When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared victors in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the state’s 20 electoral votes guaranteed them victory in the 2020 race for president and vice president. Harris will become the African American and first woman elected vice president – if the incumbent concedes.
A graduate of Howard University with a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Harris is also the first graduate of an HBCU to be elected president or vice president.
“She has stood on the shoulders of many before her, and now she gets to clear a path for many who will come after her,” Dr. Wayne Frederick, president of Howard, told MSNBC’s Joy Reid when Harris was chosen for vice president.
At Howard, Harris served as a leader in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is the first soror of AKA or any Black sorority (or any sorority) elected vice president or president.
With Pennsylvania, Biden was projected to win at least 273 electoral votes; as election watchers all over the country and world know, 270 are needed to win. At press time, the Associated Press projected Biden to win 290 electoral votes.
As Biden/Harris voters celebrated, and CNN contributor Van Jones wept on international television, President Donald Trump did not concede. He plans to contest the election results in federal court. Senior members of his administration are talking about a “peaceful transition” to a second Trump presidency, not to a Biden administration.
Congresswoman-elect Cori Bush congratulated the president-elect and vice president-elect and embraced them in the context of her own historic election as Missouri’s first Black congresswoman.
“The people of St. Louis have elected our next president, vice president, and myself all for the same reason: we need transformative change that meets our needs. Our needs are urgent, and our pain is real. For the sake of those who have the very least, this moment must not be a time for complacency. It must be a moment for leading with radical love,” Bush told The American.
“At this moment, the White House, our house, is surrounded by walls put up by the current occupant of the Oval Office. We will knock down those walls, because love is knocking on the door. We will knock down those walls because change is knocking on the door. We will knock down those walls because We, The People, are knocking on the door.”
The DNC chair issued an exuberant statement.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won more votes than any other ticket in American history. We rebuilt the blue wall in the Midwest and flipped formerly red states like Georgia and Arizona. And Kamala Harris made history as the first woman and first person of color to be elected vice president of the United States,” DNC Chair Tom Perez said in a statement.
“We’ll tell our grandchildren about this moment. We’ll tell them how Kamala Harris broke down barriers and showed future generations, especially young women of color, that there is no height to which they cannot aspire. We’ll tell them how millions of Americans organized and mobilized to lift Joe and Kamala to victory.”
While Trump dug in to battle American voters and election authorities, Perez and Democrats celebrated.
“So today, we celebrate. We celebrate not just the end of an incompetent and compassionless presidency, but the beginning of a better one – a presidency grounded in the values of inclusion and opportunity for all. A presidency that believes health care is a right, diversity is a strength, and our economy should work for everyone,” Perez said.
“To the families of those who’ve lost loved ones to COVID-19, and to all our Americans yearning for change, our message is simple: You will finally get the leadership you deserve. The era of cruelty, chaos, and corruption is over. It’s time to build back better.”
Former U.S. President Barack Obama – of course, the nation’s first Black president who served with Biden as his vice president – was already focused on the long road ahead.
“The election results at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided. It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part – to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward, all of us remembering that we are one nation, under God,” Obama stated.
“I want to thank everyone who worked, organized, and volunteered for the Biden campaign, every American who got involved in their own way, and everybody who voted for the first time. Your efforts made a difference. Enjoy this moment. Then stay engaged. I know it can be exhausting. But for this democracy to endure, it requires our active citizenship and sustained focus on the issues – not just in an election season, but all the days in between. Our democracy needs all of us more than ever.”
Cori Bush said she is ready to get to work with the new leadership team – if the election is conceded and they take power. “I look forward to working with President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris,” she said, “to deliver the progress that my community — and communities like mine all across our country — need.”