LaNiece Jones first met Vice President Kamala Harris in the 1990s, when they were chapter members of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA). The BWOPA executive director and chief operating officer said Harris always had a certain spark about her.
“She was very focused and very determined and thoughtful about her work… and conscientious about the community that she was impacting,” she told San José Spotlight. “To be able to see her ascension and how she moved is very profound and very uplifting.”
Jones said since Harris announced her presidential run and is now the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden left the race, BWOPA has seen an influx of Black women mobilizing in support. Jones said former President Barack Obama’s run was the last time she’s seen this much excitement for a candidate. Advocates say that fervor could reverberate down the ballot, boosting the success of local female candidates this November, as multiple women vie for seats in Santa Clara County.
Tara Sreekrishnan, a county Office of Education board member and deputy chief of staff and legislative director for state Sen. Dave Cortese, is running against Foothill-De Anza Community College District board member Patrick Ahrens for State Assembly District 26, which encompasses Cupertino, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and parts of San Jose. Four women are heading to the November runoff for the county Board of Supervisors races, including Sally Lieber and Margaret Abe-Koga in District 5 and Madison Nguyen and Betty Duong in District 2. District 2’s outcome will be historic, as voters will elect its first Vietnamese American supervisor in the county’s history.
In San Jose, Pamela Campos and Olivia Navarro are running for City Council seats in districts 2 and 6, respectively. Campos’ campaign makes a point to reference the importance of electing “women up and down the ballot” to make history, according to a text promoting her council run.
Susannah Delano, executive director of female candidate scouting and recruiting organization Close the Gap California, said the momentum of the Harris campaign — which raised a total of roughly $310 million after July — will translate into local female candidate wins. She said this is a pivotal moment and expects high voter turnout, with more women elected statewide in purple areas split between Democrats and Republicans.
Tuesday’s announcement of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, elicited excitement, with the campaign raising $36 million shortly after it became public in addition to the $310 million.
Delano said candidates such as Sreekrishnan reflect “core democratic issues” seen in Harris and “that pent-up desire to really take a step forward, to not go back in terms of reflective representation.”
“(There) really is a strong down ballot — at the city council level, county board level, increasingly at the state legislative level — of rising leaders who really do reflect (the majority) of Californians and (the) American people and they are ready to lead,” she told San José Spotlight.
Some communities, however, said more than just representation matters when it comes to voting.
Deep Singh, co-founder and executive director of semi-local South Asian grassroots nonprofit Jakara Movement, said the South Asian community weighs the politicians’ values more than their identities. He said Harris’ interactions with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi are concerning to some in the community, leaving them with cautious optimism about her potential presidency.
“I think there’s a feeling among South Asian diasporic communities that representation matters,” he told San José Spotlight. “But I believe that far more than representation, people really are looking around people’s politics and policies and to make sure that there’s alignment in their priorities.”
Jones said Harris’ run is not just empowering women now, but will help inform and inspire future female candidates to run for office, regardless of the election’s results.
“It’s something for our younger generation, for the young girls, to be able to see that is something that is attainable for them,” she said.
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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