MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
This week, Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman of color in U.S. history to become a major party presidential nominee. The women of the Congressional Black Caucus know Harris and the challenges she faces well. They told NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales, if anyone can chart a new course for Democrats, it's Harris.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Kamala.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Practically a...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Kamala.
GRISALES: At a recent gathering near the Capitol, congressional Democratic women were fired up. They were there to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to be president.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting) Harris. Harris.
GRISALES: For women who were once colleagues with Harris in the Congressional Black Caucus, there's an extra special kinship.
MAXINE WATERS: You're seeing something now in this country that is changing.
GRISALES: That's California Democrat Maxine Waters, the most powerful senior woman in the Congressional Black Caucus today. The 85-year-old says women of color in politics have come a long, long way.
WATERS: We fought, you know, very hard. Most of us started in our community where we were fighting against the men. And it was the women who came alive, you know, back in the day.
GRISALES: At the Capitol, Black women lawmakers say it is indeed a new day. But the fighting continues. Texas freshman Democrat Jasmine Crockett quotes Harris.
JASMINE CROCKETT: When you break glass ceilings, sometimes you get cut. And she said, and those cuts - they hurt, but they are a reminder of how important this work is.
GRISALES: Crockett says, the Democratic presidential nominee will inspire generations to come.
CROCKETT: Think that she will consistently take those cuts and wear them as a badge of honor - and that is going to allow her to keep pushing.
GRISALES: But Crockett is also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and some of their supporters worry that Harris' background as a prosecutor is a liability. She disagrees.
CROCKETT: And so I think that this is the type of prosecutor that you want - is someone to seek justice, not convictions.
GRISALES: Alabama Democrat Terri Sewell says the energy for Harris in the Deep South is, quote, "electric," and the country is finally ready to vote for a woman of color as president. She also sees echoes in Harris' political rise in her own path to office as her state's first Black congresswoman.
TERRI SEWELL: I know the feeling of being the first and the only. But as Kamala Harris always says, it's not you being the first. It's making sure that you break down the door so that you're not the last.
GRISALES: Massachusetts congresswoman Ayanna Pressley was the first Black woman to serve on Boston's city council and the first for her state in Congress. Pressley can attest, there's hostilities to navigate along the way, like gender-based assumptions and racist-based attacks.
AYANNA PRESSLEY: We've all been told that our candidacy was not viable, that people were not ready. And every time, we have proved the skeptics wrong.
GRISALES: Pressley says, Black women have built up the muscle and support systems needed to break new political terrain.
PRESSLEY: And she's been a first many times over - as a Vice President, as a United States senator, as a DA. She has truly been battle tested.
GRISALES: Pressley says, Harris' experience is allowing her to draw a new battleground map and blaze a new trail. Back at the women's Democratic event, Waters agrees.
WATERS: She's an attorney, prosecutor. She can handle it. She will not be intimidated. She can handle it well.
GRISALES: To be the first, this time, Harris' bid to ascend the presidency will test an electorate that remains deeply divided.
Claudia Grisales, NPR News, the Capitol.
(SOUNDBITE OF RHIAN SHEEHAN SONG, "LA BOITE A MUSIQUE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
