Ahead of final campaign sprint, Black women leaders urge Harris to stay focused in the face of personal attacks

By CNN Newsource

Published August 23, 2024 10:04 AM

By Eva McKend and Arit John, CNN

Chicago (CNN) — Halfway through the final night of the Democratic National Convention, actress and celebrity host Kerry Washington noted there are some who struggle – “or pretend to struggle” – with how to say Vice President Kamala Harris’ first name.

“Confusion is understandable,” Washington said. “Disrespect is not.”

In keeping with the convention themes of joy and an introduction to the Democratic nominee, Washington was joined onstage by Harris’ great-nieces Amara and Leela Ajagu, who led the crowd in a chant: Comma, like the punctuation mark. La, like a sing-song la-la-la.

It was a lighthearted approach to a darker theme running through this election: the ways that race and gender have colored the attacks leveled at Harris since she launched her presidential campaign. For many woman of color, particularly those who have run for office and been in the political spotlight, it’s a familiar challenge.

“When I have a job to do, you can call me every name in the book – that does not define me,” said Val Demings, a former Florida US congresswoman and 2022 Democratic nominee for Senate. “I am defined by the quality of work that I do for the people that I represent.”

The end of the Democratic convention marks a new phase of the campaign, a 74-day sprint to Election Day and increased pressure on Harris to lay out her policies, including at next month’s debate. In interviews and convention speeches, Black women leaders said the Harris campaign should continue to avoid engaging directly with personal attacks.

Former first lady Michelle Obama referenced those concerns in her Tuesday convention speech, when she drew comparisons between former President Donald Trump’s embrace of false conspiracy theories that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

“We know folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth. My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this,” Obama said. “It’s his same old con, doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”

Republican allies have urged Trump to stay away from personal attacks.

“Trump can say, ‘Look, I’m entitled to personal attacks.’ Nobody cares what you’re entitled to,” Gov. Chris Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, said this month on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Do what you have to do to get the votes and win.”

Asked to respond to criticisms that the former president has veered into racism and sexism in his attacks of Harris, his campaign said Democrats and the media are attempting to distract from Harris’ thin policy agenda, echoing calls from Republicans urging him to stick with policy.

Last week, the vice president unveiled a detailed economic proposal that her campaign said will provide tax relief to more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans. But other concrete aspects of her policy vision are not listed on her campaign website. She also has not done a news conference or sat down for an in-depth interview since launching her campaign four weeks ago.

“Contrary to the Harris campaign which continues to make this race about personality versus policy, President Trump has laid out a clear path to make America prosperous and safe again,” Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black media director, said in a statement. “Kamala Harris does not even have policies listed on her website. This is another attempt by the media and the Harris campaign to deflect from Kamala Harris’ lack of having a complete policy agenda for the American people.”

The Harris campaign has chosen not to engage. A spokesperson referred CNN to remarks the vice president made last month, when she called Trump’s NABJ comments “the same old show — the divisiveness and the disrespect.”

Other Black women who’ve run for higher office said they’ve taken similar approaches.

“I love a good clap-back like anybody else,” said Georgia state Rep. Jasmine Clark. “But I do think that sometimes, as a candidate, you have to understand when someone is trying to get into your head.”

A’shanti Gholar, the president of Emerge, which recruits and trains Democratic women running for office, said that when political opponents can’t land attacks on a woman of color’s policies or background, they resort to name calling and questioning her identity.

Gholar said she’s “extremely honest” with Emerge candidates about those realities.

“I can’t take the sexism, the racism, the misogyny, out of politics,” she said. “But what we can do is teach you how to be an effective candidate, a great elected official, and give you the network of support that’s going to help you with that.”

Part of that includes role-playing to help candidates craft a message in response to potential attacks. They also stress that candidates should stay focused. Gholar pointed to Harris’ campaign as an example.

“This isn’t the first time that she’s had her ethnicity questioned, her record questioned,” Gholar said. “But she is able to address it and say, ‘This is what I did, this is why I did it, and this is what I’m planning to do now.’”

Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the majority leader of the New York Senate said Harris has captured the dreams and the longings of those who came before her, from late New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president under a major party, to 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“She’s staying focused, she’s hitting back as needed, but she’s been extremely measured,” Stewart-Cousins said. “She understands that she has one assignment, and that’s to get this done.”