Kamala Harris earns praise with first presidential campaign ad championing ‘Freedom’
The newly configured Harris for President campaign has launched its first digital ad from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, titled “We Choose Freedom.”
The nearly minute-and-a-half video features a voiceover from Harris and footage from her record-breaking and first campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
“There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate. But us? We choose something different,” says Harris to the tune of Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” a song the Grammy-winning artist granted permission for the presidential hopeful to use.
“We choose freedom. The freedom not just to get by, but get ahead. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris continues. “We choose a future where no child lives in poverty. Where we all can afford health care. Where no one is above the law.”
America’s first woman, first Black and first South Asian vice president added, “We believe in the promise of America, and we are ready to fight for it. Because when we fight, we win.”
Democratic strategists praised Harris’ first campaign ad for its multiracial, multigenerational appeal.
“It’s a generational ad because she’s a once-a-generation candidate,” said Antjuan Seawright, CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC.
He told theGrio, “Freedom has always been under attack for many of us in this country … fundamental freedoms that we sometimes take for granted, like being able to make our own healthcare decisions, like the freedom to vote, like the freedom to just exist.”
Seawright, a longtime adviser to Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., called the Harris ad a “flirtation” of what is to come from her nascent presidential campaign.
He added, “While the ad may have some Beyoncé music to it, certainly the message speaks across generation lines, across party lines, across socioeconomic lines, geographical lines, and every other line you can draw.”
Political strategist Ameshia Cross said the emphasis on “freedom” could not be better suited in an election against former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.
“Donald Trump wants to take America back. He wants to eradicate civil rights protections. He wants to eliminate opportunities for affordable college,” Cross told theGrio. “He wants to return to a place where women didn’t have rights at all, and where their ambition was quelled.”
Cross said Harris represents “an America that we always talk about but never really got to.” She continued, “An America that is united, an America that understands that there’s strength in diversity, and by eliminating that, we become weaker as a nation.”
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The contrast between Trump and Harris, the soon-to-be first Black woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination and who served in a historically diverse Biden administration, could not be clearer, Cross said.
“You also have a woman who has been a part of an administration that not only fought for civil rights protections but also provided for student debt relief for millions of people across this country,” she noted, “in addition to small business growth, in addition to working to promote the ideals of what our democracy stands for, not only in the United States but across the globe.”
There’s also a great “symbolism” of Beyoncé serving as the soundtrack to Harris’ historic presidential campaign, said Cross.
“Beyoncé is known, in many ways, as a great unifier. She has a platform, and as an entertainer, has been someone who’s bridged the LGBTQ community, younger Americans of all different stripes,” she explained. “There is some symbolism here — strong Black women who are able to unite various populations but also invigorate a younger generation.”