Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said that she believes the U.S. is “absolutely” ready for a woman of color to be president.
Harris made the remarks during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” to promote her new memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.”
“Is this country, after what [President] Trump has unleashed and what we have seen, ready for the first woman of color president?” one of the show’s hosts, Abby Huntsman, asked Harris.
{mosads}”Absolutely,” Harris said. “Listen — I’m not saying that about myself, but I am saying that about the capacity of the American public.
“We need to give the American public more credit,” she said. “Give the people more credit. They are smarter than that.”
The conversation comes as Harris reportedly eyes a bid for the presidency. The California Democrat is launching a book tour and media blitz this week as speculation mounts over a possible 2020 White House campaign. She has said that she is “not prepared” to make any announcement yet.
Harris on “The View” said that she believes Americans look to leadership to see “commonality” rather than “if a leader is the gender or the race that we prefer.”
“When people are waking up in the middle of the night with the thing that has been weighing on them … they aren’t waking up thinking that thought through the lens of the party with which they’re registered to vote,” Harris said. “When they wake up thinking that thought, they are not thinking it through some demographic upholster.”
“When they wake up thinking that thought, it usually has to do with one of very few things: It usually has to do with their personal health, about their children or their parents,” she said. “Can I get a job? Keep a job? Pay the bills by the end of the month? Retire with dignity?”
“The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us,” she concluded.
Possible Democratic presidential contenders have been fielding questions about demographic considerations, as some in the party question whether the country is ready to elect a woman or a minority.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) recent announcement that she is launching an exploratory committee to run for the White House has already sparked debate about whether a woman can beat Trump in 2020.