What Kamala Harris鈥� Candidacy Means

Jul 24, 2024

After weeks of internal and external pressure, on Sunday President Joe Biden of the 2024 presidential race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, for the Democratic Party nomination. Harris quickly received more than to become the likely nominee at the Democratic National Convention in August. Her campaign announced it raised a record-breaking .

In 2020, Harris became the first woman and the first woman of color to ever be vice president. If elected this November, her presidency would be equally groundbreaking on the issue of demographic representation.

Aimee Allison, founder and president of , a national organization building the political power of women of color, spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about Harris as presidential nominee.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.