Kamala Harris, a California Democrat and the second black woman to serve in the Senate, recently declared her candidacy for president last Monday. Harris symbolically announced her candidacy on MLK day and also aimed to commemorate Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for president 47 years ago. The core of Harris’s campaign is her emphasis on “the people.” Her signature proposal is focused on individuals and would provide lower-income families with monthly cash payments of up to $500. She has also proposed a bail reform bill, and her initial Senate work was focused on lowering maternal death rates, particularly among black women. Supporters of Harris have claimed that she provides a balance between emphasizing public safety and civil rights ideals. However, those who are skeptical of Harris claim that she needs to break with her past as a prosecutor who previously supported the death penalty and a measure that sought to punish parents for chronically truant children. Recently, Republicans have argued that Kamala Harris is unqualified and out of touch with her brief time in the Senate being characterized by a radically liberal voting record. Harris is still not yet well known to voters, but has gained some attention from her interrogations of Trump administration officials. She currently has a centrist standing within the Democratic Party, which could be beneficial for her since she is not linked to a single faction.
1. Do you think Kamala Harris is qualified for the presidency?
2. Given the high number of low-income families and the rising number of minorities in the population, do you think Kamala Harris will garner enough support for her campaign?
3. In order to be successful, do you think Kamala Harris needs to break from her past as a prosecutor especially since she has recently tried to appeal to leftist voters?
Kamela Harris appears to be a very popular candidate amongst most consistent liberal voters. However, the democratic party tends to grant it's nomination to candidates that lean more towards the middle to draw in a larger pool of voters. I believe Harris will have difficulty getting the democratic nomination considering she leans more left than the party seems to be comfortable with and is appearing to be more and more controversial as her reputation as a judge is being scrutinized. In 2016, the party didn't nominate Bernie Sanders under the impression that he was too radical and Clinton had more name recognition and had some right leaning views that could persuade some conservative undecided voters. Going into the campaign, I would predict the Democratic Party will want to appeal to some of the voters they lost to Trump by mentioning issues such as lack of jobs in certain areas and immigration reform. These are not issues Harris has been very vocal about and she is very socially progressive which could also hinder her from getting the nomination which would obviously greatly affect her chances of becoming a serious contender for president.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this is one of the first times I have heard about Kamala Harris so I do not know much about her as a politician. That being said, based on what I do know I would think that she is somewhat qualified for the position. I think that many will argue that she needs more experience in the white house and that will be hard for her to overcome in her campaign. Her emphasis on “the people” and low-income families will definitely give her an advantage, but I think that it will not help her win enough support for her campaign to beat other more well known candidates. My opinion on presidential elections is that media attention and popularity is more important than your goals as a candidate because many people in this country do not vote and those who do judge candidates loosely. Moreover, I’m sure there are many other candidates that have similar ideals to Kamala Harris which will make it even harder for her to stand out to voters.
ReplyDeleteKamala Harris does seem qualified to be president of the United States. I agree with Rojean that it might be difficult for her to gain support within the Democratic party considering some of her viewpoints. However, Trump in the 2016 election did teach us that conforming to traditional party values doesn't always yield the most amount of support from voters. I believe that her intentions are good and I do agree with some of her ideals, however, they will be very difficult to get passed if she were to be elected president. In addition, her past as a prosecutor is a little bit contradictory, but in all honesty, your job as a prosecutor isn't necessarily to fight for your own ideals, but rather who you represent. I Feel like her $500 a month low-income tax credit is a bad idea unless we can significantly reduce spending in other areas or significantly increase tax revenue. Our government is not in a position to continue to overextend ourselves and balloon our national debt especially since our economy is currently strong and yet we're having trouble reducing our deficit.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rojean that the democratic party tends to endorse people who are more moderate leaning to pull in more votes, so there is that to consider whether she will be the democratic candidate because she does have liberal viewpoints. I think she is greatly qualified for the job as District Attorney and then a California Senator. However, her being very liberal, when she announced that she would run for president, I could only think of policies she was against, but she never really states a lot about what changes she wants to make. I can also see the controversy of her using her "blackness" to secure votes by announcing she would be running on MLKJ day. I think she is really trying to go for the minority votes with her being a woman of color and proposal for low income families. I think she is a strong candidate because she has a lot of strong ideals, but I think if she would become the net president it would really emphasize our political climate being very polarized going from Trump to Harris.
ReplyDeleteKamala Harris brings about liberal points of view which is a good idea for the Democratic party. Although, like stated above, Democrats tend to nominate more moderate candidates, I think that Kamala Harris has various things going for her to lead to her candidacy. First, she is more liberal which may be necessary especially since many Democrats have grown unhappy with the presidency of Trump. Thus, she will most likely be well-supported because of the more left leaning democrats which have resulted from the desire for major change. Next, she does support the minority groups in particular. Therefore, because not many presidents have supported minorities directly, I think that she will get a lot of support from the minority groups. Moreover, she focuses on public safety and civil rights which is an issue that many minorities still struggle with despite the regulations in place to help them. Nevertheless, I think that Kamala does not have to break from her past because her current day policies got her elected as a top senator meaning many people, despite her past, still support her for her platform. I think that Kamala is a great candidate who is qualified for the presidency because she appeals to various groups and is a well-known senator.
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