First woman vice-president, symbol of diversity, Kamala Harris electrifies the American left, which sees the future much more in it than in Joe Biden.
From the first hours following the announcement of the Democrat's presidential victory by the main American media on Saturday, the enthusiasm very quickly transferred to her running mate, the first black woman to become the vice-president of states -United.
"Kamala's victory is feminist
(...)
it has just dealt a serious blow to one of the most enduring monuments of patriarchy, the so far exclusively white establishment which has occupied the vice-presidency of the United States. »
, Welcomes the activist and black author Brittney Cooper in
Time Magazine.
.
On Fox News, Donna Brazile, former Democratic leader, could not hold back tears:
"I am so happy that this moment has arrived."
"Madam Vice-President is no longer a fictional character"
, laughed the actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who held this position in the series "Veep", HBO.
In the streets, the signs "Harris 2024" or "Harris-Biden 2024" have been blooming for several weeks already.
Kamala Harris is already a favorite figure for the next presidential election among British bookmakers.
Read also: Kamala Harris, First Woman and First Black Vice President
"I may be the first woman to hold this position, but I will not be the last,"
said Kamala Harris on Saturday evening, on the occasion of her first speech following the announcement of the results of the presidential election. .
To better underline the symbol, Kamala Harris was adorned with a very symbolic outfit: a white pantsuit, a tribute to the activists who fought, a hundred years ago, for women to obtain the right to vote in the States -United.
The lawyer by training hailed the memory of her mother, who died of cancer in 2009, and of
"generations of women, black, Asian, white, Hispanic, Native American, who blazed the trail".
Born in California to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Kamala Devi Harris, of her full name, is, even more than Barack Obama, the symbol of American multiculturalism.
For many women, the success of Kamala Harris is all the more gratifying given that Hillary Clinton, who came close to becoming the first female president of the United States, was brutal four years ago.
"A dose of enthusiasm"
In the eyes of Kelly Dittmar, research director at the Center on Women and Politics at Rutgers University, the senator will bring to the White House
"the point of view and the story of a black woman from Southeast Asia who spent his life in the United States ”
.
This, she told AFP, is where the power of
"representation"
lies
, which
"leads to better, more inclusive decisions."
Long before the election, the choice of Joe Biden to make her his running mate
"brought a certain amount of enthusiasm which helped"
the Democratic candidate during his campaign to mobilize the Democratic electorate, particularly women, according to Kelly. Dittmar.
His appointment also reassured them, the academic analysis, because
“fears of a step backwards, to the domination of white men” emerged
with a duel announced between the two septuagenarians Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
If the time was Saturday for the celebration, several progressive voices have in the past been very critical of him when he was appointed by Joe Biden as running mate in early August.
Some, like the former spokesperson for Bernie Sanders, Briahna Joy Gray, saw in them above all a
"cop"
, guilty, according to them, of having made the choice of a repressive policy when she was the district attorney of San Francisco (2004-2011), which particularly affected minorities.
In the Democratic primary, Kamala Harris also failed to convert the hopes placed in her.
After having rivaled the favorites for a while, following a remarkable performance during the first debate at the end of June 2019, she was forced to retire a few months later even before the start of the primary in Iowa.
It remains to be seen whether this time the future vice-president will convert the test.