COLUMBUS (WCMH) — As America prepares for the new president and vice president to be sworn into office, people in Columbus are fired up to continue to advocate for change.
Stephanie Hightower with the Columbus Urban League said vice president-elect Kamala Harris’ win as part of the ticket is a historic moment for African-American women and all people of color.
“There’s just a sense of calmness now and perspective that democracy does work,” she said.
Hightower added that the election results show people’s votes do matter when they come together.
“Tonight, I reflect on their struggle, their determination and the strength of their vision to see what can be unburdened by what has been,” Harris said during her first speech as vice president-elect Saturday night, wearing a white suit in tribute to women’s suffrage. She called it a testament to President-elect Joe Biden’s character that “he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country, and select a woman and his vice president.”
“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,” Harris said in her first post-election address to the nation.
The name Kamala Harris now has different meanings for different women and girls.
“What it says is you can be your authentic self,” Hightower said. “It’s OK to be a woman. It’s OK to be a girl.”
After four days of counting, the Democrats’ win came late Saturday morning when election officials in Pennsylvania declared Biden has received enough of the state’s votes to earn its 20 electoral votes. A short while later, Nevada also declared Biden the winner there, pushing his electoral total to 290. A candidate needs to reach 270 in order to win the presidency.
Hightower hopes this will encourage people to keep the same energy seen during the elections to be used towards more inclusiveness for black and marginalized communities.
“We need to just be more willing, all of us, to accept who we are as a community and know that we are our brothers’ keepers,” she said. “We have to make sure that economically, everybody has the opportunity to be a contributing member of society.”
Aggie Barrington, 9, sees a bright future for herself in Harris’ election.
“It’s really cool that she proved that girls can do what boys can do,” she said.
A rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, Harris served as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. After she ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate.
Biden and Harris will be sworn into office Jan. 20,2021