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This is an adapted excerpt from the July 9 episode of "Alex Wagner Tonight."
Black voters are extremely pragmatic. Most Black women in America are pragmatic, hence why they show up at the ballot box in the various ways they do. Last week, Melissa Murray and I traveled to Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, the suburbs — yes, Black women live in the suburbs — to discuss the upcoming election. We talked about a range of things, including Vice President Kamala Harris. All the women I spoke to said they liked the vice president. One woman asked the group how they would feel if the party skipped over Harris should Joe Biden be replaced on the Democratic ticket. The group said they would be upset but also noted that in this next election, our democracy is on the line — a pragmatic and practical answer.
What we’re witnessing in this ongoing debate over the vice president’s possible place at the top of the ticket is a fundamental misunderstanding, as my former boss Sen. Bernie Sanders would say, of two things. First, the process itself: It’s not politicians or party leaders that pick the president, it’s the people. And the people selected Biden. Now people can have qualms about the primary process and say they didn’t feel like it was open, but we can’t say that the primaries weren’t had and that ballots weren’t cast.
Secondly, there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the Democratic Party’s base voters and Black voters. I was at the Essence Festival this weekend talking to Black women and they brought up the issues of health care, abortion and the economy. Based on the conversations I had, the chief concern for Black women in this country is the economy, and they want a candidate who’s going to speak to that.
Based on the conversations I had, the chief concern for Black women in this country is the economy, and they want a candidate who’s going to speak to that.
However, there is a problem with outrage at even the suggestion that Harris’ name could appear at the top of the Democratic ticket. Some are questioning the audacity of the vice president, and the audacity of her supporters to believe she should be first in line to the presidency. Well, she is the vice president — literally there to be the president in case the commander in chief is unable to do the job, whether they are under anesthesia, whether the 25th Amendment is implemented, whether whatever. That’s what a vice president is for. The president selected her because he believed that in the event he could not carry out his duties, she could.
But this is the reality of the moment we’re in, in discussions I've had with folks who are members of the Democratic Party and have pledged their support to Biden, I have not heard many Black women voters say that they are walking away from him. Right now, it’s still President Biden’s name at the top of the ticket — it’s the Biden-Harris ticket and Democrats should act as such.