Politics and Current
Kamala Harris to Black Women: “The Power Is in Your Hands”
NEW ORLEANS, LA – JULY 06: Kamala Harris speaks on stage throughout the 2019 ESSENCE Festival presented by Coca-Cola on the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on July 6, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ESSENCE)
If Black women weren’t already energized with the upcoming 2020 election, Kamala Harris recently sat down with ESSENCE to remind us that we must always.
“The power is in your hands,” the Democratic senator said of the voting power our particular bloc has. Harris believes that Black women showed exactly how much influence we’ve got in the Alabama Senate elections and will proceed to wield that power to determine the subsequent president of the United States.
“Let’s keep doing what we are doing,” she encouraged.
Various key elections since 2016 have been decided by African-American voters, including the 2018 midterm elections. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in November 2018, 55 percent of eligible Black women forged ballots, meaning the bloc electoral turnout is six percent higher than the national turnout. That’s why experts recently conducted interviews Fortune the article called us “a key voting bloc in the 2020 presidential race.”
Harris believes that our efforts to at all times stay informed come from understanding that the stakes are so high. “It’s about vocal expression,” Harris added. “And it is such a powerful and powerful voice – the voice of Black women. And it needs to be heard.”
As a candidate, Harris insists she is going to do all the pieces she will to encourage that power, “because it’s real,” she says. “And it can and does determine the outcome.”
“We don’t have time for anyone to give us the lead. We are taking the initiative.”