Biden Tapping Kamala Harris Proves Race Is King

California Senator Kamala Harris will be the vice president on the Democrat ticket in November.

Kamala Harris takes oath of office as United States Senator in 2016, when Joe Biden was Vice President.

Mr. Biden no doubt chose her to try to appease and inspire non-white Democrats, who are now about half the party. The Democrats lost in 2016, when the ticket was all white, in part because black voter turnout went down from its 2008 and 2012 levels. The party will not want to make the same mistake again.

Sen. Harris’ main “qualifications” appear to be her sex and race. She has very little experience, having been elected to the Senate only in 2016. She is not from a “swing state.” Her bid for the presidential nomination went nowhere; she dropped out before a single vote was cast. She also memorably attacked Joe Biden as a quasi-racist during her brief run:

Her selection marks the continued change of American politics from “regional” to “racial.” Historically, president/vice-president pairings have been North/South. The Democrats, in particular, tried always to achieve “regional harmony.”

• 1960: John Kennedy (MA) and Lyndon Johnson (TX)
• 1964: Lyndon Johnson (TX) and Hubert Humphrey (MN)
• 1976 and 1980: Jimmy Carter (GA) and Walter Mondale (MN)
• 1988: Michael Dukakis (MA) and Lloyd Bentsen (TX)
• 2000: Al Gore (TN) and Joe Lieberman (CT)
• 2004: John Kerry (MA) and John Edwards (NC)

The 1992 and 1996 elections were instances of the Democrats going “all Southern,” with Bill Clinton (AR) and Al Gore (TN). Deliberate or not, this strategy attracted Southern voters who had swung Republican in the 1980s, while keeping Northern and Western liberals loyal because of party and ideology. After winning very few states in presidential elections after 1976, in the 1990s, the Democrats came back strong:

The results of the 1992 Presidential election. (Credit Image: Nkocharh via Wikimedia)

The result of 1996 Presidential election. (Credit Image: Nkocharh via Wikimedia)

In 2008 and 2012, neither party had a Southerner on its ticket. The Democrats won, undoubtedly because their ticket was racially mixed. Barack Obama and Joe Biden together turned out high numbers of white liberals and non-whites. In both elections, the white Republican ticket failed to inspire enough whites — in any region.

In 2016, the Republicans had an all-Northern ticket: Donald Trump (NY) and Mike Pence (IN), while the Democrats balanced their ticket in the usual way. Hillary Clinton had been a New York senator, and Tim Kaine is a Virginia senator. But aside from Virginia, the ticket lost every state in the South.

This white ticket undoubtedly depressed minority turnout and tipped the election. The Republicans, won — and won almost all of the South — with an entirely Northern ticket, by appealing to issues that turned out the white working class, a constituency neglected by “diversity”-obsessed Democrats.

Regions are no longer as important as they were. Race is king.

In 2020, neither ticket has a Southerner. The only Southern states in play for the Democrats are those that have become less white than they were 10 or even just five years ago. Sen. Harris was therefore a good choice to increase the non-white vote for the Democrats, regardless of region. The Democrats are clearly trying to recreate their winning ’08/’12 strategy, choosing a white man to reassure their party’s moderates, and a non-white to ensure that the rising tide of color turns out to vote bigly. It is a reasonable plan.

Sen. Harris may increase non-white “voter enthusiasm” in Georgia, which, because of the state’s demographic change, could make the state go blue. The historic regional balance, meanwhile, is useless in our era. If Mr. Biden had chosen Doug Jones, the white Democrat Alabama senator, it still would probably not mean he could win that state, or any neighboring state.

Will the Democrats win?

Non-whites will vote in higher numbers than they did in 2016; that is a guarantee. That will hurt President Trump because he barely won in 2016. However, the socialist wing of the Democrat Party is still bitter about Bernie Sanders’ loss of the nomination. They despise Mr. Biden and Sen. Harris. Will they compromise to defeat Donald Trump or stay home and sulk?

The presidential debates are yet to come. There is a good chance that during one, two, or three of them, Mr. Biden will have a dramatic “senior moment” that changes the race. But one thing is certain: The regionalism that has defined American politics since its founding is over. Now, it’s all about race, stupid.