East Bay Black Intellectuals Tune Into Democratic Debate

Mixed Feelings on Harris at Her Home Base

By Michaela Vatcheva and Ashlea Brown

On the night of October 15th, LaMata Lewis, a retired accountant in Oakland, took a break from watching the Democratic debate on a giant screen at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle. She was fired up about Elizabeth Warren. “She’s got a plan for everything!” Lewis said. “I do not want any more rookies. I want somebody that knows how to run a country!” Lewis was less impressed by the local candidate, Kamala Harris: “She’s a hard, hard lady… Maybe she should try [running for] Governor of California first.”

Pete collaborated with the Oakland-Berkeley chapter of Black Women Organized For Political Action (BWOPA) to put on the event. LaNiece Jones, Executive Director of BWOPA, expressed hope that organizing watch parties like this would entice community members to go out to the polls.

Representatives of Harris’ campaign at the watch party did not have to work hard to get most guests excited about their home senator. City of Oakland Privacy Advisory Commissioner Gina Tomlison said she was convinced of her ability to stand up to Trump. “She’s a prosecutor. She’s not a “former” prosecutor, you are what you are. And I think, who better to debate [him] than she?!” Chantal Reynolds, an External Affairs Representative at AC Transit, addressed that Sen. Harris spent some of her formative years in Canada: “Some people may not feel that she is from Oakland per se, but I think that she was reared here. I think that, that oomph inside… it comes from Oakland. I think that’s the social justice aspect of her politics.”

Law school student Kari Bible, one of few millennial guests at the party was skeptical: “I’m more concerned about her trying to be black than I am about her claim to be local. I’m just gonna go ahead and put that out there: I feel like she’s a chameleon race. She changes based on what people are expecting… I just don’t see her standing up for the issues that reflect our specific community.”

Poll director DiCamillo says the Bay Area as a whole is a very strong region for her: “Among all very likely voters in the primary, Warren gets 35% of the Bay Area vote. No other candidate is over the teens. The next highest proportion would be Biden at 16%.”

However, Warren’s attempts to straddle the nation’s polarized perspectives left some in the room confused. S. Jamila Buckner, Chief People Officer at Opportunity Fund, said the senator doesn’t always come across as authentic, despite her apparent efforts. Uche Uwahemu, Senior District Field Rep of Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, went even further: “Why is she running more and more in the middle? I’m always uncomfortable when politicians shift to get elected. You need to be who you are. I understand she’s trying to impress the independents and the middle. But it’s risky… If they don’t believe you, you can win the primary and then you’re going to lose to this idiot in the White House again, because people don’t trust you.”

Hot topics for this audience were headlined by health care. The crowd was at the edge of their seats, letting out “mmms” and “ahhs.” Spontaneous bursts of laughter erupted when former vice president Biden made a snarky comment toward Sen. Warren and Klobuchar, regarding Medicare For All: “First of all, the plan we’re hearing discussed is the Biden plan, the one I built forward,” he exclaimed.

Biden struggles to solicit the same treatment from younger voters. Alison Mata, the director of the Women’s March in Oakland and her friend, Kari Bible are in agreement: they remain unimpressed with the former vice president’s moderate ideology. Says Bible, “To be honest, I really like Biden for his comical value… But what got us here won’t get us there.” “I think Biden needs to sit down,” concludes Mata.

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