Obama needed to convince a majority of voters that he would govern on their behalf, and so even when he gave his famed race speech in Philadelphia, he was quick to separate his historical analysis of racism from his policy intentions: Only 12 percent of the electorate, after all, is African-American. As much as part of Obama's 2008 appeal was that he would be the first black president, he was at pains to avoid proposing policy specifically aimed at the black community. In hiring Harris to help lead policy on her campaign, it's a reasonable bet that Clinton is signaling she agrees, and intends to try to give them reasons to come to the polls.Īnd here, Clinton might run a very different kind of campaign than Obama. Harris's point is that most of those voters are women, and that if Clinton wants them to turn out, she needs to give them reason to turn out. There has been wide skepticism that Clinton can sustain the high turnout among minority voters that Obama managed. Harris's paper doesn't delve deep into what kinds of policies are likely to win over women of color, but her basic political theory is an interesting signal of how Hillary Clinton's campaign might try to fashion its own version of Obama's coalition. ( Maya Harris/Center for American Progress) This chart from her paper makes the point well - in every subgroup you can think of, women vote at higher rates than men, and African-American women vote at higher rates than anyone: Moreover, women of color aren't just eligible to vote - they really do vote, at least if you give them something to vote for. "Women are the country’s largest voting bloc, and women of color are the fastest-growing segment of that group," she writes, going on to note that "women of color represent 74 percent of the growth in eligible women voters since 2000." She spends most of the paper laying out just how decisive these voters will be in future elections. The paper's title is "Women of Color: A Growing Force in the American Electorate," and in it, Harris criticizes politicians and political strategists for only addressing the concerns of women of color "as a part of broader efforts aimed at women, youth, or a specific racial or ethnic group." Women of color, Harris argues, are their own, incredibly fast-growing voting bloc, and any politician who wants to win them needs to make sure "their interests are priorities on the policy agenda."īut Harris's paper isn't just about how to win the votes of women of color it's also about why politicians should try. She's a law professor and, most recently, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she published only a single paper - but it's a paper that may prove key to Clinton's 2016 efforts to hold, and even expand, Obama's coalition. She didn't hold a key position in Bill Clinton's White House, or on Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, or in Hillary Clinton's State Department. Harris, the sister of California Senate candidate Kamala Harris, isn't a known member of Clintonland. Two of them were widely expected: Jake Sullivan, a top aide to Clinton when she was at the State Department, and Ann O'Leary, who served as legislative director in Clinton's Senate office, both made the cut.īut the third member of the team, Maya Harris, is perhaps the most interesting. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton named a triad of wonks to lead her policy team.
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