About Campaign Champions
Campaign Champions is a women-led group that produces informative content to educate voters about key issues and proposed policies related to the upcoming election. In a world of misinformation and political spin, we want to provide voters with straightforward explanations of key issues and proposed policies and contextualize those explanations with research findings and facts. This election is perhaps the most significant in many voters’ lifetime and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will need an engaged electorate who are excited and committed to voting in order to win.
We believe that being well-informed increases one’s propensity to vote and encourages others to vote. All Americans deserve the right to be well-informed voters and our mission is to give people the facts, figures and fundamental background information to understand the key issues in this election and the policies that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are proposing to tackle these key issues.
THIS ELECTION MATTERS.
This election, we are not just voting for a president- we are voting for the future of our democracy. We are at a crossroads, where two roads diverge and choosing the right path will make all the difference.
This presidential election is critical to our nation’s future and will determine which path we will take. It’s not only a referendum on the policies of the current administration, but also a referendum on decency and on democracy. Joe Biden’s mission is to “heal the soul of our nation” and there’s a lot of work to be done to get there. In this election, we are choosing a president to lead us through one of the most uncertain times in our nation’s history.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed weaknesses in our country’s economy. We must rethink how we can work together to build a stronger, more inclusive economy that works better for all of us. Now, more than ever, we need a strong leader with a strategy informed by science to eradicate COVID-19 and help rebuild the American economy in a way that benefits us all, not just the top 1%.
With wildfires ravaging the West and hurricanes pummeling the Southeast, we are beginning to see firsthand the effects of climate change. Climate scientists have made it very clear that Earth’s climate is nearing the point of no return due to unprecedented global warming. The current administration does not even believe in climate change, let alone have a plan to solve it. We must listen to the experts’ warnings, because we don’t have another four years to waste.
The current Supreme Court nomination process also reminds us of what’s on the ballot—Roe v. Wade and the Affordable Care Act could be in jeopardy with an already majority conservative court shifting even more to the right. In the midst of a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 Americans, it seems unconscionable to take away access to healthcare− especially from the 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. These last few years has brought into sharp focus the systemic racism that is very real and plagues our country. We need a president that believes injustice and racism have no place in America and who will fight for justice and take concrete action to bring about racial equity. We need a president that will encourage unity and remind us that we are all much more alike than we are different.
We need a leader that will be the president for every American, not just his supporters. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have concrete plans to make America a better place to live for all Americans, not just those at the top.
About Biden & Harris
JOE BIDEN
Joseph R. Biden Jr. was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1942, but moved to Claymont, Delaware in his early childhood. He was the eldest of four siblings. Joe cites his father, a used car salesman, as having the largest impact on him, teaching him that “work is more than a paycheck. It’s dignity and respect.” This value, paired with Joe’s solidly middle-class upbringing, has informed his policy beliefs throughout his career. He attended The University of Delaware, and then Syracuse Law School, graduating in 1968.
He worked as an attorney in Delaware until he began his political career as a New Castle County council member in 1970. Two years later, he became one of the youngest people ever to be elected to the Senate at the age of 29. Just a few weeks after this election, his family was in a terrible car accident that killed his wife Neilia and their infant daughter Naomi and left him as a widower with two young sons. Biden considered giving up his Senate seat and political career to care for his sons but was persuaded by then Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield to retain his Senate seat. He was sworn in from his eldest son’s hospital room.
Biden went on to become Delaware’s longest serving senator and served as the chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During his tenure in the Senate, Biden focused on foreign relations and criminal justice reform. He led an initiative on nuclear arms control with Russia to ratify the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks–SALT II. In 1994, Biden co-sponsored the Violence Against Women Act, which helped to create protections for sexual assault and domestic violence victims. In 2008, Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to be his running mate and he was elected as the 47th Vice President of the United States. As Vice President, Biden worked to pass the Recovery Act in 2009, which helped restart the American economy during the Great Recession, saved and created new jobs, and helped millions of Americans get back on their feet. In 2010, Biden helped to pass the Affordable Care Act, which was a groundbreaking healthcare law that helped to provide health insurance to 20 million uninsured Americans and protected over 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.
In 2015, Joe faced another unimaginable tragedy when his eldest son Beau died from brain cancer. That same year, Obama asked Joe to lead a national cancer research initiative that uses government resources to “end cancer as we know it”. After leaving office in 2016, Joe started several philanthropic foundations with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, to continue to fund cancer research and create opportunities for underserved Americans. On April 25, 2019, Joe Biden launched his presidential bid saying that “we are living through a battle for the soul of this nation” and on August 18, 2020, he was officially nominated as the 2020 presidential nominee for the Democratic Party at the Democratic National Convention.
Additional Sources: 1, 2 | image source
KAMALA HARRIS
Kamala D. Harris was born in Oakland, California in October 20, 1964 to two immigrant parents. Her father was from Jamaica and worked as an economic professor at Stanford University. Her mother was from India and worked as a biologist researching breast cancer. Both of her parents were active in the 1960s civil rights movement, which is how they first met. When she was a child, Kamala attended civil rights events with her parents and describes having a “stroller-eye view” of those fighting for justice. Kamala experienced racial integration first-hand when she was bused from her mostly black neighborhood to Thousand Oaks Elementary School in a predominantly white school district. Kamala has often spoken about the immense impact that her mother had on her life. Growing up, Kamala’s mother always told her “Don’t sit around and complain about things, do something”, which is a sentiment that Kamala has lived by.
Kamala attended Howard University, where she studied political science and economics. She then went on to attend the College of Law at the University of California, Hastings where she received her law degree in 1989, and was then admitted to the California Bar in 1990. After law school, Kamala worked in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, where she focused on prosecuting child sex offenders.
In 2003, Kamala became the first Black woman to be elected as the District Attorney of San Francisco. In 2010, she became first woman and Black American to be elected California’s Attorney General. In these roles, Kamala became known for her toughness and her commitment to fighting to protect the most vulnerable. In 2008, she refused to defend Prop 8, which banned same-sex couples from marrying. In 2012, she helped California homeowners win $25 billion (five times more than initially offered) in a settlement against big banks for unfair lending practices after the fallout of the housing crisis.
In 2016, Kamala was elected to the U.S. Senate, making her the second Black woman to ever be elected to the Senate. She serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She has gained national attention for her persistent questioning during Senate hearings and investigations. Kamala has supported legislation to increase the minimum wage, reform the criminal justice system, and expand healthcare coverage. She married Doug Emhoff in 2014 and has two stepchildren, Cole and Emma, who call her “Momala”.
Additional Sources: 1, 2, 3 | image source