Culled from VANGUARD
By Clifford Ndujihe, Politics Editor
Arguably, the United States of America is having one of its keenest presidential elections ever. Ahead of the conclusion of voting, today, former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party, and Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, as of the time of filing this report, were locked in a very tight race.
So far, no fewer than 75 million people have voted in person early or by mail, according to the NBC tracker of the poll.
Yesterday, the final day before the presidential election, and the last opportunity for the candidates to deliver their pitch to voters, Trump and Harris were running neck-and-neck, both nationally and in most swing states, causing anxiety among supporters of both camps.
Currently, it is difficult to tell if Trump, the 45th president will emerge as the 47th leader or Harris, the 49th Vice-President, will become the 47th president.
Although Harris, the third US female presidential candidate, announced her campaign on July 21, 2024, exactly 104 days ago, compared to her opponent, who had the opportunity of starting a year before the election, she has so far ran a good campaign that has kept the race on live wire.
Harris, the 11th female US VP, is already shattering records, and has Trump to contend with in her meteoric political rise. If she wins today’s election, four years after becoming VP in 2020, she will be the first US female president.
Harris has served as the US’ first woman, first Black, and first South Asian vice president since January 2021. She represented California in the US Senate from January 2017 to January 2021, where she became the first South Asian woman and only the second Black woman to serve in the Senate. Harris was District Attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011. She was California’s Attorney-General from 2011 to 2017, serving as the first Black woman to be elected statewide in California. Harris was an aspirant for president in the 2020 Democratic primary; she left the race before the first primary contest. In 2024, she launched her candidacy in July 2024 when President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid and endorsed her for the Democratic nomination. She earned the requisite delegate votes necessary to secure the Democratic nomination on August 6, 2024.
10 female VPs before Harris
Other female VPs before her were Marrelta Show (1884), Equal Rights Party; Lena Springs (1924), Democratic Party; Charlotta Spears Boss (1952), Progressive Party; Frances Farenthold (1972), Democratic Party; Toni Nathan (1972), Republican Party; LaDonna Harris (1980), Citizens Party; Geraldene Ame Ferraro (1984), Emma Wong Mar (1984), Peace and Freedom Party; Winona LaDuke (1996, 2000), Green Party; and Sarah Palin (2008), Republican Party.
Will Harris succeed where Hillary Clinton, Woodhull, others failed?
Clearly, the US has one of her brightest chances of producing female president Harris after Senator Hillary Clinton’s controversial miss in 2016.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be a major party’s nominee for president. Despite winning the popular vote by almost three million votes, Clinton lost the Electoral College and conceded the general election on November 9, 2016, to Trump.
Eight years later, Harris has become the second woman to be a major party’s candidate and needs at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes to succeed President Joe Biden.
Will she get the needed votes? Having failed to get re-elected in 2020, will Trump get it today?
Already, the atmosphere is tense and volatile and Trump’s camp is alleging that the 2024 early voting was being rigged. On January 6, 2021, there was a violent mob attack on Capitol Hill in Trump’s rejection of the 2020 election results. Will the trend recur in this election? Only time will tell.
Culled from VANGUARD
