Kamala Harris to pen monthly column for Essence

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) will write a monthly op-ed for Essence, the magazine announced Monday, along with her first column. 

 

The senator and 2020 presidential candidate launched “Kamala’s Corner” with an open letter to the magazine’s readers explaining her decision to challenge President Trump for the White House and touching on parts of her platform. 

{mosads}”In November 2016, when I was elected to the U.S. Senate as the second Black woman in its history, it was declared that Donald Trump would be the 45th President of the United States,” Harris writes. “Since then, we’ve seen an Administration that’s given the fire of hate new fuel, separated children from their parents at the border, equated neo-Nazis with civil rights marchers and fought to rip health care away from millions of Americans.”

“So what am I going to do about it? I’m not going to complain. I’m running for President,” the former California attorney general adds.

 

In the column, Harris lists a number of her policy proposals, including a $500 per month tax cut aimed at working- and middle-class families.

“I believe we can deliver to women all over this nation equal pay for equal work, end disparities in maternal health, protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions and administer the largest working- and middle-class tax cut in a generation—putting up to $500 a month to help America’s families make ends meet,” the 54-year-old writes. 

 

Harris tweeted that she is “excited” to write the column and talk to Essence readers on a monthly basis.

Excited to talk to @Essence readers today and each month moving forward. I want to hear from you as we move forward with this campaign! https://t.co/HBzhDfs5uO

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 17, 2019

Harris is currently in fifth place in the crowded 2020 Democratic primary, according to a RealClearPolitics average of recent polls, with 7.3 percent support. And a Fox News poll released last week showed Harris slightly ahead of Trump in a hypothetical match-up, with 42 percent support to Trump’s 41 percent.

 

Essence, a monthly magazine whose primary audience is African American women, launched in 1970. Harris’s fellow senator and 2020 competitor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) published an op-ed in Essence earlier this year to outline her policy proposal for combating high maternal mortality rates among black women.