Like Kamala Harris, I know what it’s like to be dismissed as an unqualified diversity hire

She has all but secured the Democratic presidential nomination, and raised more donations in one day than any other candidate in history. But the US vice-president will face unprecedented levels of racism in her bid for the White House, says Diane Abbott – and not just from the American right

Liberal white commentators have voiced concern about a Kamala Harris ‘coronation’ (AP)

A Black woman is poised to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidency of the United States. That, in itself, is remarkable. But if Kamala Harris goes on to be elected US president and leader of the free world in November, that would be epoch-making.

A tiny but noisy group of campaigners online are already arguing fiercely for a “dream ticket” of Kamala and the secretary of state for transportation, Pete Buttigieg, as her running mate. He is clever, articulate and very good in the media. He is also an out-gay man.

But this dream ticket could never happen. For one thing, it would blow the top off the heads of the bigots who support Donald Trump. But the fact that it is even discussed, if only half seriously, points to the transformative nature of Kamala’s candidacy for the White House.

Having secured enough delegates to become the Democratic presidential nominee – within hours of Joe Biden announcing his intention not to run – the racists are now massing on both sides of the Atlantic. Some of this racism is explicit – but some of it is implicit, with concerned liberal white commentators expounding on the dangers of a Kamala “coronation”.

They talk as if she has been plucked off the street. But she is vice-president – and her sole constitutional function is to step up, where necessary, for the president. As Biden himself said a few days ago, if he did not think she could do the job, he would not have appointed her.

Maybe those white commentators, now wringing their hands about Kamala’s suitability for the presidency, should have said something when she was originally appointed as the vice-president? But the critique of Kamala that is increasingly being put forward is a simple one – that she is stupid. Kamala was district attorney of one of the largest American cities, attorney general of the second largest justice department in the country, and a US senator.

But still her critics, both liberal and conservative, insist on talking about her as if she is some sort of unqualified diversity hire. On both sides of the Atlantic, accusing Black female politicians of stupidity is standard abuse. I know because I have had over 30 years of the accusation being thrown at me.

There is no doubt that if Kamala becomes the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency, she will face unprecedented levels of racism – and not just from the right. But she will also have important advantages.

She eliminates the Republican argument that Biden as the Democratic candidate is too old and infirm. Instead, Trump at 78 will be the oldest person ever to run for the presidency of the United States.

She is well qualified for the role, a good deal better qualified than Trump himself. She is a top-level prosecutor and Trump is a convicted felon. I doubt if he will want to debate her – but, if they do go head-to-head on live TV, she will eviscerate him.

Biden is a Catholic and, although he eventually came out in support of abortion, was never comfortable with the issue. By contrast, Kamala is passionate about a woman’s right to choose. She was already the administration’s most effective national campaigner on this subject. Trump, by contrast, boasts about appointing the Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalised abortion throughout the US and protected a woman’s right to choose.

More recently, Trump has sought to modify his position and say that abortion law is a matter for individual states. But his newly appointed deputy, senator JD Vance, is even worse than Trump himself on the subject. Vance emphatically supports a nationwide ban, and criticises exceptions for rape and incest survivors.

Reproductive rights played a key role in the 2022 US midterm elections. The issue did not just bring tens of thousands of Democratic-supporting women out to vote, it was a deciding factor for many female swing voters. Kamala, head-to-head with anti-abortionists like Trump and Vance, could only be a winner for the Democratic Party.

She also has the potential to mobilise the party base in a way that Biden never could. On her very first day as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, she broke the party’s fundraising records, generating $81m (£63m) from grassroots donors in just 24 hours.

The indications are that young people, both Black and white, who are inclined to dismiss all politicians as the same, will take a second look at Kamala Harris. And Black women, for so long the strongest source of support for the Democratic Party, are exhilarated at the possibility of voting for someone who looks like them. They will do whatever it takes to get Kamala over the line.

For all Trump’s claims that Harris will be easier to beat than Biden, she is the opponent he fears the most. The daughter of immigrants, a committed feminist and a progressive, she represents the opposite of everything that he and his hardcore followers believe in.

If the election of Barack Obama was history-making, the election of a Black female president would be even more so. And increasing numbers of progressives and Democrats at all levels of their party are saying what was said during Obama’s 2008 campaign: “Yes we can.”

Diane Abbott is Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and mother of the House