Page 10 The Skanner Portland & Seattle September 21, 2022
News
By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)
— Vice President Kamala
Harris visited two his-
torically Black colleges
in South Carolina to push
for voter registration
as she focuses on places
and demographics that
will be key to Democrats’
chances to hold on to
Congress in the midterm
elections.
In remarks Tuesday
to first-year students
at South Carolina State
University, an Orange-
burg HBCU where Presi-
dent Joe Biden addressed
graduates last year, Har-
ris highlighted what
she characterized as the
need for young voters to
participate in political
pushes to protect voting
rights and oppose efforts
to restrict abortion.
“Once again, your na-
tion turns to you,” Har-
ris said, highlighting the
fight for civil rights by
House Majority Whip
Jim Clyburn — a S.C. State
alumnus and South Caro-
lina’s lone congressional
Democrat — when he was
arrested during protests
while in his early 20s.
“Because to move Ameri-
ca forward, we need you.
We need your passion,
your purpose and your
excellence.”
The South Carolina
trip, Harris’ third to the
state as vice president,
is part of her increased
travel schedule ahead of
the midterms. She talked
reproductive rights in
Chicago on Friday, and
she’s heading to Wiscon-
sin on Thursday to speak
at the Democratic Attor-
neys General Confer-
ence. Earlier this month,
she traveled to Houston
for the National Baptist
AP PHOTO/JAMES POLLARD
In South Carolina, Harris Urges Students to Vote in Midterms
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to students at Claflin University, one of two historically black universities she visited in Orangeburg, S.C.
on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022. Harris pushed for voter registration as her party seeks to hold onto majorities in Congress.
Convention.
Harris’ trips are de-
signed to prevent, or at
least limit, any drop-off
in turnout among voters
of color and young peo-
ple, important parts of
the Democratic coalition.
Earlier Tuesday — Na-
tional Voter Registration
Day — she participated
in a roundtable with stu-
dents at Claflin Universi-
ty, another HBCU, where
she touted the adminis-
tration’s actions around
race and education and
emphasized the need to
invest in mental health.
“We recognize that
over the last couple of
years through the pan-
demic, we literally told
people to isolate, which
means people were liter-
ally by themselves,” Har-
ris said. “Suffering from
all that the pandemic rep-
resented in terms of loss
of life, loss of normalcy,
for so many people, loss
of job. And so the effects
of that all still linger in a
very profound way.”
In South Carolina,
which holds the first
presidential balloting in
the South, Black voters
play an outsized role in
the Democratic voting
electorate. During a June
visit to the state, Har-
ris expressed apprecia-
tion for South Carolina
Democrats, whose key
support for Biden in the
first-in-the-South prima-
ry in 2020 helped turn
around his campaign and
build momentum in later
contests that led to the
party’s nomination.
Harris’ arrival in South
Carolina follows shortly
after Biden’s noncommit-
tal response to CBS’ “60
Minutes” when asked if he
would run again in 2024.
“My intention, as I said
to begin with, is that I
would run again,” the
president said during a
wide-ranging interview
that aired Sunday. “But
it’s just an intention. But
is it a firm decision that I
run again? That remains
to be seen.”
Biden noted in the in-
terview that declaring
his intention to seek re-
election would put him
afoul of campaign fi-
nance laws, which could
have complicated spend-
ing by the Democratic
National
Committee
ahead of the midterms.
White House officials
said Biden is continuing
to lay the groundwork
for a 2024 run. Allies,
though,
acknowledge
that he could always de-
cide against seeking re-
election before a formal
announcement, which is
expected in the first half
of 2023.
Earlier this year, Biden
committed to tapping
Harris as his running
mate for the 2024 re-
election campaign. Her
visit comes as Republi-
cans considering White
House bids of their own
— including former Vice
President Mike Pence,
former Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo and
Florida Gov. Ron DeSan-
tis — continue to criss-
cross the state.
Some native South Car-
olina Republicans have
also been testing the
2024 waters. Nikki Ha-
ley, who served the state
for six years as governor
before joining the Trump
administration as U.N.
ambassador, lives in the
Charleston area and has
been visiting other early
voting states, as has U.S.
Sen. Tim Scott.
Nikes cont’d from pg 2
ality for lots of Chicago
public school students.
Jose talked about the rit-
ual of tossing someone’s
shoes over a wire . . . if
he’s shot, if he’s killed.
He wrote:
“One of my friends he
got stabbed with a pen-
cil because he was in a
gang, but now he isn’t in
a gang because he doesn’t
want his family to see his
shoes dangling from a
telephone wire. And he
wants to go back and fix
all the things he has done
wrong and now he never
wants to have a relation
with a gang member.
Now he is in my house to
play video games.”
Since then, yeah, every
now and them I’d see it
. . . grief and shoelaces
hovering above the city.
Maybe the shoes had
been tossed as a joke or
a prank, not a memorial,
but how could I know?
All I know is that the city
is not the same anymore
– it’s more than bricks
and lawns and sidewalks,
traffic lights and conve-
nience stores. It’s a mor-
tal being, in quiet pain
this very moment, as I
walk home.
And it’s speaking to me,
in a language I learned
from a 12-year-old boy.