DALLAS– First, vice president Kamala Harris went to Nevada to launch reelection outreach to Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders and addressed the crowd as “longtime friends.”
So she was in Dallas to speak at the annual meeting of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the black sorority she pledged to when she was a student at Howard University, one of the country’s most famous historically black colleges. She communicated to her fellow “sisterhoods” – sorority sisters – about what was at stake in the November election.
The events she held on successive days this week illustrate how her racial identity and personal background could help the President Joe Biden is signaling re-election after his widely criticized June 27 will debate the performance and make her a potentially formidable replacement should he withdraw.
Harris is the country’s first female vice president, as well as the first Black woman and person of Asian descent to hold the office. The change of campaign allowed the vice president to exhort key elements of the Biden coalition, addressing her personal story more than the disputes between Democrats over whether Biden should give up and let her be the party’s presidential candidate.
The vice president’s mix of identities can sometimes perplex her detractors, but her supporters argue that she is an embodiment of America’s rich nuances. Throughout this week’s campaign events, Harris sought to use her multifaceted identities and her life story as a vehicle to defend universal American values such as freedom, justice and democracy.
Andrea Rodriguez Campos, a teacher in Las Vegas, was moved to tears when Harris described her upbringing and the importance of immigrant communities.
“I think everything they support is very important,” Rodriguez Campos said of the Biden administration. “Being an immigrant myself, I mean, this is why we’re here. Being able to see someone like her reminds me that because she can, we all can.”
Biden has insisted he will not drop out of the election after his disastrous debate performance, even as he faces growing dissension from Democrats on Capitol Hill and many donors. Harris and other potential replacements have said they still support Biden.
Still, former President Donald Trump and Republican allies are concentrating their attacks more and more anyway, in Harris, often in language with racist and misogynistic connotations. Trump referenced Harris’ past relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and labeled her “Laffin’ Kamala,” a reference to frequent Republican attacks on the way she laughs.
At both events, Harris focused on promoting Biden, not herself.
“We always knew this election would be difficult, and the last few days have reminded us that running for president of the United States is never easy,” Harris said Tuesday in Las Vegas. “But the one thing we know about our president, Joe Biden, is that he is a fighter and he is the first to say: when you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Keeping the spotlight on Biden didn’t stop some in the crowd from second-guessing themselves. Attendee John Chang said he thought the vice president performed well during the Las Vegas rally, despite saying he hadn’t been impressed with her previously.
“I’m here to evaluate,” Chang said. “I lean heavily against Trump. But if Biden leaves or just gets sick or something and she comes forward, will it be like this and now? Could it be her?
Some of those attending Tuesday’s event wore traditional Central Asian and Southeast Asian dresses, others wore necklaces common to Hawaiian culture, while some wore traditional Pacific Island jewelry. Harris made a point of not only praising the crowd for being filled with “lifelong friends,” but also calling Las Vegas “Hawaii’s ninth island.”
On both days, Harris emphasized being raised in a multicultural, multiracial family in the San Francisco Bay Area to attend Howard.
“We stand for this beauty and diversity and the promise of America,” she said.
On Wednesday, speaking at the 71st AKA Boulé in Dallas, Harris declared, “I will address the issue at hand.” But she was referring to the sisterhood’s legacy of fighting for civil rights over the decades — not the heated debate over Biden’s chances in November.
The vice president was greeted with a resounding “skee-wee” from the crowd, a traditional greeting and affirmative cheer for the sorority members, as she entered and left the group’s “boulé,” or regular meeting.
The crowd was made up entirely of black women — many wearing dresses in the sorority’s standard colors of pink and green — who said they considered Harris a sister. Some wore headbands, while others cheered with pompoms as Harris spoke.
Wearing a pink blazer, Harris recounted her journey to the sorority and how she said it enabled her path to the vice presidency.
Attendees also responded in unison and prolonged applause when Harris said, “Soros, this is a serious matter,” referring to both the election and a Brotherhood saying.
“Right now, once again,” Harris said, “our nation is counting on the leaders in this room to guide us to energize, organize and mobilize.”
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Weissert reported from Washington.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
