Iliyasu Gadu
Ilgad2009@gmail.com
08035355706 (Texts only)
In wrapping up the number of delegates required to confirm her nomination as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in the party’s presidential nomination convention which took place in Chicago, Illinois, for the upcoming United States Presidential election in November this year, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris broke yet another glass ceiling in her political career strewn with glass ceilings she had broken on the way.
By clinching the nomination, she became the first African American woman to secure the mandate to lead a major American political party to the US presidential polls. This feat was preceded by her being the first African American woman to be elected as Vice President along with President Joe Biden at the presidential elections in 2020. Before then she had emerged as the first African American to be elected as Senator to represent the state of California in the American Senate. That made her the second African American woman after Carol Mosely-Braun who was elected from Chicago, the seat that President Barack Obama the first ever African American President of the US, occupied before becoming president.
As Harris swept the nomination of the Democratic party in a raucous and star-studded Democratic party convention which featured entertainment celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder and political bigwigs like Robert Kennedy Jr, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, former Presidents Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary, Obama and wife Michelle.
As the convention ended with Harris taking the ticket, the question on the lips of everyone there and the indeed the world over is; ‘’Will she defeat the Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and in the process score yet another hit at the glass ceiling against women and people of colour in the American political system?
Certainly the vibes about her persona and political trajectory are positive. Right from her days as district attorney in San Francisco and as Attorney General of California she had chalked up a record of high reputation of successfully prosecuting the perpetrators of corporate sleaze and the kingpins’ of narcotics. It was the popularity she earned from this that propelled her to being elected into the American Senate representing the state of California.
At the Senate even as a freshman, she became noticeable for being one of the fiercest critics of the anti-immigrant policies of President Donald Trump and his patently divisive tendencies in the America political and social sphere. And with her growing popularity it came as no surprise when she signalled her intention to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party to challenge President Trump at the 2020 elections. Considering her comparatively lesser political experience and inability to raise the necessary funds to pursue the campaigns she was persuaded by grandees within the party to drop her ambition and instead accept the nomination of leading Democratic Party candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden as his running mate for the 2020 presidential elections which the pair won against incumbent President Trump.
Harris was the beneficiary of the tide of fortune when on July 21, this year, President Biden decided to step down from his re-election bid for the November presidential elections and put her forward as his replacement in the race. In the week following this event, polls showed that Harris had a 48% favourable rating among American males. This coupled with a phenomenal rise in her reckoning among Democrats generally made her a prime presidential hopeful. Indeed coming into the convention, she had secured a massive boost with the support garnered for her presidential bid from the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In the polls conducted as reported by many American newspapers she had been able to cut the gap between her and Donald Trump to a dead heat with some even giving her a slight 3 per cent lead. Positively for Harris, the numbers show that in the coming weeks she is likely to ride on the huge success recorded at the Democratic National Convention to surge ahead of Trump in the remaining couple of months to the elections.
But will that be reflected when the elections proper come?
Harris and the Democrats will be aware that at the 2016 elections, another woman Hilary Clinton wife of former president Bill Clinton led in popularity stakes going to the elections but lost to eventual winner Donald Trump. Against this background many are hedging their bets for now until things begin to take a definitive curve especially in October when endorsements from critical institutions begin to kick in.
But there is no ignoring the fact Kamala Harris brings a verve and gravitas to the race. The leggy democratic candidate sure is photogenic and charismatic. She is super bright and has the Teflon like qualities of later former American President Ronald Reagan who was incidentally a Californian like her. And Americans are tapping into the excitement at the prospect of another history making event of an African American woman becoming the president just as Barack Obama became the first African American to be president.
A Nigerian-American architect by profession who is thick into the Harris presidential campaign train and very positive about her chances said about her ‘’Kamala Harris is a typical Howard University woman; she is beautiful, intelligent, classy, stylish and glass ceiling obliterator, she represents an institution that has produced an overwhelming number of African American, Caribbean and African professionals like my good self and people like Andrew Young whom Nigerians know so well. By the Grace of God, Vice-President Kamala Harris will soon be the President of the United States of America.’’ (sic)
Certainly her entry into the race has energised it with positive vibes. What was a lacklustre contest featuring two geriatrics going personal at each other, now has the substance expected of the race to occupy the most powerful office in the world.
