Vice President Harris’ campaign did not reveal her position on reparations for Black Americans when asked Wednesday by Fox News Digital, despite growing anticipation from progressive advocates after California lawmakers withdrew their reparation bills last week.
During her earlier presidential bid in 2019, Harris, then a U.S. senator representing California, said she supported “some form of reparations” and backed legislation to study the matter further.
Democrat politicians in blue states, including California, in recent years have floated reparations as a way to atone for what proponents describe as a legacy of racist policies that created disparities for Black people in housing, education and health.
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“I think there has to be some form of reparations, and we could discuss what that is, but look, we’re looking at more than 200 years of slavery,” Harris said in a 2019 interview with The Root, a website focused on Black culture and politics. “We’re looking at almost 100 years of Jim Crow. We’re looking at legalized segregation and, in fact, segregation on so many levels that exist today based on race and there has not been any kind of intervention done understanding the harm and the damage that occurred to correct [the] course. And so we are seeing the effects of all those years play out still today.”
While Harris has changed tune on some of her previous policy stances, like banning fracking or illegal immigration, she hasn’t denounced or commented much further on whether she would push a nationwide reparations effort if elected president.
In an MSNBC Al Sharpton interview during Harris’ first presidential run, he asked Harris, “In the area of reparations for descendants of Africans enslaved, if you’re elected president, would you sign that bill if it came across your desk?”
“When I am elected president, I will sign that bill,” Harris responded.
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Democrats on the Hill and in California have pushed for passage of reparations legislation. Last week, a pair of reparations-related bills for the descendants of enslaved Black Americans failed to pass in the California legislature after backers said the bills would not move forward and were at risk of being vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Black activists at the California Assembly then threatened a “direct impact” on Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign after state Democrat lawmakers shelved the bill.
“We need to send a message to the governor,” said a Black woman who is a member of the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, according to video shared on X. “The governor needs to understand the world is watching California and this is going to have a direct impact on your friend Kamala Harris who is running for president. This is going to have a direct impact, so pull up the bills now, vote on them and sign them. We’ve been waiting for over 400 years.”
“We have the votes,” they added.
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Meanwhile, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said in an interview with the Washington Post before Harris became the DNC nominee that more people “would be more politically engaged” if reparations were more front and center in political discourse.
“But it isn’t, so they’re staying home or some are even moving to the Republican Party because it feels like Democrats are taking Black voters for granted,” he said.
Last year, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., tried to bring a $14 trillion reparations-related bill to Congress “to eliminate the racial wage gap that currently exists between Black and White Americans,” the resolution stated.
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.