Politics
For Some Chicago Voters, Kamala Harris Represents Something Bigger: ‘She Covers a Cross-Section of American Society’
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid has already been a whirlwind.
It’s been just over a month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and Harris was catapulted into the forefront. If she beats former President Donald Trump in November, she’ll be the first woman in the Oval Office as well as the first person of Jamaican ancestry to assume the role, and the first person of South Asian descent.
Her historic candidacy is not lost on the people who see themselves in her.
“It’s not so much the fact that she’s South Asian American. To us, it’s her message — what she signifies,” said Shireen Ahmad, director of Chicago’s South Asia Institute. She hopes Harris can provide greater representation for the broad community.
“One thing that we say is that they associate us with Bollywood and butter chicken, but there’s so much more to us — the South Asian community,” Ahmad said.
Harris is the daughter of immigrants. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, moved from India in 1958, while Harris’ father, Donald J. Harris, immigrated from Jamaica in 1961.
Lester Barclay, the honorary Jamaican consul of Chicago, is excited at the prospect of having a president with Jamaican heritage.
“She covers a cross-section of American society,” Barclay said. “Kamala Harris represents and reflects the best of us. She represents a spirit of excellence — one where we take pride in knowing that she’s one of our own. I believe that our ancestors are smiling, saying, ‘Good job. We’re proud of you. You’re Jamaican.’”
Harris has ignited excitement from quite a few corners of the country. Shortly after she became the presumptive nominee, more than 40,000 Black women got together in a Zoom call to mobilize support behind the first Black woman to become the nominee of a major party.
Similar events based on identity followed: Latinas, South Asian women, White dudes and White women all answered the call to join together and collectively raise tens of millions of dollars to back the candidate.
“We are the majority,” said Erin Gallagher, creator of the hype women movement. “The fact that we are not reflected in the most senior positions of power and influence has nothing to do with ability, aspiration or ambition. It has everything to do with access.”
Gallagher started Hype Women for Harris as a way to galvanize other women to put the first woman in the White House this fall.
“I feel like it is my responsibility every day to use whatever privilege and platform I have to push this forward,” Gallagher said. “Kamala Harris is going to be our next president. Absolutely, 100%. She’s the right person for the job. For all the people who push back and say we only want this because she’s a woman: Yeah, we do want this because she’s a woman. That’s one of 500 reasons we want it.”
This week’s Democratic National Convention has made mention of the people who came before Harris to make a moment like the current political one happen. Michelle Obama said in a speech at the DNC on Tuesday that the collective needs to continue the “dream that our parents and grandparents fought and died and sacrificed for.” She finished her thought by exclaiming: “Hope is making a comeback.”
“Kamala Harris would not be where she is without the standing on shoulders of people like my great-grandmother who fought for women to have the right to vote,” said Michelle Duster, an educator and historian who has a direct connection to a woman who advanced the political landscape.
She’s the great-granddaughter of suffragist and Chicago icon Ida B. Wells. Duster said she’s proud to back the Harris-Walz ticket.
“You fast-forward 100 years later after women gained the right to vote through the 19th Amendment — to have a woman and obviously a person of color, both in one person, to be the nominee is amazing,” Duster said. “I hope that people really do understand how far we’ve come as a country and what it took for Kamala to be where she is.”
