Democratic strategist Van Jones hailed Vice President Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic field as a “huge event.”
“Take a breath,” Jones said. said on Friday “Take a breath, this is a big deal,” anchor Phil Mattingly said on CNN’s “The Lead.”
Harris was officially nominated as the Democratic nominee by the Democratic National Committee in a virtual roll call vote on Friday, and if elected in November, she would become the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the highest office in the United States.
“I’ve been voting for Kamala Harris for so long that I sometimes forget how amazing she is,” Jones told Mattingly. “And then when I saw they were selling merchandise that said ‘History Made,’ that ‘History Made’ merchandise sold out almost immediately, and I was like, ‘This is a big deal. This is a really big deal.'”
“When I think about my mother and my grandmother, we lived in a time when a black woman president was unthinkable,” he continued. “Even comedians would not joke about a black woman president, because it was so unthinkable.”
He added: “This is 400 years of history. This is a very significant event today and we should not rush through it.”
Harris’ comments come less than two weeks after she announced her intention to run on behalf of President Biden and shortly after she secured the number of votes needed to be nominated. Biden announced last month that he was stepping down and subsequently endorsed Harris.
Within days, Harris had the pledged delegate support she needed to clinch the nomination, while also growing her list of key Democratic allies and raising more funds than ever before.
“I am honored to be the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president of the United States, and I want to say the tireless work of our delegates, state leaders and staff has been crucial to making this moment possible,” Harris said Friday, when the news was announced.
Her extraordinary rise to the top came after weeks of confusion within the Democratic Party over whether Biden could beat Trump in November or hang on to another four years in the White House. The confusion was sparked by a tough debate performance in which Biden lacked energy, sounded raspy and lost his train of thought.
All eyes are now on Harris, who is expected to name her running mate in the coming days. Though she has signaled she has not yet chosen, several names have emerged at the top of the list, including Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro (Pennsylvania) and Gov. Tim Walz (Minnesota), Sen. Mark Kelly (Arizona), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Jones said Friday that Shapiro “is the person that makes the most sense to run this campaign successfully.”
“Pennsylvania is a must-win state,” Jones told Mattingly. “He’s incredibly popular in Pennsylvania, he’s a beloved figure in Pennsylvania, and he could make a big difference.”
“He attracts Republican and Democratic votes every time he runs for office, so he’s taken flak,” he said, “but honestly, it takes a lot of courage on her part to put up a black and a Jewish candidate.”
But, Jones added, “We’re not afraid of bigotry. We’re not afraid of anti-Semitic bigotry. We’re not afraid of anti-Black bigotry. We’re not afraid of anti-woman bigotry.”
“We are going to choose strong leaders, regardless of how they look or how they pray,” he added.
