By Clint Confehr
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is gaining support from a reorganized multi-racial and cross generational coalition that put Barack Obama in the White House, and last week another group emerged for the Biden-Harris ticket.
“We need all groups of voters — regardless of race, creed or religion — to come out to vote for Joe Biden for president on Nov. 3,” Black Women for Biden-Harris National Co-Chairs Danyell Smith and Pat Duncan said in a joint statement.
Black Women for Biden-Harris is “a multi-cultural, intergenerational network of women and men, known as ‘Good Brothers,’” the women said, announcing an expansion of their national network.
The historic nomination of Sen. Kamala Harris as Democratic Presidential Nominee Joseph R. Biden’s running mate has inspired the creation of the South Asian Women Connection for Biden-Harris. Harris’ mother is from India; her father is from Jamaica.
“Our coalition will provide South Asian women with a platform to be involved in an historic Democratic victory, where a woman with South Asian and African American and Jamaican heritage is on the ticket,” South Asian Women Connection Founder said Aisha Khan of Baltimore.
Sen. Kamala Harris’ “candidacy proves that America can provide opportunities for everyone,” said Khan, who’s also an elected member of Maryland’s Democratic State Central Committee, a South Asian Muslim woman, and an entrepreneur.
The coalition includes Black men, millennials, and other groups.
“We are one voice, same purpose!” Smith said.
Knowing that minorities are not a monolithic voting block of Democrats, Smith said the coalition is campaigning among their own demographic groups, adding, “We have also been talking to other groups of women.”
It’s an “all hands on deck” moment, she said, emphasizing, “This is about humanity … saving our democracy … our constitutional rights.
“A great example was all the protests,” Smith continued. “You can see people of all races going to protest.
“We’re saying turn your protest into a vote.”
Economic status is another factor. Coalition leaders are finding that many protestors in the streets are people in financial straights. They are the working poor; people working two jobs to survive.
“People are worried,” Smith said. It’s not a race issue. It’s a humanitarian issue for all of us.”
Susan Kyles of Washington, D.C., the Tennessee State Liaison for Black Women for Biden-Harris and a former resident of Memphis, said “The president made promises to people that he was going to make sure the farmers were taken care of, and I don’t think they saw the changes they expected.”
As for immigration,” Kyles said, “Tennessee still uses many immigrants for those crops’ harvest, and we’re seeing that we cannot provide what’s needed for agriculture.”
Smith agreed, “In Maryland’s crab industry, they don’t have anybody to separate the meat from the shells.”
Smith said Black women are counting on Biden and Harris to include their communities in the decision-making process for new policies, legislation and programs to uplift and improve their communities. Their issues include health disparities, criminal justice reform, educational equity, violence protection, domestic violence prevention, employment opportunities, economic development, stopping voter suppression and closing the digital divide.
