WKNO TRANSCRIPT
WKNO's CHRISTOPHER BLANK: Next week, Shelby County voters will hit the polls and determine a number of local and state races. But since the start of early voting began, the nation has been fixed on national news that Joe Biden has dropped out of the presidential race. With us again is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you Chris, thank you for having me back.
BLANK: Well, last week we were talking about Biden's age and this week we're talking about his ostensible replacement, Vice President Kamala Harris. What do you think is the significance of her candidacy for Democrats here in the Mid-South?
SANFORD: Well, I think there's certainly some excitement about her candidacy and about the selection, where a week ago, as we were talking about this, most Democrats were suffering from a case of political malaise. But the excitement now is particularly among young voters, voters of color, even independents and some moderate Republicans who were looking for an alternative to Trump and didn't see it in Biden. I think that is generating the excitement in the race now Chris. And really, I think you're going to see a much much heavier turnout in November then we expected. And that's not good news for Marsha Blackburn.
BLANK: For Marsha Blackburn?
BLANK: No, I mean if there is a huge turnout, say here in Shelby County and Davidson County and Trump's support remains kind of so-so, whoever the Democratic nominee for Senate — which is probably Gloria Johnson — she probably won't win, but I think she will put more of a scare in Blackburn than Blackburn expected.
BLANK: Well, as you pointed out in a recent Daily Memphian column, certain Republicans, including Congressman Tim Burchett from the Knoxville area, are already focusing on her race. Specifically, claiming that Kamala Harris is unqualified and that Democrats are only backing her because she is a Black woman — the equivalent of an affirmative action hire. Let's instead break that down into two separate questions: Is she qualified in terms of what we ask of any politician running for office? And is the party promoting her on the merits of race and gender?
SANFORD: Well, the first question is: she is absolutely qualified. If Donald Trump is qualified to be president, Kamala Harris is overqualified. Now, in terms of whether she got to where she is because of race and gender, let's break that down. Joe Biden said in a 2020 debate that he was going to look for a woman as his running mate. There was nothing wrong with that. Women have been chosen as running mates in the past. There was nothing wrong with that. He didn't say specifically a black woman at that point, but the woman became Kamala Harris. So I think this is more about abilities, what she has done in the past. And yes, race is a factor, but it hasn't been the overriding factor in, I believe, any of her races.
BLANK: Well, if this election is like the last few it really could come down to one or two voting districts in swing states like Nevada or Pennsylvania, which may likely mean buy-in from the same white voters who previously went for Trump. Is race, or at least talking too much about it, a liability for Democrats?
SANFORD: I think this country, Chris, has to make a decision in this election about where they want this country to be. And there's a binary choice here between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and we know what Donald Trump is. I think that race will be talked about a lot, but it's not a bad thing.
BLANK: This Saturday, there is a interesting symposium at the National Civil Rights Museum about Freedom Summer. That was 60 years ago in 1964, when hundreds of white and black students from the north went down to Mississippi to register people to vote, really in an attempt to help Lyndon B Johnson win the election. And for them, supporting Johnson was about supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which he later signed, that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. In the last week, we've seen polls suggesting that Black voters are more enthusiastic about Harris than they were of Biden, and I wonder if you think the stakes are suddenly a little bit different.
SANFORD: I do think that the burst of enthusiasm that has come about just over the last four or five days — if it's sustained throughout the rest of this cycle — the issues that I think are going to drive Democratic voters and independents to the polls have to do with issues around abortion rights, and certainly the economy is going to play heavily in this. But the economy is improving. Also, there's this issue over who gets to appoint judges over the next four years. That has now become an issue because of the Supreme Court. So I think there are a lot of issues here that really benefit Kamala Harris. And again, the Trump campaign has to re-configure now and figure out how they're going to go after her.
