From the day that the electoral college declared Kamala Harris vice president-elect to inauguration day, my social media was filled with coverage of the milestone. One video transitioned portraits of vice presidents from without to with color ink. Despite the progression of time, one thing remained constant: prior to Harris’ election, there was an obvious trend that the officeholder was a white man, with the exception of Charles Curtis, a member of the Naw Nation and Herbert Hoover’s vice president.
The lack of diversity amongst these men reduces them to an indistinguishable figment of the past. Because Harris is a woman of color, she is expanding the vice president’s sphere of influence.
“Because Harris is a woman of color, she is expanding the vice president’s sphere of influence”
Yue Yu / Aragon Outlook
According to a National Geographic article, the role and responsibilities of vice presidents have been relatively vague compared to the other high elected positions. The Constitution has always stated that a vice president will take over if the president dies or is impeached. The 25th Amendment dictates that the vice president will assume the office of president if the president becomes disabled. Otherwise, the vice president presides over Senate, offering a tiebreaking vote. Over time, the choice of a president’s running mate has become important for their campaign’s media strategy.
A BBC article states that President Joe Biden’s choice of Harris as his running mate “offers a counter to his age, gender and race.” Biden, one of the several older white men who ran for president in 2020, is now the oldest president to assume office in American history. Harris directly juxtaposes this image as a fresher political figure.
Before assuming the vice presidency, Harris was a senator and former district attorney of California. Besides her federal platform to communicate with the public, Harris takes to social media platforms. Harris already had the @kamalaharris Instagram account, but now she also carries the @vp account, used to inform the public of actions in office.
Harris vocalizes her stance on issues such as the right to abortion and Biden’s health care plan. Currently, she encourages people to get the COVID-19 vaccine when available to them and posts about swearing in new officials like Pete Buttigieg as secretary of transportation.
In the Bay Area, inclusivity has been more normalized than in other U.S. areas. From 1993 to January 2021, California had two female senators, which is not the case for other states. Harris was the third woman to run for vice president of a major party and is now only the second non-white vice president, widening the opportunities for women and people of color in the future. Harris’s own words were: “while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”
Harris being the first vice president to wear a dress to her inauguration doesn’t mean America is guaranteed more diverse elected officials across the country or that having diverse leaders will solve America’s problems. An elected official’s policy and behavior judge their success. However, for a start to evolving what one of the highest elected officials of America looks like and their role as a leader, Madam Vice President Kamala Harris is an excellent continuation of America’s progress.
