

She wanted to say something that night that young Americans would remember. We are talking over Zoom, and she’s dressed in a deep brown blazer and black pearls, sitting in front of not one but two American flags, on a week in which she and Biden have begun naming their Cabinet. “It was very important for me to speak to the moment, and the moment includes understanding that there is a great responsibility that comes with being a first,” Harris says of that evening. That night, in a suit so white it glowed, she and Biden gave their victory speeches in front of a drive-up rally and millions of people watching from home. What they had done was remarkable-ousting a bigoted and cruel president from office-but, given the wreckage left behind, it was only the beginning. We did it, Joe,” she tells him, and laughs with a tired happiness. ‘Somebody go turn off the water!’ ” We all saw a clip of what came next: Harris standing on a grassy lawn, still in workout wear, on the phone with President-elect Joe Biden. “Luckily enough there were people in the house. “Then I looked at my phone, and the texts came that they had called the race, and I ran downstairs to find Doug-never turned off the water,” Harris says to me with a laugh. She then headed back to the inn where they were staying, near Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to take a shower and prepare for meetings Emhoff decided to continue on by himself.

(On election night that year, her opponent had declared victory, too.) On the chilly, sunny morning of November 7, Harris started the day by power walking with her husband, entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff. This is the second time Harris, 56, has been through a dragged-out contest when she ran for attorney general of California in 2010, the race was so close that ballot counting went on for more than three weeks. In January, a mob of Trump’s supporters followed his lead: they rioted at the Capitol, violently raging through the halls and offices of Congress as lawmakers hid they looted and fought police officers, leaving five people dead.

Trump refused to concede, telling his followers that he had won the election, spreading conspiracy theories about fraud, and demanding recounts in as many states as he could. Despite those victories, Harris, Biden, and the rest of us had to wait for nearly a week for news outlets to declare them the winners, and another two weeks for the federal government to approve the transition. Biden earned over 80 million votes-more than any other presidential candidate in history.

My story converse yellow series#
Then, at the end of their steady, dutiful campaign, California Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden swept a series of likely and unlikely states, thanks to unprecedented voter turnout and a tide of mail-in ballots that carried Pennsylvania and Georgia. No one knew which way the election was headed, record numbers of people were losing their jobs, homelessness was worsening, COVID cases were spiking, and winter lockdowns loomed.
My story converse yellow free#
A FEW MONTHS AGO, the United States of America was in free fall.
