Black women on what Harris’s loss says about the US: ‘Voters failed to show up for her’

Jai Marcus watches results at an election-night party for Kamala Harris in Washington DC, on Tuesday. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

In the hours after Joe Biden’s decision to end his re-election bid and endorse Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president, 40,000 Black women – leaders in politics, business and entertainment – met on a Zoom call to rally around the vice-president.

“We went from that call to organizing our house, our block, our church, our sorority, and our unions,” said Glynda C Carr, president and co-founder of Higher Heights, an organization that works to help Black women get elected to political office. “That is what we did for the 107 days that she ran for office. Black women used our organizing power around a woman that we knew was qualified, that had a lived experience.”