As President Biden steps aside for the 2024 Democratic nomination, Vice President Kamala Harris emerges as his chosen successor. Kouri Marshall explains why she is the right choice (Photo Credit: The White House).
I had been “Riding with Biden” for quite some time. In 2012, while serving as the District Director for President Obama’s D.C. area election campaign, I had the honor of introducing then-Vice President Biden at an event at Howard University.
Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting our 46th president on a few other occasions. My impression of the man remains that he is a kind, empathetic, and selfless leader who has consistently put the needs of this great nation first.
President Biden with Kouri Marshall (Photo courtesy of Kouri Marshall).
That impression holds up today as the President made the decision to put his own political aspirations aside – and to endorse his Vice President, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic nomination.
President Biden has made defending our democracy from the existential threat of Trumpism the cornerstone of his presidency and the mission of his public life. In turn, Vice President Harris has proven herself to be a fierce proponent of this mission — and, in my view, President Biden’s most obvious and worthy successor.
In a moment when the Republican Party has nominated a literal felon—Donald Trump—for the presidency, this accomplished former Attorney General and former prosecutor feels like the natural choice to take on Trump in the next presidential debate (the first one, in June, having presented a major turning point in this race).
And in a political era where Trumpism — and its inherent embrace of policies and attitudes that are detrimental to Black people, people of color, and other marginalized individuals — has taken hold, this bold, brave and brilliant Black woman is the champion our communities need to take our nation into the future, instead of moving us backward into a fascist state.
As I watched Donald Trump accept the Republican nomination this past week, I turned away from the screen and toward the room where my baby son was sleeping.
I thought about the future I want for this little boy, who will grow into a Black man, living in this country, with its very complicated history with race and all the struggles our community has endured, to achieve the progress we have so far — despite people like Trump and his sycophants.
I thought of trailblazing and inspirational leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Former President Barack Obama and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee — who left us this past week — to name a few.
And I thought about how the furtherance of the “MAGA” agenda would hinder all the things my wife and I want for our son:
- A great education.
- A sense of belonging in his own community and nation.
- The ability to be anything he sets his mind and heart on being.
Despite his many charlatan claims to the contrary, Donald Trump has no intention of unifying this nation or forming community with anyone who does not fit into his version of “Make America Great Again.”
His own words have shown that over the near decade he’s been in the political arena.
He thinks there are “good people on both sides” in events like Charlottesville in 2017, where white supremacists openly opined being “replaced” by those who are different from them.
And he’s repeatedly shown he’s both ready and willing to strike down the very tenants of our democracy, including our voting rights. Something that people like John Lewis put their safety and lives on the line for. And something that has been in jeopardy for Black people and communities of color at the hands of elected officials and appointed justices like the ones Trump has selected.
I want my son, my namesake and my legacy, to have all the same chances in this nation that my lovely, brilliant wife and I have. And I want him to have so many more. That vision for the future cannot exist in Donald Trump’s America.
But it certainly can with President Kamala Harris.
President Harris will carry on the Biden administration’s fight to preserve our democracy and our voting rights. And she will carry the torch for so many of the other issues that are of utmost importance to the future of America and our community, including preserving reproductive rights, access to health care and affordable housing, civil rights, protecting our environment from the very real and ever-present threat posed by climate change, fighting for student loan reform and educational funding…and so much more.
Kamala Harris is on the verge of making history as the first Black woman nominee for President from a major party. And she will shatter our nation’s highest, hardest glass ceiling to become our next President.
But it will only be possible if we put in a whole lot of hard work and dedication.
I come from an organizing background, and I know that we all must come together to protect our democracy by rallying around Vice President Harris and whomever she selects for her running mate.
I hope you will join me.
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