Twelve in Twelve

I have been intentionally late with this month’s review, as I’ve wanted to be as delicate with this book as possible.

I read this book out of sheer curiosity. But I also enjoy sincere political gossip. 107 Days, if you haven’t guessed, is former Vice President Kamala Harris’ political tell-all of her personal account of her time on the campaign trail for the 2024 election. During this election, the obvious and ultimate DNC nominee had 107 days to campaign against former (and current) President Donald J. Trump. And, for 107 days, Harris continued with the duties of the office of the Vice President, campaigned, debated, and much more. Harris narrates the book, and I have to admit, I do love hearing her speak. I find her voice extremely comforting and calming. I didn’t expect anyone but Harris to narrate her story. Why give your words to any other voice than your own?

Right off the bat, we’re plunged into the moment that Biden broke the news to Harris that he was dropping out of the race. The support was dwindling fast, especially after such a disastrous debate against Trump. Biden aids and campaign managers stated that morale was lower than expected; voters were wondering why Biden was going back on his promise to be a transitional president, and entering the race at such a decline. The financial support was disappearing. The establishment support back on the Hill was slipping away fast. Then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was telling Biden to step aside. So, naturally, as there were just a hundred plus days, the establishment Democrats began to shift their support to Biden’s Vice President.

The unofficial nomination happened fast – so did the entire campaign. High-profile democrats had to withhold their public support of Harris until the politically appropriate time. From the way that Harris made it sound, however, that wasn’t as big of an issue as the other one’s she had on her plate. She called on the Obama’s and the Clinton’s, both of whom voiced their private support for her in phone calls. They offered unofficial advice as she moved through the campaign process; what to look for in a vice president pick, how to approach debating Trump. It was an overwhelming waterfall of information for her; and that’s exactly how it felt while she recounted her experience. All though Harris was receiving support left, right and center from grass-roots communities, HBCUs, and eager independent donors, one person she was not receiving public support from – the Biden camp. Harris describes herself as a fiercely loyal person. So when the lack of concern, care and support was starting to become more evident from the Biden team, Harris no doubt was blindsided. It didn’t make sense to her and her team. She described the lack of support as disappointing and hurtful, and realized that many of Biden’s aids and campaign staff still felt extreme animosity towards Harris and her team, for her campaign attacks on Biden’s unsupportive stance on busing while he was a senator. For those unaware, busing was the practice of transporting students to different school districts outside of their neighborhoods, by bus. It was a practice used after segregation was outlawed in the United States post Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The goal was to integrate schools across the state once racial segregation was outlawed. In the 1970’s, when Biden was an up-and-coming senator, he labeled the practice a “liberal train wreck”. When Harris was running for president in 2020, among like 16 other candidates, her campaign took this fact and ran with it.

And yet, Biden still picked Harris to be his vice president. By doing so, one could argue that this secured the black vote for him – which helped him win South Carolina in the 2020 presidential election race. This was critical to his win as South Carolina serves as a very impactful and important swing state during federal election cycles. I won’t get into further detail of the intricacies of swing states 0r other election technicalities, because that would make this an entirely different blog. The point of the matter is, Harris noticed the disrespect. She felt it. And she watched for 107 days, as those aides and campaign staffers leaked stories, fed the media, and subtly tarnished her at every chance they got. These instances elicited a lot of sympathy from me. As she described this part of the campaign, I had flashbacks to Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

During that time, I was a senior in college, and I vividly remember watching her campaign announcement video in my Journalistic Ethics class. I was ecstatic to get to vote for a woman as she ran for president. It would be my second presidential election, my first being Barack Obama’s second term. I had been paying attention to politics for a while when Harris came onto the scene. And, as in Clinton’s campaign, Harris faced sexism and professional backlash. One thing became glaringly clear during the 2024 election, America does not like women in power. We can see evidence of this in how the media spoke about Clinton during her campaign, or how Nancy Pelosi was spoken about when she was Speaker during Trump and Biden’s administration. Harris was not immune to it during her time as VP either – neither was her team. When it comes to women in politics, I am constantly reminded of the quote; “she did everything he did, except backwards and in heels”. The quote refers to Ginger Rogers and her stamina and work ethic compared to Fred Astaire. Immediately, I knew Harris was going to be compared to her male peers, but at an even harsher rate because she’s also a black woman. The road is hard for women in America. It’s ten times as harder for black women.

Although I do not agree with some of Harris’ campaign messages, I was excited to watch her run. I followed all of her social media accounts, which were being flawlessly executed by staff members who were so in tune with each demographic they were advertising to. Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat…even X (forever known as Twitter); all platforms had very age-specific marketing rolling out daily. It was smart and in a lot ways, effective and attractive. But then why did she lose to vote? It felt like she was doing everything right, despite Biden’s lack of enthusiasm and strategic sewing of doubt. The momentum was there, the donations were there….the Democratic National Convention was three days packed with excitement and moving speeches and appearances. Kamala Harris’ campaign had all the makings of what the kids call hope-core. I certainly remember feeling excited about politics for the first time in a long time. I watched all three days of the convention with enthusiasm and intrigue.

And then came Election Day.

I remember watching numbers roll in on election night. I did the math every time a state was called; California, Washington State, Oregon…the blue wall was fixed for Harris. I feverishly watched the electoral numbers fluctuate back and forth. And then. all of a sudden. there was no more fluctuation. There were no more states being called for Harris. I turned the TV off, went to bed, and at 3 AM, I woke up and checked my phone. I opened up NPR and confirmed what I already knew in my heart. Harris had lost, and I knew everything that had started to change in 2016 was only going to ramp up now.

Harris discusses her loss eloquently. But you can absolutely hear the pain and heartbreak in her voice as she recounts the aftermath. It must have been beyond country. I truly do believe there are politicians in our Senate and House, state-level and federal, who deeply care about our country. But there are not enough of them in service that do. Harris cared about this election. Clinton cared about hers. The stakes were high in 2016. They were higher in 2024. It was the most important election of our time; and 77 million people voted for what we have now (Find the 2024 results here). 54% of that voting population was white women; 2% more than the 2020 election when Trump ran against Biden. (Find the 2020 results here). Throughout the whole book, she discusses all of the factors to led to her loss, and of course, there is harsh self-critique. The pressure must have felt so immense, the loss so deeply personal and practically unfathomable. It is almost too understandable that she took the time she needed to recover.

There are surface-level reasons as to why Harris lost her bid for the presidency in 2024. And I also believe that there are deeper reasons she lost as well. Throughout the book however, she credits most of the loss to the genocide taking place in Palestine. And she credits the lack of enthusiastic support from the Biden camp as well. The fact that she only had 107 days to campaign, and practically had days before convention to officially receive the nomination and find her VP pick. Biden had started his campaign process much earlier that year, taking up most of the campaign time. I think those are very real truths for this campaign. But there is also statistical evidence of what our country thinks as a whole of a woman running for the highest office in the land. And she is a black woman. The odds were stacked against her from the beginning. We will never know what a Harris administration would have brought to America. Would Roe v. Wade become codified law? Would we still have aided Israel in their deranged mission to go after Iran and Lebanon – not with boots on the ground; but with financial support, weapons, ect.? Would inflation be where it is, or would it be worse? What regulations would be in place to start addressing those very real issues, for every day Americans? Would ICE still be in operation, or totally abolished?

Playing the “what if’s” game is fraught at this point. It doesn’t do anyone any good. But a part of me wonders, even if we have a “blue tsunami” in November, that so many primaries across the country are touting, is this reality something we can vote ourselves out of? By now, we should be seeing strong contenders from the Democrats and Republicans for the 2028 presidential election. But after the DNC report, and the extremely poor leadership from party leaders over the last two years, the party isn’t treading water anymore. It’s completely submerged. The Republican party sees this and they are running with it. But the voters also see what’s happening within our country for the last two years. I don’t know if I’m hopeful for the effectiveness of this rumored “blue tsunami”, but there is always the possibility that it will be different this time.

There is no time to be delicate about the future, even though I tried my best to be delicate about this review. What is happening now is having massive impacts on not just the American people, but the world at large. Living in Mexico, we are able to watch what’s going on with an outsider and insider perspective. We absolutely notice the political and economical impact, maybe not as intensely as our friends to the north, but we do feel them. The world is feeling them. My hope for America is that this reckoning shifts something deep inside itself. There has to be fundamental change to move forward, for the benefit of every person that lives in our country. And I suppose my hope lies in that this election will be different. And that people will make the right choices.

It’s hard to end this review, because I feel like I could go on and on. But I will leave it here with you all. I hope you had a good time reading along with me. I want to make you aware that the next book will be heavily political. If that is not a review you are ready to read, I understand. The books I pick have purpose. And this next one is no exception. I hope to see you in the next review.

Happy Reading.