allies have worked to help frame her as a pragmatist. She doesn’t necessarily believe in a big ideological mission to remake government or society. Instead, her allies contend she considers government as a tool to concretely help improve the lives of as many people as possible and as quickly as possible. This is done via practical means like lowering the cost of medication, expanding access to broadband internet, and fixing roads and bridges.
“She thinks about policy and law not from a place of the words on a page, but the ways in which those words impact the lives of everyday people,” said California Sen. Laphonza Butler, a longtime adviser to Harris. “She tends to see gaps and see around corners and make sure that the policy can work for everyone.”
Harris’ career as a prosecutor has guided much of her campaign. Her motto, “Kamala Harris, for the people,” was how she introduced herself in court. Those who have worked with Harris chalk some of this up to her “literalism” which they say is a focus on the lived experiences of the people who elected her, and how policies and stances may need to change with the times.
“She’s someone who thinks about the user experience of government, how it works, how it operates, how people are experiencing it, and she wants to make it better in literal ways, as opposed to theory,” said Daniel Suvor, who served as Harris’ chief of staff when she was California attorney general.
Gender no longer matters
Is America ready for a woman president? It’s a repeat of a query debated in 2016 when Hillary Clinton ran. Six days out from Election Day, a Gallup poll from last summer found that 93 percent of Americans would vote for a woman for president if she were generally well qualified and nominated by their party. A Pew Research Center poll from last fall found that, among more than 5,000 respondents, most Americans believe a president’s gender wouldn’t have an effect when it comes to several key leadership qualities. Among those who did see a gender difference, researchers suggested “the public sees a woman having several advantages over presidents who are men: Being better at working out compromises, maintaining a respectful tone, being honest and ethical, and standing up for what they believe in.”
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said Hillary Clinton’s experience can provide a helpful roadmap for Harris, and that “absolutely voters in his country are capable of pulling the lever” for a woman President of the United States.
“Harris has the benefit of Hillary Clinton, who at least ran before as a national nominee,” Walsh said. “She did not have to contend with the racism that’s coming Harris’ way, but she certainly had to deal with the misogyny and sexism.” Walsh added that Harris not only has the benefit of following someone who has done it before “but someone who’s done it against the same person. There’s a lot that she and her campaign [knew] about in terms of what she’d be facing.”
Growing list of female heads of state
On the world stage, Harris may benefit from the election of Mexico’s first woman president Claudia Sheinbaum. This may point to a shift in politics as evidenced for years in both hemispheres (i.e. Julia Gillard, prime minister of Australia; Brigitte Bierlein chancellor of Austria), Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy; Dina Boularte, president of Peru, and Magdalena Anderson, prime minister of Sweden and Angla Merkel, chancellor of Germany).
Harris entered the Biden Administration with little foreign policy experience. As vice president, she has learned on the job, particularly through her travels to more than 20 countries and meeting with more than 150 world leaders. Her foreign policy outlook somewhat aligns with Biden’s internationalist approach, albeit with a more progressive inclination in some areas.
Harris views U.S.-led post-war global institutions and norms as the country’s greatest foreign policy achievement while cautioning against calls for the U.S. to pull back from its commitments on the global stage. One of her biggest achievements over the past four years was helping to negotiate the landmark U.S.-Russia prisoner swap during a closed-door meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at this year’s Munich Security Conference. As well, Harris has carved out her own niche in foreign affairs in devoting time to America’s oft-neglected relationships in Southeast Asia in stepping in for Biden at many regional summits including the East Asia and U.S.-ASEAN summits in 2023.
Harris has the makings to become a fine president. It’s ultimately up to the voters to allow her to chart “A New Way Forward.”