Kamala Harris is now two steps before being sworn in as the 47th president of the US. This is after the incumbent US president, Joe Biden, dropped out of the presidential race and pampered her with a ringing endorsement to gun down the presidential sweepstakes.
She has since accepted the endorsement and has been raking up other endorsements from top Democrats. In this election campaign, Kamala Harris will carry all her political assets and liabilities in one handbag.
But first, as she wrote in her letter after that, she needs to earn the Democrats’ upcoming convention in August this year before facing Donald Trump—J.D. Vance presidential opponents.
This article examines this ambitious woman who may achieve what Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to do: beat Trump at his own pugilistic playbook.
Who is Kamala Harris?
Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on October 20, 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a Tamil Indian biologist whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer research.
In 1958, she moved to the United States from India as a 19-year-old graduate student after studying home science at Lady Irwin College in New Delhi.
After studying nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley, she received her PhD in 1964. Kamala Harris’s father, Donald J. Harris, is Jamaican American of Afro-Jamaican ancestry.
He is a Stanford University professor of economics (emeritus) who arrived in the United States from British Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study at UC Berkeley and received a PhD in economics in 1966.
Donald Harris met his future wife, Shyamala Gopalan, at a college club for African-American students (though Shyamala, an Indian-American, was allowed to join).
Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the district attorney’s (DA) office of Alameda County before being recruited to the San Francisco DA’s Office and later the city attorney’s Office.
She was elected DA of San Francisco in 2003, Attorney General of California in 2010, and re-elected in 2014.
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Harris served as the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021; she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African-American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the U.S. Senate.
As a senator, Harris advocated for gun control laws, the DREAM Act, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, federal legalization of cannabis, as well as healthcare and taxation reform.
She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.
What are Harris’ political stocks?
Kamala Harris’ presidential bid is a huge political gamble, and we must not underestimate the challenges she will face to overcome bigotry, sexism and what Hillary Clinton attributed to her failure to beat Donald Trump’s “misogyny”, among other reasons.
Kamala Harris can keep Georgia and Arizona and reclaim Obama’s win of North Carolina in 2008.
That will surely obliterate Trump’s path to his re-election bid even if Ohio and Florida, as widely expected, stay in his column. It is imperative to note no Republican has won the White House without Georgia.
Depending on whom she picks as Veep stake, she may lock Trump out of the Rust Belt, particularly Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Trump has promised to flip all of these Rust Belt States, but we know he is hurling hyperbole. Moreover, she has seminal personal attributes that will help shake up the presidential race. Of utmost distinction is her boundless energy.
She will light up the stump with funky moves—gyrating her slender waist while swerving her hands in the air—a stark contrast with Donald Trump, who keeps nodding off, caresses his pot belly, and never stops stooping as if he is exhausted from carrying the whole world on his shoulders.
Donald Trump had made President Joe Biden’s age and diminishing mental acuity central to his campaign strategy, but all those negative factors are now off the table. As the scripture forewarns: “…beware of the pit you dig to your neighbour for you will fall there, and the stones you roll to others will roll back to you”.
Donald Trump looks doddering and dejected, and his lack of empathy worsens his overall persona.
In fact, I must add that Trump is now the one pressing the panic button after his campaign released a political ad that ties Biden’s record with Harris a few hours after Biden quit the race and emphatically endorsed her.
Harris having a successful prosecutorial career under her immaculate belt will dip into it to turn the screws against Trump in areas that Trump has perceived as his strongest resume.
For instance, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade was behind the Democrats’ invigoration in the 2022 midterm elections, and Harris was considered a key plank in that assault that kept the Senate blue, albeit marginally, losing the Congress due to other reasons, which I will shortly elaborate on.
After Biden exited the race, the Congress is within the Democrats’ reach to recapture. Trump argues that his three picks of justices at the US Supreme Court paved the way for the downfall of that iconic ruling. Pro-choice voters will have their revenge come November.
Harris can credit President Joe Biden’s policy successes, such as the Infrastructure and Investment Act, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
The jury is still unsure whether these programmes will yield the desired objectives. The Chips Act aims to bring to the U.S. the capacity to make advanced semiconductors that exist exclusively in Asia.
The Inflation Reduction Act has encouraged investment in solar energy, electric vehicles and batteries. Of keen interest to Tanzania, Harris has promised, and possibly reminded us, of the US generosity, which I will cover at the end of this discourse.
Harris, who boasts glittering prosecutorial credentials, will have no trouble prosecuting a case against Trump, a convicted felon.
On the campaign trail, she can begin poking holes at Trump’s outrageous claim that before being sworn in office as the US president, he will end the Ukrainian conflict.
During the presidential debate against President Joe Biden, a CNN reporter asked whether he would accept the Russian terms to end the conflict.
Trump abruptly said he wouldn’t leave his soft underbelly up for cynicism and doubts. Russians have already retaken most of East Ukraine. Subsequently, they are most unlikely to give up their prized conquests, estimated to be worth more than twelve trillion dollars in mineral, gas, oil, and other underground wealth.
Obviously, Trump has no plan to end the Ukrainian conflict beyond bragging to hoodwink voters to help him win in November.
Trump had also been claiming he would end the Gaza onslaught but had also been espousing conflicting positions like he would arm Israel to the teeth with the tools they need to finish the job!
With antisemitism mushrooming in the US, it is unclear how Harris will put Trump to task over this without hurting her stature. The two warring political sides seem to share a crooked vision of an oppressive Israel in the Middle East.
What is Harris’s Political Baggage?
Well, to be fair to Harris, no political candidate ticks all the boxes. She has her frailties that the Trump campaign team will relish exploiting in full throttle.
Harris, an inveterate Washington insider, bears hefty political costs: accepting the blunders the Biden administration has committed without being trapped by them.
Perhaps the Biden administration’s major weakness is inflation. American families have seen their living standards routed, and the American dream looks increasingly like a pipe dream.
Biden’s economic assumption was dead wrong because they had assumed a mega stimulus package would fix the problems associated with the aftermath of COVID-19.
The Biden administration erroneously reasoned that the economy was in crisis because of the constricted demand side as an upshot of the global pandemic.
However, the US economy was robust partly due to the stimulus package Trump passed while in office, coupled with an end to social distancing and now hotly disputed COVID-19 vaccines.
Insufficient supply chain issues generated by lockups, sanctions, and purely logistical encumbrances were hamstringing the US economy.
Since Biden took power, overall inflation hit 20% above the level at which he inherited the economy from Donald Trump, and a stimulus package of USD 1.9 trillion was partly the smoking gun.
The Biden administration was excited to hit the ground running in the earlier days of his reign, deploying the package to favourite policies such as green energy, universal prekindergarten, expanded healthcare subsidies, paid leave, child care, elder care, and public housing.
Most of these ambitious projects have not taken off in a manner that will catch the public eye, and Harris will sweat to claim credit.
With Biden having appointed Harris to oversee the South border immigration crisis that went awry, the Trump campaign machine has been adept at preparing videos that will project her as the border Caesar.
The Republican leaders, with such enthusiasm, apportioned the blame for the influx of illegal immigrants, estimated to be in millions who have crossed illegally and entered the US.
The illegal immigration influx is a hot-button election issue; it is unclear how Harris will navigate it without blowing apart the Joe Biden legacy.
Harris’s campaign will most likely focus on her remarkable personal biography, which befits the narratives of a much-coveted American dream. This biography will connect with many voters who can relate to it and find her homey at the White House.
At the same time, she will remind voters Trump is a narcissist, unfit to be trusted twice after his double congressional impeachments and criminal conviction with legal troubles still playing out in courtrooms.
She will urge voters to reject Trump because he cannot be trusted to fix Tax, economy and foreign policy. Trump tax cuts benefited the rich, and her campaign will paint him as the vanguard of the rich and powerful but does not care about the average Americans.
That message will be her conversational message until election day, and she hopes it will stick with voters enough to send Trump packing for good.
How will Tanzania Benefit From Haris’ Presidency?
Tanzanians fondly remember Ms Harris, particularly when she came with goodies on her last trip.
On our part, “long-term visas” will be part of our elaborate wish list.
Of more significance is what Harris had promised to us as part of the American effort to roll back the years of neglecting Africa to the advantage of China and Russia.
She had unveiled a new partnership in 5G technology and cybersecurity, as well as LifeZone Metals’s U.S.-supported plan to open a new processing plant in Tanzania for minerals used in electric vehicle batteries.
We are still excited to recall that those batteries will be locally made, creating jobs for hundreds of our youth.
“This project is an important and pioneering model, using innovative and low-emission standards. Importantly, raw minerals will soon be processed in Tanzania by Tanzanians,” Harris said, adding that the plant would deliver battery-grade nickel to the United States and the global market from 2026.
Harris also discussed a new memorandum of understanding between the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and the government of Tanzania.
That will facilitate up to USD 500 million in financing to help U.S. companies export goods and services to Tanzania in infrastructure, transportation, digital technology, climate and energy security and power generation.
The camaraderie between Harris and President Samia Suluhu Hassan was suffusing, positive and inspiring, so we have every reason to expect without any shadow of a doubt if Kamala Harris ascends to the highest office in America.
Not only will she have broken the ceiling of racial and gender barriers, but Tanzania will count her as a reliable partner, too.
Speaking of “breaking the ceiling,” I have one reticent caution. Hillary Clinton tried to break the ceiling with a hammer ensconced in her mean streak, while a little smile could have melted it.
As Hillary and Kamala don’t pantsuits, I wonder whether they may be united by fate: both losing to Trump….
It looks like her coronation at the Democrats’ convention in August is a done deal. Most potential rivals have fallen in line to endorse her, possibly apprehensive of staining their political careers by disrupting quintessential American history that is unfolding before our very amazed eyes.
As I look at Kamala Harris’s life itinerary, I am more convinced she was born and raised for this pivotal moment in US history. Time may vindicate me in November.
