Harris offers new hope, energizing Nevadans as she runs for president

The Nevada Harris for President campaign saw a surge in momentum from volunteers, and community advocates agree that the vice president has sparked a new fire for many, including minority voters who had been underwhelmed by their options in this year’s presidential election.

In 2021, Kamala Harris made history as the first woman and woman of color to become Vice President. Three and a half years later, as she fights to become the first female president of any race, Harris continues to make history, with her campaign raising an astounding $126 million as of Tuesday, including donations from roughly half-a-million first-time donors. 

The Nevada Harris for President campaign (formerly the Biden-Harris campaign) also saw a surge in momentum from volunteers after President Joe Biden on Sunday announced he would step  aside and endorsed Harris. The campaign recruited nearly 500 Nevadans to volunteer, which is more than three times that of a normal Sunday, the campaign said.

Harris — who is 59 years-old and the daughter of an Indian mother and Black, Jamaican father — has energized many voters after concerns over Biden’s age clouded people’s perception of his ability to continue to lead.  

For Carolyn Salvador Avila, a UNLV student, national president of College Democrats of America, and the youngest delegate for the Nevada Democratic Party, Harris is “opening the door not just for women, but for people of color to get involved and have their voices heard as well on the issues that they care about.” 

She added that though Biden was also “in-tune with what the people needed,” Harris’ life experiences make her more relatable.

“She — who’s grown up as a person of color, who’s grown up as a woman in this world, and who’s also grown up in a generation where I think they did start to see the effects of things like climate and all of that in her time – [it] brings her just that much closer to understanding the way that we feel about certain issues,” Salvador Avila said.

What once was a dream, the possibility of the US having its first female president, is closer than ever, she said. 

“It was something fun to latch on to, but seeing it actually happen to a woman right now is so encouraging. Honestly, it means to me that the door is finally going to be open, and that door will remain open, and we will see more women getting involved in these sorts of big, big elections, and we’ll have that representation involved,” Salvador Avila said. “It’s very possible that by January of next year, we will have a female president, and not just any female, it’s a woman of color who’s done so much with her career.”

When Biden selected Harris in 2020, she became just the third woman to ever be selected as a vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket, and the first Black woman to be nominated.

Nevadans aren’t new to being part of making history — in 2016, Nevadans elected the first Latina senator, Catherine Cortez Masto, and in 2019, the state Legislature became the first majority-female legislature in the US. 

Danna Lovell, president of Emerge Nevada, an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office, told The Nevadan that Harris’ presumptive nomination not only has energized her, but also given her new found hope to be part of another historic moment. 

“I know this is going to get those that have been on the sidelines excited … It is really exciting and so inspirational to be living the history that we had hoped for all along,” Lovell said, adding that Harris might attract people from both parties who had felt discouraged by both Biden and Donald Trump. “It was almost like a no-win situation for either side, really. And now there’s a new, fresh perspective on the election, and the ability and the possibilities of having that new fresh face.”

Since 2006, Emerge Nevada has aimed to get women from diverse backgrounds elected in the state to lift the “voices of those communities that can only be represented by people from their own community,” Lovell said. 

“We know that women are already balancing budgets in their household, keeping schedules, and promoting our future generations with their children,” she continued. “They’re used to leading in different ways. And having the opportunity to make policies that are good for their families, are really, good for all of us.”

C.H. Miller, president of the Urban Chamber of Commerce and a candidate for the City of Las Vegas Council, echoed that sentiment and said representation in leadership that reflects the country’s diversity is key for democracy. 

“We see from our state legislature to the folks who are getting elected to office, that we care deeply about representation and having the proper representation at all levels of our governing bodies. So why not in the White House?” Miller said. “People are seeing an opportunity. They’re seeing an opportunity for the, at times, most marginalized people to actually have an opportunity to succeed, to be engaged, to be heard, to be seen. And that’s one of the most important things we can do, is make sure that all voices represented in this country are heard and seen.”

Before becoming the first Black, South Asian, and female vice president of the United States, Harris was the first Black woman to be elected as a local district attorney in California, the first woman to serve as California’s attorney general, and the first South Asian American senator. 

“I think that is a huge improvement forward for our country that we can look at it and say that Vice President Kamala Harris has the experience, she has the know-how. She has a tremendous amount of qualification and experience that says, regardless of gender, she is the one that can take us forward,” Miller said. “When we saw President Obama, we were like, ‘Okay, yes, we can.’ And now we have this opportunity to do it again and break another ceiling, another barrier, for women as a whole, but particularly for Black women.”