California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris announced something big on January 27: she is running for the presidency in 2020. This news has brought an onslaught of opinions, but the general consensus is that this will be monumental. So, who exactly is Kamala Harris?
Known to some as a leader who embodies the convergence of race and gender in America, Harris has defied standards and shown just how powerful women can be. She graduated from the UC Hastings College of the Law and went on to become an attorney and politician. She’s the second African American woman to be elected into the U.S Senate and the first to serve as Attorney General in California. Those are pretty impressive positions, but they’re not the only reasons people are rooting for Harris. Here are three more reasons why:
1. She is an advocate for the rights of women and African Americans.
Kamala Harris has engaged in several civil rights battles, as they are important to her own heritage. As a biracial woman, she understands the hardships faced by African Americans. Harris also understands the limited access to women’s health initiatives. She fought to require for-profit companies to provide employees with health insurance that covers contraceptives and protects patients’ access to reproductive health clinics. Additionally, she sponsored legislation to ensure that crisis pregnancy centers provide women medically accurate information about the full range of reproductive services.
2. She protects children and students.
Harris established California’s Bureau of Children’s Justice, which is essentially an organization that protects the rights of children and directs law enforcement to safeguard children. The Bureau focuses its advocacy efforts on the foster care system, childhood trauma and human trafficking to name a few. Harris has also fought to reduce the issue of elementary school truancy (not allowing students to go to school). She strongly believes that every child should have the right to an education, which is definitely justified.
3. She wants to reform the criminal justice system.
There has been a ton of backlash against the criminal justice system recently, but Harris wants to change that. She established the first Office of Recidivism, Reduction, and Reentry. To put it simply, it creates a program that allows criminals to easily re-enter and assimilate back into society. Harris also helped to initiate a program that exposes racial issues in the criminal justice system and another that connected felons with job training.
Yes, that was a lot of legal information, but it’s important to understand. Whether you’ll vote for her or not, we need candidates that will bring about valuable change to benefit this society. My hope is that Harris is true to her word about these issues and creates initiatives aimed to fix large problems. All in all, Kamala Harris is working her way to the top and we couldn’t be more excited to see what her platform will bring. She is a model of motivation and spirit that can be applied to our own lives. I couldn’t be happier for the future.