Harris wins over black voters with record and presidential goals

Colleen Long, Makiya Seminella and Matt Brown | The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — While President Joe Biden was hosting a celebration of Black excellence with lawmakers, activists and celebrities at the White House last week, Kamala Harris was heading out to campaign in Pennsylvania instead.

The nation's first black vice president spoke to voters in the city about helping small businesses, building more housing and expanding the child tax credit. He said the country “needs a president of the United States who works for all Americans.”

What she didn't do was spend time talking about her race, gender or the possibility that she could become the first Black and South Asian woman president of the United States if she defeats Republican Donald Trump.

Rather than openly touting her identity as a woman of color, Harris has chosen to highlight her policies and record to win voters' support.

She plans to appeal to minority voters at several key moments in the coming days. On Saturday, at a Washington awards dinner hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, she told the audience that as president, she would work to build a strong middle-class economy and protect freedoms, including the right to vote and the right “for women to make decisions about their own bodies.”

“We have hard work ahead of us, but hard work is good work. Hard work is fun work,” she said. “Generations before us led the fight for freedom, and now that baton is in our hands.”

Meanwhile, Biden addressed the crowd in front of him, saying Harris was the first Black and South Asian woman to serve as vice president and, “God willing, she will be the first woman president of the United States.”

On Tuesday, she will sit down with members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. On Thursday, she will appear at a livestream rally hosted by Oprah Winfrey and featuring groups such as Winning with Black Women, Women of Color: Answering the Call and South Asians for Harris. On Friday, she will campaign in Wisconsin.

Brian Brokaw, who managed Harris' winning campaign for California attorney general in 2010, said Harris has “achieved many firsts” throughout her career, but has never described them as adjectives.

“Her life, her identity, her background and her work experience were all important parts of her campaign,” he said, but added that her “first election victory was not part of her core reasons for why she should be elected to public office. It just happened to be a key outcome of her election.”

Harris' identity is also reflected in how she chooses to engage with voters. A member of a historically black sorority while at Howard University, she spoke at another sorority's annual meeting in Houston this summer, telling the women, “I'm so happy to be with you all this evening, and I say that as a proud member of the Sacred Order of the Nine. And when I look out at you all here, I see family.”

That's a departure from Hillary Clinton's approach in the 2016 Democratic presidential race, when she touted the possibility of breaking the glass ceiling. Aides and allies of Ms. Harris say time is tight in this year's campaign and a focus on voters rather than Ms. Harris herself may be more valuable.

Crystal McLaughlin of North Carolina, who attended Harris' rally in Greensboro last week, acknowledged that Harris' candidacy is an important “historic moment,” but added that what's more important is seeing “who wants to do the right thing.”
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Still, she said Harris' identity is important, even if it's not the focus of the campaign.

“This is important not just for black girls, but for all girls,” said McLaughlin, 53, who is black. “If you can see it, you can actually make it happen.”

So far, it has been Trump who has brought race into the campaign, falsely claiming that Harris has belatedly “gone black.” During last week's presidential debate, Trump again said he had read that Harris “was not black,” when in fact she was.

Harris never referred to herself in her response, instead saying, “I think it's tragic that someone who aspires to be president has consistently, throughout his career, tried to use race to divide the American people.”

After Biden dropped out of the race in July, polls showed that black Americans were more excited about Harris as the Democratic nominee. About 7 in 10 black adults said they were satisfied with Harris as the Democratic nominee in a late July poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Policy Research. That's a marked increase from an earlier July survey, when about half of black adults and 15% of Hispanic adults felt the same way about Biden.

In another AP-NORC poll conducted in August, about half of Black adults said they would be “extremely” or “very” excited to hear Harris elected president, compared with just about 3 in 10 who said the same about Biden in March.

Black Americans overwhelmingly identify as Democrats, and about 90% of black voters supported Biden in the 2020 election, according to AP VoteCast, but there are some signs that older black voters are more supportive of Harris than younger ones. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that about 90% of black voters over the age of 50 support Harris, compared with three-quarters of black voters ages 18 to 49.

Civil rights groups focused on mobilizing Black voters say they have seen increased enthusiasm and engagement since Harris rose to the top of the Democratic field.

The NAACP has promoted messages to its allies that researchers believe will particularly resonate with black voters, such as protecting the rights of black Americans and calling for voting responsibility.

When it comes to economic issues, civil rights groups are calling on organizers and campaign groups to listen to the concerns of black voters.

“Black voters want policy solutions,” said Phaedra Jackson, vice president of unit advocacy and effectiveness at the NAACP, but she added that “representation is important. People are excited to see a Black woman competing for the highest office in the land,” and that interest in an institution increases when Black women are represented there.

The NAACP is focusing its efforts on increasing voter turnout in battleground states where issues such as voter suppression are likely to arise in November.

Speaking at a packed fundraiser with a mostly Black audience ahead of a black-tie gala on Saturday night, Harris arranged her usual campaign speech to double down on the importance of fighting back against what she called an “all-out attack on the freedom to vote.”

She also denounced efforts to divide Americans, “stomp on fear” and “set people against each other.”

“This is the problem we're facing,” she said.

At the Greensboro rally, John Spencer, 58, a geographer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said he wanted Harris to focus on her plans for the future, not her race or gender. Unlike her policies, her identity is something people can see just by looking at her, Mr. Spencer said.