We’re Proud to Endorse Kamala Harris for President.
It is with joy that the Maine Women’s Lobby endorses Kamala Harris for President. Our organization is steadfastly nonpartisan, and has been for our 44 years of work; our endorsement centers on the fact that Ms Harris’s considerable career as a public servant has almost entirely focused on the issues central to our vision of gender justice and equity. Her commitment to gender justice was visible from the very beginning of her career when she was focused on justice for sexual and domestic violence survivors, and also showed during her outstanding effort to expose the violence of the nomination of Justice Kavanaugh during his Senate hearings. She has also been an ardent supporter of reproductive freedom throughout her career, which was clear when, as Vice President, she became the highest ranking official to visit an abortion clinic. She has led the administration’s efforts to center care work, using every lever possible outside the broken Congressional process to expand paid family and medical leave and affordable childcare. She has been a champion of perinatal health, particularly for Black women, who face the highest rates of maternal mortality of any demographic. In the first weeks of her 2024 Presidential campaign, Harris has already centered and uplifted gender equity issues including abortion and reproductive healthcare, childcare, and paid family and medical leave. These issues at the forefront of a Presidential campaign are historic.
She also brings her own identities as a Black and Southeast Asian woman in the highest ranks of political power. Our organization has had a long commitment to honoring the expertise of lived experience in policy advocacy and leadership, and supporting women, especially those representing historically excluded communities such as BIPOC, queer, trans, low-wage earners, rural women to achieve and hold office is part of vision for change. Varied perspectives and diverse voices build a more inclusive democracy that works for everyone.
This decision exists in the context in which we do our work. As policy advocates, we aspire to systemic, revolutionary change. We dream of building a feminist future, where our government is as diverse, as broad and deep, and as people-focused as we know we deserve. And yet, our tools - legislative and administrative change - are by necessity incremental, and shaped by the patriarchal system in which they operate. There is no single ‘right’ way to show up and make change in our world, and we work with the tools we have knowing that our allies may show up in different ways. Sometimes that means we agree on the end goal, but not on the method. That is what movement is and demands.
As policy advocates, the long slow grind of change, bill by bill, election by election, is our daily fare. We make the best decisions we can in each cycle to work toward that dream and also reduce harm. For instance, after 30 years of advocacy, the final Paid Family and Medical Leave bill includes provisions we opposed (specifically private administration of the program). We can grieve this AND celebrate that Maine’s PFML bill will support Maine people within the next 2-4 years. We seek to honor this complexity while maintaining our integrity at every turn.
We acknowledge that VP Harris has been part of an administration that, like all administrations, is complicit in harm. Our government and national identity has not fully reckoned with the genocide and slaughter in Gaza and Israel; our own history of genocide; and a capitalist worldview that too often harms our community. She, like all candidates, deserves close scrutiny and to be held to a high standard. We will continue to advocate at every level for accountability, and for peace and justice for all.
We also acknowledge that our two-party system currently requires a binary choice for the office of the presidency (though we hope that one day changes). That binary likely places before us a demand to choose either an authoritarian, who has shown us again and again that he and his supporters will use violence to hold their power and steal our democracy and our climate future from us - or a candidate who has committed her life to feminist work.
We especially do so recognizing the inevitable misogyny, racism, and lies embedded in so many critiques of her (including from allies who are already using sexist language to describe her). We stand with the community of Black and brown women who may be seeing themselves reflected in this role for the first time, while living with the effects of a tidal wave of racist and sexist attacks.
Finally, we recognize the joy of this moment as well. To see a woman of color at the top of the ticket! To hear a candidate for the President of the United States talk about reproductive freedom, childcare, and paid leave in her very first speech as a candidate! To see a powerful, accomplished, effective woman take on the very embodiment of the patriarchy! Yes, it is a joy.
We made the choice to support a future that bends toward justice, over one dragging us back to the past. As one Board member said to conclude our conversation at our last Board Meeting: “This is some history sh*t.” It truly is. We are proud to support Kamala Harris, and believe that together, we can all make history while building toward a more perfect future.
About Our Process
In our 44 years, our organization has chosen not to make candidate endorsement a part of our election work, instead, focusing on accountability across a range of votes through our legislative report card, and through community and skills building support for feminist activists and legislators. This year, our Board of Directors chose to consider an unusual step for us: the endorsement of a candidate for President of the United States. Our Board considered the candidates’ records, and whether their qualifications, style, and experiences are likely to help us build a more feminist future. We acknowledge that all candidates and office-holders are multifaceted humans, each with a record of successes, mistakes, and missteps. We do not seek perfection; in fact, we acknowledge the messy humanity of our allies. Instead, we seek alignment, shared goals for a feminist future, and the capacity to grow. The only other time we have made an endorsement, we did so when we felt that our values and hopes for the future faced an existential threat. We do so again in our endorsement of Kamala Harris.
We are proud to endorse Kamala Harris because:
She is deeply qualified, with a lifelong record overwhelmingly aligned with our feminist policy priorities.
She has been a longtime supporter of care infrastructure, including paid family and medical leave (in her 2020 campaign, in the current White House administration, and in her 2024 campaign), as well as on childcare access and affordability. In February 2024, she announced the Biden-Harris Admin’s critical step to lower the cost of child care for more than 100,000 working families who receive federal child care assistance. As a senator, Harris sponsored National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (protections for the 2 million+ home care and child care workers who face significant wage theft, discrimination and sexual harassment.)
She leads the Biden-Harris Administration abortion rights campaign, and is the first-ever sitting vice president (or president) to visit an abortion clinic.
She is a national leader on perinatal health. In June 2022, Harris announced Biden-Harris Administration’s “Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis”, a whole-of-government effort to combat maternal mortality. In July 2024 she announced new maternal health standards and led the first-ever Maternal Health Day of Action, and as Senator, she led the Maternal CARE Act to address the crisis and reduce racial disparities in maternal mortality.
She heads the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention implementing new policies to close the background checks “gun show loophole”, prevent domestic abusers from purchasing guns, and hire 14,000 new school mental health counselors.
She has been an ardent supporter and defender of LGBTQ+ rights. As DA, Harris performed one of the nation’s first same-sex marriages in 2004 and as AG, “Harris refused to defend Proposition 8, which barred same-sex marriages in the state, and performed the first same-sex wedding after Proposition 8 was blocked by the courts.”
Her career took shape around work responding to gender based violence. She began her career as a prosecutor, specializing in child sexual assault cases in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office and often cites her experience discovering her best friend was a victim of sexual abuse as a reason she chose to focus on violence against children. As District Attorney, she supported domestic violence victims, including by providing resources for immigrant and non-English speaking victims, and as Attorney General, she created the Bureau of Children’s Justice.
She has shown the capacity to change and evolve over time.
VP Harris’s long career in public service includes a mixed record on some of our priorities. VP Harris began her career prosecuting child sexual abuse and a range of domestic and sexual violence concerns. The criminal justice system has helped many survivors of gender based violence find justice, and is also deeply flawed. For this reason, our organization supports decarceration, and has a record of working to decriminalize nonviolent crimes, as well as to build alternative paths to justice. We believe that people of integrity can work inside a flawed system to reshape and improve that system, while acknowledging that patriarchal systems can continue to perpetuate harm. This article in The Guardian frames the dilemma well and provides us with thoughtful ideas on the historical and current context of this work.
We also know that any leader can and must continue to seek global peace and safety for all, and that includes an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a return of the hostages. VP Harris has already expressed a commitment to ensuring that Palestinians have the “freedom, security and prosperity that they rightly deserve”. She further expressed her “serious concern about the dire humanitarian situation [in Gaza]... What has happened in Gaza over the past 9 months is devastating… We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies… I will not be silent.” It is important for all of us to be vocal about the need for the humanitarian crisis to end and we will be holding a high standard for how VP Harris navigates the situation going forward.
We, organizationally and personally, can lean into our own values of personal change and accountability – she has the opportunity to change and think differently, as we all do. We seek to support leaders who have the capacity to evolve, and we will continue to press our leaders at every level to unravel systemic injustice.
She brings a wealth of expertise born of lived experience as a woman of color in political leadership. Centering diverse voices in governing is one of our core values.
The Vice President’s crystal clear record of professional and political accomplishments (including her expertise on and commitment to a wide range of gender justice issues throughout her impressive career), makes it clear that any notion of her being unqualified to be President is a political strategy aimed to discredit and undermine her with false and misleading attacks. These dishonest political attacks by partisan, political actors are ones we know are ultimately not strong enough to outway VP Harris’ strong record and inspiring vision for the future.
She represents the best available opportunity to push back against anti-democratic authoritarian forces which seek to control our bodies, our government, and our climate future.
Her history of fiercely advocating for a healthy, thriving democracy (she repeatedly called on Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, among other efforts) make her the best candidate to help rebuild institutions rooted in justice. There is a rising tide of white supremacy and authoritarianism (including calls to end voting and for dictatorship by her opponent). We can and must act now to push it back and ensure our shared rights and our shared future.
