Vice President Kamala Harris downplayed the historic nature of her campaign to become the first female president in U.S. history during an interview with NBC News Tuesday evening.
“The experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, they want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world,” Harris told NBC News’s, Hallie Jackson.
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Harris is the second Democratic woman to challenge former President Donald Trump for the White House after he vanquished Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
If elected, Harris, the nation’s first woman vice president, would break the proverbial glass ceiling that Clinton failed to conquer. Harris would also become the second black president after former President Barack Obama.
However, Harris claims that sexism is not of concern to her campaign.
“I don’t think of it that way,” she said. “My challenge is the challenge of making sure I can talk with and listen to as many voters as possible and earn their vote. And I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race. Instead, that leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges and to inspire people.”
The vice president’s campaign has, however, run on reproductive rights after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, which has helped increase her support among woman voters. Harris has struggled to appeal to minority male voters, who she will need to secure the White House.
Obama admonished black male voters to put aside their discomfort over a woman president while campaigning for Harris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
“You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down?” the former president said. “That’s not acceptable.”
“Because part of it makes me think, and I’m speaking to the men directly, part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and reasons for that,” Obama also said.
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Harris has notably not emphasized her historic campaign for the presidency and dismissed NBC News’s questioning about the strategy.
“Well, I’m clearly a woman,” Harris said. “The point that most people really care about is, can you do the job, and do you have a plan to actually focus on them?”