Why We Want VP Kamala Harris
elected as the next President of the United States!
As Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans, we understand the importance of coming together to advocate for the needs and concerns of our communities, our families, and our children. We need a leader who sees us, identifies with our everyday needs such as access to quality healthcare, assistance with college tuition, support for small business growth, and caretaking for the elderly Habesha community who have sacrificed for so many of us to have the opportunity to live and be born in the United States. As a daughter of immigrants, Vice President Harris knows the sacrifices our communities have made because she comes from a similar background. We need a leader who not only sees us but will also fight with us and for us on so many issues that impact our daily lives. Join us, learn more, and read below on some of the key reasons we will be voting for Vice President Kamala Harris to be our next president!
Economy & Jobs
Middle-Class Tax Relief: Harris will cut taxes for more than 100 million middle-class Americans by expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit.
No one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes.
Harris will expand the Child Tax Credit to provide $6,000 in tax cuts to families with newborn children.
Affordable Homeownership: Her plan includes $25,000 in assistance for first-time homebuyers and building three million affordable homes.
Small Business Growth: Harris will offer a $50,000 tax credit for new startups to support underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Fair Taxation: She will roll back Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest and ensure billionaires pay their fair share through a minimum tax and stock buyback tax.
Healthcare
Strengthen Affordable Care Act: Harris will expand ACA tax credits and make them permanent, lowering premiums for millions of Americans. Vice President Harris will make affordable health care a right, not a privilege by expanding and strengthening the Affordable Care Act and making permanent the Biden-Harris tax credit enhancements that are lowering health care premiums by an average of about $800 a year for millions of Americans.
Lower Drug Costs: She’ll cap insulin at $35 and out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 for all Americans, building on the Inflation Reduction Act. As Vice President, she also announced that medical debt will be removed from credit reports, and helped cancel $7 billion of medical debt for 3 million Americans.
Mental Health Resources: Harris has been a strong advocate for improving access to mental health resources. She believes that mental health care is a right and should be treated with the same importance as physical health care. Harris has supported expanding mental health services across the country, including providing funding for youth mental health, increasing the number of crisis response teams, and ensuring easier access to mental health care through initiatives like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Additionally, Harris emphasizes the need to address burnout among healthcare workers and is focused on making mental health care more affordable by enforcing parity laws that require insurers to cover mental health services at the same level as physical health care.
Maternal Mortality & Reproductive Rights: Habesha women and girls, similar to the Black population overall, are disproportionately affected by racism and racial health disparities in healthcare treatment, access, and overall patient care. Harris is committed to protecting women, girls, and restoring their right to quality healthcare, strengthening their reproductive freedoms that take into consideration their personal and private health circumstances, fighting racism in racial disparities, and opposing restrictive abortion laws. Harris has led efforts to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to 12 months, improving maternal health outcomes.
Immigration, & Foreign Policy
Supports Diversity Visas and Temporary Protected Status: Africans are the highest beneficiaries of diversity visas and are also in need of temporary protected status, which affords safety and security for immigrants confronted with ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinary circumstances. Harris supports diversity visas and temporary protected status and will ensure Ethiopian and Eritrean American families have the protections they need.
Pathway to Citizenship: The majority of all legal permanent immigration to the United States is through the family reunification program, and plays a critical role for Eritrean and Ethiopian families in the U.S. Kamala Harris believes in family reunification and comprehensive immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, many of whom have lived in the U.S. for over a decade, ensuring family unity and stability.
Restore Global Alliances: Harris has worked to rebuild international partnerships, strengthen NATO, and defend democracy against authoritarian regimes.
Education
Student Loan Relief: Harris has delivered $170 billion in student debt relief and will continue fighting to make higher education more affordable for Eritrean and Ethiopian families and their children.
Increase Pell Grants: Under Harris, Pell Grants increased by $900—the largest boost in over a decade to help students afford college. Record investments in HBCUS, Tribal Colleges, Hispanic Serving institutions and minority serving institutions; this will be a great benefit for Ethiopian and Eritrean American college kids and families!
Invest in Public Education: Harris supports the largest investment in public education in history and advocates for affordable childcare and preschool.
Social Security & Medicare
Protect Social Security: Harris will defend Social Security and Medicare from cuts and ensure long-term stability by making the wealthy pay their fair share.
Expand Medicare: She’ll extend the $35 insulin cap and $2,000 out-of-pocket spending limit to all Americans, not just seniors. For many Eritrean and Ethiopian seniors and elderly, Medicare access is critical for our community and Harris will ensure we can take care of our parents and grandparents.
Civil Rights & Justice
Voting Rights: Harris believes in restoring the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, so that all eligible voters have equal access to the voting process. She supports making Election Day a national holiday. Harris supports outlawing partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts and overhauling our campaign finance laws to amplify the voices of ordinary Americans, combat corruption, and make federal campaign spending more transparent.
Gun Safety: Harris will fight to reduce gun violence by enacting stronger gun control measures and banning assault weapons to ensure our children and families are protected.
WHAT DID HARRIS DO WHILE SENATOR?
As a U.S. Senator, Kamala Harris sponsored and co-sponsored several key pieces of legislation. Here are five significant policies that she was involved in – note, the only one that passed was the Lynching Act, but our communities can still learn where she stands on policies that directly affect the lived experiences of Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans.
1. LIFT the Middle Class Act (S.4, 2018)
Purpose: This bill aimed to create a new tax credit for middle-class families, providing up to $6,000 a year for families earning less than $100,000. Single filers earning less than $50,000 would be eligible for a credit of up to $3,000.
Focus: Alleviating financial pressure on middle- and low-income Americans by providing direct tax relief.
2. Justice for Victims of Lynching Act (S.488, 2018) (PASSED)
Purpose: This bipartisan bill sought to make lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in U.S. history. It passed the Senate unanimously in 2018 but was not enacted during that session. It later was passed under the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, and later signed into law in 2022 under a different Congress.
Focus: Addressing historical racial violence and establishing lynching as a federal crime to promote justice and accountability.
3. Maternal CARE Act (S. 3345, 2018)
Purpose: This bill aimed to address racial disparities in maternal health by providing funding to combat the high rates of maternal mortality among Black women. It included training for healthcare providers to reduce racial bias in care.
Focus: Reducing maternal mortality rates and improving healthcare outcomes for minority women.
4. Rent Relief Act (S. 3250, 2018)
Purpose: This bill sought to provide tax credits to renters who spend more than 30% of their income on housing, addressing the affordability crisis in rental housing across the country.
Focus: Increasing housing affordability for low- and middle-income renters struggling with high rental costs.
5. DREAM Act (S. 1615, 2017)
Purpose: Harris co-sponsored this bill to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children (DREAMers) and were protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Focus: Immigration reform, particularly protecting DREAMers and securing their future in the U.S.
These bills reflect then Sen. Harris's focus on social justice, economic relief, healthcare equity, housing, and immigration reform during her time as a U.S. Senator.