RADICAL FEMINIST JOURNAL

Opinion

Senator Elizabeth Warren: 

“The Case for Kamala Harris”

WHITE WOMAN FOR HARRIS

Senator Elizabeth Warren
Fri, July 26, 2024 



Senator Elizabeth Warren

Kamala Harris will be America’s first woman president. I’ve known her for 14 years, first as California’s attorney general, then as a US senator and now as vice president. I’ve seen firsthand her toughness, her smarts, and her compassion. I’m endorsing her for president of the United States because she will unite our party, prosecute the case against Donald Trump, and win.

It’s hard to believe from the picture of us above, but this was November 2016, right after Trump had been elected president. People were in tears, the atmosphere was bleak, hope was gone. But the world felt different when Kamala showed up. The same day Trump was elected, Kamala Harris made history by winning her seat in the Senate. And she didn’t skip a beat. One week after the election, she showed up at my Senate office to surprise my staff and reminded us what the future might bring. She took selfies, offered hugs, and delivered hope.

There’s a reason the Democratic party is uniting behind Vice President Harris. She’s a candidate trying to take us forward at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican Party are trying to drag us backward.


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Senator Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Kamala Harris together in 2019.ROBYN BECK/Getty Images

During his four years in the White House, Donald Trump’s signature achievement was installing an extremist Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. He’s now running to ban abortion nationwide. And even as Trump publicly tries to slither away from that wildly unpopular effort, he has picked an even more extremist running mate, JD Vance, who adds that there should be no abortion law exceptions for rape or incest.

No one has been stronger than Vice President Harris at fighting to protect access to abortion. When Trump’s Supreme Court ripped protections away from millions, Kamala fought back to protect reproductive freedom. She worked with President Biden to strengthen access to emergency abortion and made it easier to get birth control. She met with women and doctors, and she became the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion provider. Make no mistake, if voters give us a Democratic House and Senate, Harris as president will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.

Trump’s only major legislative accomplishment was a massive tax cut, mostly sucked up by millionaires, billionaires, and giant corporations. Trump has promised that in a second term, he’ll reward his “rich as hell” donors with even more giveaways. His new tax plan would give every billionaire about $3.5 million in new tax cuts every year—paid for by tax increases on middle-class families. The Republican blueprint, Project 2025, estimates that Trump’s tax plan will increase taxes for a middle class family of four by about $2,600. That’s Trump’s worldview—make America work even better for the billionaires and make everyone else pay for it.

Vice President Harris has a strong record of putting working people first. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, I worked shoulder to shoulder with then attorney general Harris to push back on the giant banks that were cheating homeowners. While other attorneys general caved in to the banks, Kamala Harris held firm and won a better deal for the people of her state. She clawed back billions of dollars from those banks and put that money to work helping families that were facing foreclosure.

As vice president, Kamala Harris has put a special focus on protecting consumers. She’s supported bans on junk fees and helped advance student debt cancelation. She has also spearheaded the administration’s work to help families drowning in medical debt, including working with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help the VA cancel medical debts for thousands of veterans.

Kamala Harris’s mantra has always been “for the people,” and it’s clear that the people are for her. There’s a new energy sweeping through the American people. On Sunday, Kamala had the single biggest fundraising day in American history, with millions of people pitching in to boost her candidacy. That evening 40,000 Black women joined an organizing call for Kamala, maxing out the Zoom room. Gen Z voters came out in droves to support her. National unions and local organizers are lining up to endorse her. In a vibrant democracy, campaigns can be won on enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for a candidate. Enthusiasm for their vision. Enthusiasm to be a part of something historic. That is Kamala Harris’s promise.

The Republican Party has chosen a convicted felon as their nominee. The Democratic Party will have a skilled courtroom prosecutor at the top of the ticket. Donald Trump is a liar and a cheat who has been found liable in a court of law for sexual abuse. Kamala Harris spent her career as a prosecutor defending women from abuse and holding sexual predators accountable. She routinely dealt with bullies, and I am truly excited to see her go toe to toe with Donald Trump on a debate stage.

I’m even more excited about a Kamala Harris presidency. If voters give us a Democratic House and Senate, she will restore the protections of Roe v. Wade. She will pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. She will ensure our kids have access to clean air and water and that their parents don’t have to worry about sky-high health care costs and access to safe, affordable childcare. She will pick up the fight for paid family leave. And Kamala Harris will do what Donald Trump will never even consider: She will make sure government works, not just for the wealthy and well-connected, but for all of us.

Now is our moment to turn the page on the old politics of Donald Trump. Now is our moment to come together and emerge as a hopeful, determined people. Over the next 104 days, I will leave it all on the field in the effort to beat Donald Trump and elect Kamala Harris, and I hope you’ll join me. What happens in 2025 is up to us.

Originally Appeared on Glamour