Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination for president of the U.S. at this year’s Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago gave women leaders from all over the country the opportunity to highlight an array of issues, from reproductive rights to fundraising for fellow electeds.
The historic feat of having a Black and South Asian woman lead the DNC ticket has already galvanized women leaders, organizers, and younger voters.
Many linked this break of the glass ceiling back to Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to be elected to Congress and make a serious campaign for the presidency, and to Fannie Lou Hamer, who was vice chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and famously rattled the DNC in 1964 with her testimony about the violence she faced in trying to register to vote as a Black citizen.
“Shirley Chisholm was because Fannie Lou Hamer was. We are — all of us are — because of Shirley Chisholm — who she was,” said Congressmember Barbara Lee (California), who was Chisholm’s protegé. She spoke at the Women’s Caucus meeting at the DNC on August 22. “Chisholm was a catalyst for change. She was unbought and unbossed, and she said this: ‘Next time a woman of whatever color or a dark-skinned person of whatever sex aspires to be president, the way should be a little smoother because I helped pave it.’”
Harris, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and others homed in on the state of reproductive justice in the nation.
Ariama C. Long photos
“This is what is happening in our country, because of Donald Trump,” Harris said in her speech at the DNC on August 23. “And understand: He is not done. As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress. And get this: He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds. And one must ask: Why exactly is it that they don’t trust women?”
Harris vowed that if Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom and she is elected president, she would proudly sign it into law.
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would enshrine gender equality and therefore reproductive freedoms in the U.S. Constitution and be the 28th amendment, stalled last year over technicalities, despite tremendous movement in recent years to get it ratified. In New York, the ERA to the state’s constitution safeguards people based on “race, color, creed, or religion” and adds protections against discrimination based on “gender identity, sexual orientation, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care.”
Earlier this year, the state constitutional amendment briefly fell into limbo because of a Republican-led legal effort to keep the measure off the ballot. State Senator Lea Webb, the first Black Democrat and woman of color to represent her district in Ithaca and Binghamton, took the first steps to codify the ERA, reproductive rights, and maternal health care back in 2019.
“I think that the mention that folks who have been historically marginalized are being recognized through equitable policy — for some folks, it will evoke that something is being taken away from them in some respects, which it is not,” Webb said. “People’s perspectives and views, whether it be through political ideology or religion, also play a role. However, at the end of the day, when you look at the Harris campaign for president and all the women running for office at any level, women — who are most impacted by these issues — are stepping into their power and our communities are better for it.”
Webb confirmed that the ERA will appear on the back of the ballot this November for New Yorkers to vote on.
Many present-day issues didn’t necessarily center around women and gender politics, but had women leaders at the DNC fired up.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, the first female governor of New York, spoke multiple times to her own delegation about boosting the local Democratic party in battleground congressional districts — a running theme among many speakers from New York State, despite it being considered a “blue” state.
Ariama C. Long photos
“We started last year, giving money and resources, helping our local committees win races that we had no chance to ever win. Town boards, DA [district attorney] races, county legislatures,” said Hochul at the delegate breakfast. “We did it because we started to work together. I wanted to build that infrastructure, that platform — to build that foundation to lean into 2024.”
Hochul called for efforts to make sure House Minority Leader and Congressmember Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker of the House, and that other prominent electeds from New York, like U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, get re-elected. The idea is to push for a Democratic majority in Congress so Harris has an easier time getting her agenda through while in office, should she be elected.
Meanwhile, many organizers highlighted existing federal programs that have had monumental success in their communities.
Cynthia Wallace, executive director of the New Rural Project in North Carolina, an organizer who focuses on building civic engagement among people of color in rural areas, appreciates some of the work Harris has already done as vice president and hopes to see those issues brought to the forefront again, particularly the Biden-Harris affordable connectivity program that expanded broadband access and climate initiatives.
“That provided broadband access for North Carolina. Changed the lives of lots of folks. Broadband means health care, ability to apply for jobs,” said Wallace. “Unfortunately, Congress wouldn’t extend it. A lot of folks lost that vital access. When you live in a rural place where transportation is an issue and you have access to the [digital] world, it can change people’s economic lives.”
Wallace’s colleague from North Carolina, Dr. Aimy S. L. Steele, CEO of the New North Carolina Project, added that she was especially excited about the Biden-Harris Infrastructure bill and its built-in funding for efficient energy programs for communities of color.
“What we heard on the doors when we knocked — almost 48,000 in 2022 — was that people cared about the fact that their energy bills were higher than their mortgage and their rent,” said Steele. “Now we’re able to install HVAC [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] systems in people’s homes at no cost, as well as make other weatherization updates to their homes. And all of that was a part of the bipartisan infrastructure law funding that was given to the state of North Carolina.”