Kamala Harris’s run for president is getting ugly, but Republican misogyny may backfire this time
Originally published by Meredith Ralston for The Conversation
United States Vice President Kamala Harris is making a bid for the Oval Office, replacing President Joe Biden to square off against Republican Donald Trump. She may become the first woman and second racialized person to become U.S. president.
It won’t be an easy road. Hopefully Harris possesses, in the words conveyed to me by the late New Democratic Party leader Alexa McDonough, the “skin of a rhinoceros” to withstand the deluge of negative attack ads and abuse she’s going to face and is already confronting.
The gloves, in fact, are off, with Harris being subjected to both sexism and racism. She has been called a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) candidate, the implication being she’s unqualified to be president. There have also been insinuations that she has “slept her way to the top,” a classic way to undermine the accomplishments of successful women.
In 2021, JD Vance, now Trump’s running mate, criticized her and several other prominent Democrats as being “childless cat ladies” with no stake in the future of the country. Harris does, in fact, have stepchildren, but more importantly, the idea that childless people are less than those with children goes to the heart of Republican policy and lies behind the drive to eliminate abortion rights for women.