Kerri Harris is running for Senate in Delaware. She is a U.S. Air Force veteran & a community organizer, a proud queer woman of color. Kerri wants to bring a “diversity of experience” to the Senate.
Her opponent? Incumbent Tom Carper. Tom famously helped kill the public option, voted for the Keystone XL Pipeline, and for the Dodd-Frank roll-back. He voted to confirm three conservative Trump cabinet nominees: Wilbur Ross, Rick Perry, and Alex Azar. He has spent his long career as a stalwart ally of big banks and corporate donors. It is time for a new, diverse perspective in the Senate, and the first woman to finally hold a Senate seat in Delaware.
Kerri has received write-ups in Broadly, Vogue, The Intercept, Yahoo, the Washington Blade and of course, the local News Journal and public radio. Most of those write-ups came after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset win.
She agrees with the vast majority of Democratic voters: we need Medicare-for-all, an end to mass incarceration, a $15 minimum wage, a transition away from fossil fuels, more diplomacy and less war. A diverse, experienced vet like Kerri deserves at least a blurb, if not a full profile, from the DKos Elections team.
Kerri Harris is 38, and she understands the crisis of student debt, which is hampering the ability of Americans under 40 to buy a home or start a family. She supports student debt forgiveness. It may sound radical, but it is much less outlandish than a $700 billion annual military budget or a similarly large bailout of big banks after their self-inflicted collapse in 2008. It makes sense as an opening point in a negotiation in how our government can provide student debt relief.
Here is the candidate’s “On the Issues” page from her website:
Women’s Rights
Kerri strongly opposes using women’s rights as a bargaining chip. She also opposes supporting anyone in government who does not advance women’s rights.
Sen. Carper voted to confirm 13 anti-choice Trump nominees, including the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the circuit court (who is now Trump’s second Supreme Court nominee) and Alex Azar as the Secretary of Health and Human Services
Health Care and Response to Opioid Crisis
Kerri supports Medicare for All, importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, and investing in resources to tackle the opioid crisis.
Sen. Carper voted against Medicare negotiating drug prices. He also voted against allowing the import of prescription drugs from Canada.
Criminal Justice Reform
Kerri supports a “Smart on Crime” approach that emphasizes restorative justice and ending mass incarceration, while also providing economic opportunities for our returning citizens.
Sen. Carper oversaw the “the largest prison expansion in state history” and pushed for longer sentences which led to a near doubling of the Black incarceration rate.
Environment
Kerri knows that the water crisis is nationwide issue that we must address immediately. She also opposes our fossil fuel economy and believes we must transition away from our dependence on fossil fuels.
Sen. Carper voted for offshore drilling four times; he voted in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline; and he voted for the appointment of Rick Perry — a climate change denier — as US Secretary of Energy.
Protecting Victims of Sexual Assault
Kerri supports U.S. Sen. Gillibrand’s bill to protect sexual assault victims in the military.
Sen. Carper voted against Sen. Gillibrand’s bill to protect sexual assault victims in the military.
Minimum Wage
Kerri supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it to inflation.
Sen. Carper opposed Obama’s proposal to raise minimum wage to $10.10. Instead pushed for a lower minimum wage of $9 an hour.
War and Foreign Policy
Kerri believes we must execute all diplomatic options before moving towards military action, and diverting defense dollars to infrastructure and healthcare.
Sen. Carper was one of a small group of Democrats to have voted yes on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in 2017 for President Trump and the Iraq war in 2003.
Holding Wall Street Accountable
Kerri opposed the #BankLobbyistAct of 2018 (a bill that weakens Dodd-Frank by deregulating the nation’s banks and reverses discrimination protections that protect communities of color).
Sen. Carper co-sponsored the #BankLobbyistAct supported by President Trump.