US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her newly chosen vice presidential running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz react as they hold a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, August 6, 2024.
in Seattle, Washington
Former President Donald Trump made the matter of immigrants his trump card for the November 5 election. While his comments had a devastating ripple effect on a large swathe of voters, they seemed to resonate very well with the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and conservative Americans, more so after he produced a video of cross border immigration.
With Joe Biden’s health coming under close scrutiny, many Americans thought Trump would be a better president. Those doubts have been torpedoed by the entry of Kamala Harris into the race for the White House. The charming former California prosecutor has not just emerged as a formidable opponent to the bellicose Trump, but has also brought oomph into the race. Suddenly, the anti-immigrants’ rhetoric and invective by the former president has subsided. Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
The Kenyan community in the North West region of Washington State is very excited by the fresh air that Harris has breathed into the race. Like many immigrants who are disgruntled by former President Trump’s anti-immigrant invectives, the Kenyans are gravitating towards the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz than the Trump-JD Vance ticket.
Democracy
“I am a democrat and I would definitely go for Harris-Walz. First, Trump is a very bad role model for a democracy, going by the things he has done and said. He lacks leadership qualities that are expected of that high office,” said John Kimani, Chairman of the North West Kenyan Community. “Since Trump’s election as the president, the prestige for that office dissipated so badly that people no longer view it with the awe and respectability that former presidents carried. A man who can manipulate the rule of the law to do his bidding and serve his interests is not a person to trust with that high office,” Kimani said.
Dr Isaac Ndegwa is the Presiding Bishop, Gospel Outreach Ministries, USA.
“Among the immigrant community, he is an object of revulsion. Yet he is married to an immigrant. But he has a following, a large one at that, even some Kenyans support him. That is what democracy is all about. But for democracy to thrive in this country which is known as the free world, we need somebody who believes in it in word and spirit, and I think Kamala and Tim are the best team,” he added.
Bishop Isaac Ndegwa, the presiding bishop of Gospel Outreach Ministries, is praying that God will provide a leader who understands the plight of immigrants. “We are praying that we will have leaders who fear God, and who care for the interests of people, and particularly those of immigrants,” Bishop Ndegwa said.
There are upwards of 25,000 Kenyans in this part of Washington and a cross section of them are all rooting for Harris and Walz, given recent pronouncements by Trump on the issue of immigrants. On April 2, Reuters reported Trump as having referred to immigrants as ‘animals’ and ‘not human’ at a campaign trail in Michigan, where he warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the November 5 race.
Referring to a case where a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia was allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant who is in America illegally, Trump said: “The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They are humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals,’” said Trump, according to Reuters. Trump raised the anti-immigrant campaign a notch higher at a campaign trail in South Bronx on May 24 where he claimed, without evidence, that migrants coming to the U.S. are forming an ‘army’,” he said at a campaign in South Brox in May.
“They come from Africa. They come from Asia. They come from all over the world. They come from the Middle East, Yemen… Large numbers of people are coming in from China. They are physically fit. They are 19-25. Almost everyone is male, and they look like fighting age. I think they’re building an army… they want to get us from within,” ABC News reported on May 24. A Tanzanian immigrant who did not want to be named, said Trump’s comments are inciting young naïve Americans against immigrant. “This is a nation of immigrants, historically. Almost everybody here is an immigrant, including the white community themselves. Even Trump himself is from an immigrant background. His comments are very unprofessional and uncouth,” he said. “Everywhere you go, in banks to stores and health facilities, immigrants are doing a fantastic job. Uba/Lyft drivers, caregivers, nurses, doctors, and many professionals are all immigrants,” he said.
A Nigerian long-haul trucker added: “Criminals should be isolated and dealt with through the provisions of the law, but you don’t lump everybody as immigrants and equate them with animals, that is gross. The history of the black community in this country goes back centuries, some part of it we even don’t want to revisit. The success of America’s economy, pop culture, sports is inextricably intertwined with black community. Black athletes are the ones winning medals in Olympics in Paris, and even in past Olympics. It takes an incorrigibly uncouth and ignorant person to denigrate such a community.”
Democrats
Since Joe Biden bowed out of the race, Harris has ratcheted up Democrats standing on the ratings which Trump and Republicans were widening by the day due to Biden’s apparent lethargy and old age. The latest rating stood at 46 for Harris against Trump’s 48. Harris is hoping that Walz will strengthen the Democratic ticket in Midwestern states and among working class voters, despite his current lack of a national profile, AP reported on August 6. Black communities have strongly supported Democrats since FDR’s New Deal programmes, which attempted to reduce inequality in the wake of the Great Depression. Presidents John F Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were fanatically supported by black communities. During President Obama’s presidency, the black community’s support for the Democratic Party reached an all-time high of 95 per cent. If JFK took Democrats’ support outside the American borders, Obama took it far beyond and planted it in the psyche of many black people around the world.
Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi have, as expected, supported Kamala Harris for the race to White House. The decibel that surrounded Trump’s campaign, especially after the June 28 debate with Joe Biden, which was a disaster for the outgoing president, has since gone down considerably. To her credit, Kamala Harris has supported bipartisan border security solutions and has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to working with regional partners to address the root causes or irregular migration, according to a report by Center for American Progress.
In the run up to her Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, she said she wanted immigrants who were in the country illegally to be eligible for government healthcare, and she wanted to decriminalise border crossings. As she tags along a running mate who is popular with the working class, albeit not quite known outside his state, it will be interesting to see how the race pans out. As for Kenyans, African Americans and the immigrant community, their pick is anybody’s guess.
