Kamala Harris faces racial ‘DEI’ attacks amid campaign for the 2024 presidency
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris is facing criticism centered on her race from some Republican figures as she becomes the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid.
On Sunday, Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis, told CBS-58 in Wisconsin that he believes “a lot of Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background.”
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused Harris of being a “DEI hire” in a CNN interview on Monday and claimed that Biden wanted to pick a Black woman as a vice president: “When you go down that route, you take mediocrity.”
DEI — which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion — refers to the initiatives and programs intended to address discrimination against historically marginalized groups within schools, businesses or government agencies, according to industry experts.
In a 2020 debate, Biden stated that he would “pick a woman to be vice president,” not declaring a specific race. In a later interview with ABC News that August, Biden added that he “didn’t feel pressure to select a Black woman.”
“The government should look like the people, look like the country,” said Biden in the interview. “Fifty-one percent of the people in this country are women. As that old expression goes, ‘women hold up half the sky,’ and in order to be able to succeed, you’ve got to be dealt in across the board.”
In another 2020 interview, with MSNBC, when asked about who his potential running mate might be, Biden said, “I am not committed to naming any [of the potential candidates] but the people I’ve named, and among them there are four Black women.”
DEI has been increasingly used as the basis for criticizing or questioning the qualifications of women, people of color, people in the LGBTQ community, and other marginalized groups in positions of authority.
These initiatives have been the target of conservative legislation nationwide, with lawmakers claiming they promote racial division and unfair advantages for marginalized groups. Those in favor of DEI initiatives say these programs aim to remedy longstanding forms of inequality, such as pay inequity, inaccessibility in the workplace, discrimination in hiring practices, and more.
Harris, who is currently the vice president, was a U.S. senator for four years, California’s attorney general for six years, San Francisco’s district attorney for about seven years, and got her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
In an interview on NBC News Now, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the DEI attacks on Harris are “stupid and dumb.”
“I disagree with DEI, but she’s the vice president of the United States,” said McCarthy. “These congressmen that are saying it, they’re wrong in their own instincts.”
Since joining the race, Harris has garnered support from Democratic legislators, advocacy groups and others across the country.
Her campaign has raised $100 million since entering the race for president on Sunday, according to her campaign. About 58,000 people also signed up to volunteer for the vice president’s campaign, a figure that is more than 100 times its average daily signup rate, according to the campaign.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ replacement of President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket could keep the electoral battlefield confined to the typical handful of swing states after the electoral map appeared to be mushrooming in Republicans’ favor.
After Biden’s ruinous debate performance last month, Republicans boasted and Democrats feared that blue and blue-leaning states like New Hampshire, New Mexico, Virginia and even New Jersey were suddenly in play. But now, operatives in both parties predicted that having a Democratic nominee who’s not dogged by such weighty baggage takes those states back off the table, recalibrating the race back to the Rust and Sun Belts.
“She definitely helps us play less defense,” one source familiar with Harris’ campaign’s strategy said. “States that were blue-leaning states that became more competitive post-debate based on early polling seem to be shifting back.”
Democratic alarm was high after last month’s debate, when Biden’s bumbling performance sent Democrats into a tizzy and had Republicans dreaming about a landslide victory.
Handwringing over traditional swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the Rust Belt and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina in the Sun Belt was exacerbated by discussions of having to bolster states where Democrats should waltz to victory but could prove competitive as Biden’s poll numbers cratered.
“I was getting calls pretty much on a daily basis with concern,” said Henry Roybal, the chair of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party in New Mexico.
Now, “New Mexico is off the map,” he said.
The story is the same elsewhere.
Conversations with operatives in traditionally noncompetitive states echoed Roybal’s account, even if they believe that former President Donald Trump still would have struggled to carry their electoral votes and there wasn’t definitive polling to prove he could.
After the debate, one senior New Jersey Democratic strategist insisted Biden could have won their state by a mid-single-digit margin after winning it by about 16 points in 2020. The state is now “completely off the table,” the person said.
Some Republicans aren’t entirely convinced.
Harris ran a dysfunctional 2020 presidential campaign and had to drop out before any primary votes were cast, and her approval ratings at the start of her nascent campaign are low. And while the blue-leaning states are still safer for Harris than traditional swing states, Republicans maintain any slip ups could keep them in play.
“It all depends upon how Kamala Harris runs her campaign and how she performs under the enormous pressure of a presidential contest. She did not acquit herself well when she ran for the 2020 nomination,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres.” If she’s a whole lot better than she was then, then conceivably, those states could be off the table again. On the other hand, if she does not perform well, I think all those states are potential Trump pickups.”
Trump is not giving up on those states. He is blitzing Harris with attacks on her record, labeling her a “California liberal,” and will hold his second joint rally with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, his running mate, in St. Cloud, Minn, on Saturday, firing up his voters in a state no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1972.
“As more voters understand how dangerously liberal Kamala Harris is, President Trump’s chances in these traditionally-Democrat strongholds will only get better,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
Still, other Republicans concede that Harris’ candidacy introduces stiffer headwinds than existed when Biden topped Democrats’ ticket. Underscoring the point, a New York Times/Siena College poll released Thursday found Harris and Trump statistically tied, an improvement from earlier this month when the same poll found Trump ahead of Biden by 6 points.
“I expect Harris will be stronger. I mean, you just can’t help but be stronger, regardless of performance level,” said New Hampshire GOP strategist Mike Dennehy. “And so now it’s just a question of how well she does on the stump and in debates.”
“It’s too early to know exactly, but my overall summary is she probably stems the bleeding and raises the floor, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s going to be able to put away states that she needs to,” Virginia-based Republican strategist Zack Roday added.
Now, the race is expected to shift back to the seven swing states that were at the top of the battleground map at the start of the race, with the source familiar with the campaign’s strategy telling ABC News “we’re seeing a reversion to what we expected this race to be pre-presidential debate.”
All seven states are anticipated to be decided by razor-thin margins, with millions of dollars dumped in by both campaigns. Already, Harris has hit the campaign trail in Wisconsin, a marquee swing state.
Harris’ campaign released a memo Wednesday saying it “intend[s] to play offense in each of these states, and have the resources and campaign infrastructure to do so.”
“This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength – and she’s going to win,” Campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote.
Taking Republicans’ stretch states off the table as much as she can is a key part of remaining competitive in the true battlegrounds. The universe of campaign finance is gargantuan but finite — and every dollar spent in New Jersey or New Mexico is one not spent in Arizona or Michigan.
“The one thing it likely changes is, right now, the ground game,” said one national GOP strategist. “Are they going to shift resources out of specific swing states into other states because the map doesn’t feel as large for Democrats anymore to have to defend territory?”
And Harris’ ability to prevent a landslide for Trump is not just key for her — it’s also important for Democrats’ hopes for the House of Representatives and Senate.
Several key down-ballot races are being held in both swing states and blue-leaning states, and Harris’ ability to keep the margin at the top of the ticket competitive in battlegrounds and expansive in states she wins — rather than a blowout for Trump, as was speculated with Biden — would be a massive boon to congressional contenders.
“It’s critical. If you’re a Senate or a governor candidate or a congressional candidate, you can run ahead of the top of the ticket by a handful of points, three or four. You can’t run ahead at the top of the ticket by 10 or 12 points,” Ayres said.
Biden, he added, “definitely could have gotten blown out.”
(WASHINGTON) — One of former President Donald Trump’s so-called “fake electors,” Loraine Pellegrino, pleaded guilty to a single “reduced charge” in the Arizona 2020 election case, according to the online docket. Her attorney said in a statement she was sentenced to unsupervised probation and community service.
Pellegrino, one of the fake electors charged this spring alongside a number of Trump’s current and former associates, was originally facing multiple counts but pleaded to a single misdemeanor charge of presentment of a false instrument for filing, according to the online docket. The other counts Pellegrino was facing, including forgery, were dismissed due to her plea on the other count, the docket said.
The guilty plea comes after another defendant in the case, ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, on Monday reached a cooperation agreement with law enforcement. It was a deal Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement “represents a significant step forward” in the case.
In a statement, Pellegrino’s attorney said her decision to plead to a lesser charge “reflects her desire to move forward and put this matter behind her.”
“She has taken full responsibility for her actions, demonstrating her commitment to upholding the law and contributing positively to the community,” the attorney, Joshua Kolsrud, said. “The sentence of unsupervised probation with community service acknowledges her remorse and willingness to make amends.”
“We appreciate the Attorney General’s understanding and recognition of Loraine’s character,” the statement continues.
Several former and current key aides to Trump were among those charged by the Arizona State Attorney General in April over their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes also announced in April charges against 11 named alleged fake electors for their alleged role in efforts to subvert Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state.
The charges included fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate to help her challenge Donald Trump and JD Vance in November.
Walz, 60, made a name for himself in the veepstakes as he gained major traction online with his folksy mannerisms and viral comments calling Trump and Vance “weird.”
He served in the Army National Guard and was a high school social studies teacher and football coach before he was elected to Congress in 2006.
He won six terms in the U.S. House representing a rural area of the state that had typically leaned conservative.
As governor, he’s implemented a bevy of progressive policies, including paid family leave, universal school breakfast and lunch, legalization of recreational marijuana use, state codification of abortion rights and gun control measures like universal background checks and red flag laws.
As a surrogate for Harris these past few weeks, Walz has praised her for reenergizing Democrats and defended her record against Trump’s attacks claiming she is “ultra-liberal.”
“He’s going to roll it out, mispronounce names, you know, to try and make the case,” Walz said of Trump attacking Harris during a recent appearance on CNN. “The fact of the matter is where you see the policies that Vice President Harris was a part of making, Democratic governors across the country executed those policies and quality of life is higher, the economies are better, all of those things, educational attainment is better.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.