Kamala Harris to Make History as First Female U . S . Vice President
Sen . Kamala Harris of California was elected the first female vice president of the United States , putting a substantial crack in what former candidate Hillary Clinton called the “ highest and hardest glass ceiling ” between women and the White House .
Program Success 13 November 2020
With former Vice President Joe Biden declared the winner of the presidency by the Associated Press , Ms . Harris , the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants , will also be the first Black vice president and first of Indian descent when the pair is inaugurated in January . Ms . Harris becomes the highest-ranking woman ever in the line of presidential succession , ahead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
In Missouri , longtime Community Organizer Cori Bush became the state ’ s first Black Congresswoman . In Minnesota , Rep . Ilhan Omar was re-elected by a wide margin and in Oklahoma , Mauree Turner became one of the first Non-Binary elected officials in the nation and the first Muslim to be elected to the state ’ s legislature .
These organizers and policymakers - all of us - inspire me to fight for electoral justice , a key tenet in our bold vision for Black lives . Electoral Justice requires us to engage with the ballot as a structure , intentionally rigged to maintain white patriarchal capitalist power .
When we engage to right wrongs and build anew , we achieve justice by the ballot box . When we avenge the suffering of our ancestors through legislation that acknowledges and seeks solutions to harm , we seek Electoral Justice . When we build power to transform , not to extract , Electoral Justice becomes imminent .
Amid crisis and chaos , we designed an unapologetic Black national agenda . We launched an updated Vision for Black Lives with a clear call to end the war on Black people . We unveiled historic civil rights legislation : the BREATHE Act will reimagine public safety through divesting in ineffective , racist policing and investing in people and communities .
And we ’ ve mobilized millions of people all over this country around our vision . This summer , 26 million people marched for Black lives , we co-conspired with over 300 partner organizations and this fall we secured over 150,000 community co-sponsors for the BREATHE Act .
Every organization in the Movement for Black Lives Ecosystem met our mandate to defend Black lives by any and all the means necessary . We illustrated our bold vision and told stories of organizers in every region of the United States during the Black National Convention . We have a plan . We have people power . We got us .
We ’ ve taken our assignments seriously . Movement did this , and no matter what happens next , we will continue our fight , until every Black life matters . We will keep building Black political power , and showing gratitude to our ancestors by pressing on with our demands for dignity and justice . True power , the power of the people , is right here in our hands . What a time to be alive .