What a Kamala Harris Presidency Will Mean for Higher Education, DEI, and History

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Election 2024 continues to surprise.

After President Joseph R. Biden dropped out of the presidential election Sunday, he quickly endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to replace him at the top of the ticket.

Biden’s decision created a whiplash within the Republican base. GOP leaders launched swift attacks on Harris, labeling her as a “DEI” candidate. But despite the attacks, experts agree that a Harris presidential candidacy is as groundbreaking as Biden’s late withdrawal.

“It’s unprecedented. Kamala Harris would be the second person of color who ever served as president,” said Dr. Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University who is a regular commentator on cable news. “We’re one of the last democracies in the world [that’s] never elected a woman to the highest office. The silver lining is, even though it’s late in the game, it’s not too late. And it’s before the convention.”

The Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago, Aug. 19-22, is where a presidential candidate is officially nominated. And while many high-powered Democrats have already endorsed Harris, other notable figures, like former President Barack Obama, said that they will wait until the convention to decide who to endorse.

While Harris’s nomination is not a sure thing, her presidency would likely echo Biden’s policies when it comes to higher education, according to experts. And it is also important, they added, that this potential future president matriculated at an historically Black college and university (HBCU). Harris is also the child of immigrant parents, which would give the presidency another vantage point that it never had before.

Greer said that Harris will likely continue Biden’s radical attempts to relegate, reform, and abolish student loan debt, something that has actively changed the lives of millions of student borrowers. Some of Biden’s policies for higher education were more popular than others, so Greer added that Harris will have to thread the needle carefully when sharing the Biden administration successes while highlighting her own policies. But Harris has already received endorsements from teaching unions and progressive civil rights organizations.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a union of 1.7 million pre-K through 12 and higher education teaching professionals, offered Harris their full endorsement Monday. Dr. Alí Bustamante, director of the Worker Power and Economic Security Program at the Roosevelt Forward, a progressive think-tank, also released a statement in support of Harris, citing her efforts toward student debt cancellation.

“Within the administration, she has championed student debt relief, driving forward the SAVE plan that aims to reduce average monthly payments from $393 to about $200 and implementing various loan forgiveness programs that cancelled about $170 billion in debt for nearly five million Americans,” wrote Bustamante. “Although SAVE was blocked by a federal court, her administration took quick action to protect those borrowers by placing them in forbearance while the case is litigated.”

Dr. Tabitha Bonilla, an associate professor at the Institute of Policy Research at Northwestern University, said despite some concern about whether or not Democrats could rally around a new candidate in such a short amount of time, the party has quickly galvanized in Harris’s favor.

“You can clearly tell that this has been something that Democrats have been working on for some time. As soon as they made this announcement, there’s been quick donor action,” said Bonilla.

Harris’s newly launched campaign announced it has raised over $49 million in less than 24-hours, while ActBlue, the fundraising branch of the Democratic party, has seen its single best day in gifts since record keeping began in 2020, receiving $67 million in donations.

“I’m already seeing attacks against her that she’s the first DEI presidential candidate, kind of mocking the fact that she couldn’t get through a primary on her own, and she’s a Black woman,” said Bonilla. “I actually think that there’s probably going to be even more opportunity for discussions around [like], ‘What does DEI mean, what does it do?’ that may come up because of her candidacy.”

Greer agreed that Republicans will likely continue attacking Harris, who has championed DEI policies. 

“We know the negative ads; how she’s not qualified and all the tropes you have for Black women, and women of color, will be on full display. The misinformation and disinformation during her tenure as Attorney General of California [will be used] to try to chip away at some of the Black and Latinx male vote,” said Greer. “Hopefully the Democratic strategists have thought about the various scenarios and are prepared to counter-attack.”

While nothing is certain until the official nomination at the end of August, Bonilla said the weeks leading up to the convention might continue to be “weird” and “wacky.”

“What I hope and think the true value of campaigns is, is to get folks talking about policy and understanding it,” said Bonilla. “The hope is the campaigns will be back there by September.”

Liann Herder can be reached at [email protected].