Author Name: Carribean Channel, Cuba TV.
This story was originally published on canalcaribe.ict.cu. [1]

Joe Biden selects Kamala Harris for presidential race
Date: None

The election of Senator Kamala Harris as a running mate implies benefits and risks for former Vice President Joe Biden in the face of his confrontation at the polls with current US President Donald Trump.

With the selection of the legislator by California as its vice president, Biden, the virtual presidential candidate of the Democratic Party for the North American elections of November 3, fulfilled the promise made months ago to elect a female for the position.

In addition, he heard the calls of many party members, activists and leaders from different fields who asked him to choose an African American for the position, at a time of heated racial confrontations in the country.

In this way, Harris could not only become the first woman to reach the vice presidency of the United States, but she is already making history as the first African-American to appear on a presidential ballot for either of the two major American political parties. I have the great honor to announce that I have chosen Kamala Harris – an intrepid fighter for the common people and one of the best public servants in the country – as my running mate, the former vice president wrote on his Twitter account on August 11, when released the news.

In an email sent to his supporters that day, Biden added that the California lawmaker is the best person to help him win the fight against Republican Trump, who will seek re-election, and then lead the country beginning in January 2021.

According to The New York Times, Harris, 55, and the daughter of immigrant parents, brings a much more vigorous campaign style to the race than Biden, 77, with a gift for capturing moments of pure political electricity on the debate stage and elsewhere.

That outlet called Harris a “moderate pragmatist” and considered her one of the safest options among the candidates valued by Biden, as she has been a reliable ally of the Democratic establishment, with flexible political priorities that largely mirror those of the former vice president.

In turn, the Politico website referred to her as a former California attorney general and district attorney who faced criticism for a different record than the more progressive positions she defends today.

During the primary electoral fight, Harris, who was one of the Democratic candidates for the White House, was divided between appealing to the progressives who demand structural change in the country and satisfying the moderates, added Politico.

For the Los Angeles Times, the election of the Senate member carries symbolic weight at a time when race relations are more important to voters, particularly as Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, had his own very confrontational confrontation. publicized with Biden about race during the primaries.

According to the NPR web portal, the selection of the legislator creates a Democratic ballot that, in many ways, resembles the one constituted by Biden and former President Barack Obama in 2008: an older white man with extensive experience in foreign policy, paired with a younger, black running mate with immigrant roots and just four years in the Senate.

The data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, meanwhile, maintained that the Harris bet is another sign of the growing diversity of the Democratic Party, which last had a ballot in 2004 made up of just two white men, then-Senators John Kerry and John Edwards.

According to this medium, this process suggests that Democrats will rarely in the future have a two-white-man formula and, even, it is possible that they will rarely have one made up of only two white people (as in 2016 with Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine) or two men (as in 2012, with Obama and Biden). Likewise, the digital portal considered that the decision is evidence of the power of African Americans within the blue political formation, but it also represents another defeat for the left wing of the party.

After Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren finished their run for the White House, many liberal activists pressured Biden to choose the latter as their running mate, but they were unsuccessful.

Thus, although Harris has a voting record in the Senate considered quite liberal, he is not as far to the left as Warren, while his career as a prosecutor is not well regarded by many progressive voters of the party.

Broadly, his followers have argued that Harris could reinforce Biden’s appeal among black voters and women, without arousing particularly vehement opposition from the right or left.

Such possibilities, together with her national profile, her positions on political matters and even her family history, make her a suitable running mate for Biden, a presidential candidate who wants to continue the campaign smoothly, focused on showing more incompetence. Trump than his own credentials for the job.

But at the same time, the distrust the senator generates on the party’s progressive flank, even among young African-American voters, can turn into a handicap if the fight at the polls between Biden and Trump is very close.

In any case, some sources consider that this process of choosing a vice president will not have a significant impact on aspirations to the White House, given that, according to studies on the subject, the electoral impact of the vice president candidates is quite limited.

FiveThirtyEight said Harris, who was competent during the primary process debates, is unlikely to make any big mistakes that raise questions about why Biden selected her.

In addition, as a senator from California, a traditional Democratic stronghold, she does not bring with her the possibility of promoting Biden in any of the states where the race for the executive mansion is more fierce.

An article published on the Marketwatch news site argued that Biden, who is due to be officially confirmed as a candidate at the Democratic National Convention to be held on August 17-20, is already well known as a seasoned former vice president, making it unlikely that his running mate eclipse him.

The former vice president’s gain in choosing Harris, then, is that it is a valuable opportunity for Biden to define himself as a candidate and as a potential president, the text said.

(C) Cuba TV, Cuban state owned media.
[1] Url: https://www.canalcaribe.icrt.cu/en/joe-biden-selects-kamala-harris-for-presidential-race/