Harris’ Entry into the Presidential Race Draws Mixed Reactions from Non-White Austin Voters
By Emily Liu and Kiran Bhatia, JCamp 2024 — Austin
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Candice Gordon is waiting to be convinced.
As a Black voter in Austin, Texas, it’s not enough that the new candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket shares her racial background. She wants to see what Kamala Harris’ plan is for people like her.
“If she really came back and revisited the Black community and came up with an agenda that supported Black people and the different things that affected Black people specifically, then I think it would be something interesting,” said Gordon, who is not sure she will vote at all.
Less than a week after Vice President Harris secured the official Democratic nomination for November’s presidential election, Black and brown voters in Austin remain divided on whether her candidacy represents increased attention from Washington for minority communities.
Harris, who launched her campaign following President Joe Biden’s unprecedented withdrawal from the race after a widely-panned June debate against former President Donald Trump, quickly amassed endorsements from key Democratic leaders. Her campaign raised a staggering $310 million during the first two weeks of her candidacy, according to Politico.
Democrats quickly embraced Harris’ campaign after fearing that President Biden’s re-election effort was cratering support among non-white voters — historically a key constituency for the Democratic party — and were alarmed by Trump’s overperformance in public polls among these voters. But many non-white Austin voters skeptical of Biden remain unconvinced by Harris’ newfound support.
Gordon, a stay-at-home mother, said Harris is only appealing to Black voters despite not having delivered for the Black community.
“She panders a lot to Black people, but in a way that can come off as disrespectful or cosplay. Sometimes she’s Asian-American, sometimes she’s Indian-American, and when it’s time for an election, she becomes a Black-American,” Gordon said, citing the recent performance of Megan Thee Stallion at an Atlanta rally. Not every Black person is a fan of the rapper’s music nor feels represented by her occasionally controversial on-stage persona, Gordon added.
“It can be a little offensive… I don’t think all Black people, especially the Black people she wants to support her, really care.”
Xavier Toefield, a network engineer of African and Asian racial heritage, said he was disappointed by Harris’ record as a prosecutor in California but has felt pressure to vote for the Democrat because of his race.
“Growing up Black, you have to vote Democrat, and if you don’t, then you’re turning your back on your community, Toefield said. “So there is a lot of social pressure to vote for that kind of stuff.”
It’s a pressure Toefield said he faces from both sides of his identity.
“My grandmother, who is Japanese, wanted me to vote for Andrew Yang back in the day,” he said. “There’s a lot of cultural pressure, whether you’re white, black, you pick your color, on who you’re supposed to vote for.”
Independent polling shows Harris has expanded Democratic leads among non-white voters across the country. A recent CBS News poll found Harris leading Trump by 63 percent among Black voters, a sharp increase from the 49 percent lead Biden held over Trump in July. The same poll found a 16 percent bump in Black voters who said they would “definitely” vote in November since Harris became the Democratic nominee for president.
Harris’ shoring up of non-white support comes from voters like Jessica Reyna, the director of operations at an Austin-based law firm. Reyna said she felt grave concern about Biden’s chances against Trump following the former’s debate performance. Her concerns were alleviated by Harris’ elevation to the top of the ticket.
“Four weeks ago I was already thinking: ‘What’s going to happen, and where am I going to have to put my family? Where are we going to go?’” Reyna said. “But now I feel hopeful for our future, for my kids’ futures as well, not just tomorrow and in five years. [And] I’m thinking of twenty years from now too because her policies are going to be able to affect them.”
Reyna’s husband, Ariel Reyna, an operations manager for a logistics company and a supporter of Harris’ presidential bid, said he empathized with her ethnic background and admired the adversity she faced early in her political career as a prosecutor.
“Harris has the life experience as a Black woman, {an} Asian woman or just as a woman. She had to fight through on her way up,” Ariel Reyna said. “Her experiences and her life, her culture and how she grew up definitely ties into how I grew up — I have a Caribbean background — — or how my wife grew up as well.”
Reyna said he hopes his children are inspired by Harris.
“We’re a home of three children ranging from 24 to 16, so to see them get excited again about how their views might be heard, their interests, or things they want to be changed in the community, it is now something that is attainable and hopeful,” Reyna said.
Texas is home to largest population of Black voters in the nation, but Austin is quickly losing its Black residents. In recent years, the city has faced questions and criticism from community leaders for the high number of Black Austinites who have relocated elsewhere. In May 2014, the University of Texas at Austin released a report relying on Census data that found as “Austin’s population grew 20.4 percent from 2000 to 2010, its African-American population declined 5.4 percent.” A 2022 study analyzed the trend and identified affordability as the primary reason for the exodus but also noted that a “lack of belonging” was the second-biggest factor for Black Austinites who had left the city.
Voters like Esther Ladipo want to see Harris address issues that uniquely affect Black communities such as those in Austin facing affordability concerns that impact everything from housing to household budgets. Ladipo, a social impact program manager and Democratic organizer, said Harris’ entry into the race made her more energized about voting in November, but she wants to see Harris show greater support toward local historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
“[Harris is] an HBCU alum, so I hope she’d be able to support a lot of the failing HBCUs and provide money, even to Huston–Tillotson, which is in Austin,” Lapido said. “It’s been struggling for a few years now. So many city members are literally trying to buy the building from them in Austin, so giving them more funding, alleviating the crippling student debt — that, I think, would be the win-win for her constituency.”
Even Gordon, who said Harris’s past work as a prosecutor and the Attorney General of California had left her unimpressed, said she could be persuaded to vote for Harris if the candidate were more explicit about the policies she would advocate for as president.
“I think if she were elected, there would be no incentive for her to give anything to Black people. Right now is the time — this would be the incentive, like, ‘if you could do something for Black people, we would support and vote for you,’” Gordon said. “So I think that if Democrats or Republicans want to earn Black people’s votes, they have a lot of work to do, but I think that if that work is done, we’d be more than happy to vote.”
