Vice President Kamala Harris occupies a prominent place in the nation’s history and an increasingly significant place in the current political moment’s attention bandwidth. In the former case, as the first Black and first female Vice President, the former Senator and California Attorney General is accustomed to smashing through glass ceilings — her name is a history book certainty.
In the latter case, as the 2024 running mate of President Joe Biden, Harris commands far more attention than most second bananas — chiefly because a re-elected Biden would be 86 years old by the time he finished his second term in office.
The President’s age and health are already being made into a major issue by the Republican opposition. It’s an issue Democrats are also concerned with, since the electorate will be forced to consider that a vote for Biden could turn out to be a vote for Harris, thrusting her into a position of greater prominence than any running mate in recent history.
To every little girl across our nation: dream with ambition and lead with conviction. And know there's nothing you cannot achieve. pic.twitter.com/36yUM5y8Hb
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) May 30, 2023
And yet, 15 months out from the election, Harris starts off the first week of unofficial summer by tweeting a positive message from her ceiling-smashing identity — and tweets it to people who can’t even vote: Children.
Harris writes: “To every little girl across our nation: dream with ambition and lead with conviction. And know there’s nothing you cannot achieve.”
While the message is aimed at girls, there is no doubt that it means to appeal to their mothers and fathers, too.
Harris has been on a mission of inspiration of late, talking up new factories and burgeoning American manufacturing — especially of computer chips — and talking to other young people, namely the cadets/graduates of West Point 2023, where she became the first woman to address the graduating class.
To West Point’s Class of 2023: our nation believes in you — and we need you. pic.twitter.com/kYJ3NpJ4a1
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) May 28, 2023
“Our military,” Harris said, “is a force that underwrites global stability and our national security.” The cadets can vote, of course, and have a history of exercising their right.
