Here's Why Kamala Harris Has Emerged As A Front-Runner In 2020 US Presidential Elections
After a fiery exchange of words with Joe Biden, another Presidential candidate hopeful, Kamala Harris has suddenly emerged as the crowd favourite after the recent democratic debate. Her words "I would like to speak on the issue of race" will go down in history if she's able to win that candidacy. California Senator Kamala Harris had announced she will run for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. Symbolically, she chose to make this announcement on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, earlier this year.
¡°My entire career has been focused on keeping people safe,¡± Harris said, referencing her former role as state attorney general. ¡°It¡¯s probably one of the things that motivates me more than anything else, and when I look at this moment in time, I know the American people deserve to have somebody who is going to fight for them, who is going to see them, who will hear them, who will care about them, who will be concerned about their experience, and put them in front of self-interests.¡±
Harris, the 54-year-old daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, made history when in 2016 she became the second Black woman ever to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Her announcement is not exactly a surprise: the career prosecutor and former California attorney general has been rumored as a potential presidential candidate even before she took federal office for the following reasons:
1. Gun control will be at the forefront of her campaign:
Just days before announcing, Kamala addressed how detrimental gun-violence is.
A real national emergency is the epidemic of gun violence in America. On average, 96 people die from it every single day. Let's do something about that.
¡ª Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) 12 January 2019
Harris is a supporter of the Second Amendment who has also made it clear that she backs ¡°common-sense¡± gun control. She advocates for oversight when she articulately said, ¡°Assault weapons shouldn't be walking the streets of a civilised country. We should have universal background checks,¡± Harris said. ¡°It makes sense.¡±
2. Kamala Harris has a plan to end the gender wage gap:
Kamala Harris unveiled an impressive proposal aimed at closing the gender wage gap by requiring corporations to certify that women and men receive equal pay for equal work or face financial penalties.
Under Harris' proposal, companies with 100 or more employees would be required to obtain a biannual "equal pay certification" proving they pay men and women equally. The best part? The burden is no longer on employees to try to prove gender-based pay discrimination, instead requiring employers to proactively enforce equal pay.
3. Issues of race are integral:
Sen. Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden over his past record on the issue of race, in perhaps one of the most emotional moments of the first presidential primary debate's second night.
"I do not believe you are a racist," she began, before adding that it was hurtful to hear Biden speak highly of two segregationist senators and his work opposing busing. Harris continued: "You know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me."
There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/XKm2xP1MDH
¡ª Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) 28 June 2019
4. Kamala Harris support legalizing weed for a very crucial reason:
In an interview on New York City radio show The Breakfast Club, Sen. Kamala Harris said she supports legalising marijuana and that she smoked it "a long time ago" in college.
But the real reason for taking such a stand is revealed by Harris in her new book, published a couple of months ago, titled: "The Truths We Hold: An American Journey¡±. Harris writes, ¡°We need to legalise marijuana and regulate it," she wrote, emphasising the fact that people of colour are disproportionately arrested for marijuana offences. "And we need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offences from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives."
5. Harris¡¯s new basic income style bill is actually great
Harris is strongly pushing for LIFT the Middle Class Act. This bill if proposed into action would offer a sizeable cash payment to most middle-class households. Single people would get $250 per month or $3,000 a year, married couples would get $500 per month or $6,000 a year, and it would phase out for singles without kids making $50,000 or more, and for married couples or single people with kids making $100,000 or more.
If Harris succeeds at obtaining the Democratic nomination and defeating Trump in November 2020, she would be the first woman and the second Black person to become president of the United States in the nation's 244-year-old history.
