Kamala Harris via CNN
Kamala Harris, who on Saturday became America's first female, first Black and first South Asian vice president-elect, represents a new face of political power after an election all about who wields power and how they use it.
The California senator's history-making win also represents the millions of women in the demographics -- often overlooked, historically underrepresented and systematically ignored -- who are now the recipients of that new power for the first time in the country's 200-plus-year history.
Harris tweeted a video of herself on the phone with President-elect Joe Biden shortly after CNN projected their win.
"We did it, we did it, Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States," she said with a signature laugh.Harris and Biden's victory, as projected by CNN, arrives days after a prolonged vote count reflecting a deeply divided electorate. It symbolizes a bookend to the Trump era, which followed the first Black US President and was buoyed by social ills including White supremacy. Harris' triumph, in particular, marks a new high point in a career of barrier-breaking accomplishments, from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general to just the second-ever Black female US senator.
"That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me," Harris said during her Democratic National Convention acceptance speech in August, mentioning women such as Constance Baker Motley, Fannie Lou Hamer and Shirley Chisholm.
"Women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all," she had said.
On Saturday night, during her first speech as vice president-elect, Harris also noted the historic moment.
"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," she said in Wilmington, Delaware.
"Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities, and to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before. But know that we will applaud you every step of the way," she said.
Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black university in Washington. Her time at Howard, where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., profoundly shaped her political vision.
"You didn't have to be confined by anyone else's idea of what it means to be Black," she told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" in September. "You could be a fine arts student and also be class president. You could be homecoming queen and be the head of the science club. You could be a member of a sorority and be in student government and want to go to law school, and it encouraged you to be your full self."
Over the course of her White House bid, Harris never shied away from mentioning that people attempted to box her in or doubted her as she sought to pave a path in politics.
"I didn't listen. And the people didn't listen, either. And we won," she would say.
Posted By: Tanisha Grant
Saturday, November 7th 2020 at 9:22PM
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