Biden and Harris’s victory is historic, and it also can mean different things to different people. We asked two Mexican American students at USC their thoughts on the Biden-Harris victory.
L.A. native, Camila Tamayo is a Mexican American senior in global studies at USC. She voted for Biden but says she didn’t like either of the men running for president.
“It’s like where do I start... they are pretty much some of the worst candidates, I think.”
She says Biden is far from progressive.
“He has a terrible voting record in the past. If we really want to get into it, he’s been pro-segregation, anti-choice, he’s voted on legislation that hurt the working class and that working class are the people who are Trump’s main supporters and, you know, main voting base.”
Tamayo, like many other Mexican American voters who struggled to decide between candidates. has concerns about Biden’s plans to unite “blue” and “red” Americans.
“So I do think that if we don’t address the polarization and the needs of the working class we will only see further polarization, more racism, more violence.”
A nationwide poll found Biden and Harris won about 66% of the Hispanic vote, but that’s a 4% decrease from the 2016 election.
Mateo Davis is a Mexican American junior at USC studying business. He voted for Biden and says when the election results were announced, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m definitely excited for what’s to come because I feel like we as people of color don’t have to feel as like, I don’t want to say afraid but yeah. I guess, afraid of any sort of racism, at least open racism and open discrimination because now that Trump’s now gone, a lot of his supporters who were being openly racist and discriminative don’t have a justification.”
Biden and Harris’s victory may not have been the ticket that all Mexican American voters would have agreed on, but voters like Mateo Davis say it represents a great step forward for people of color. And because Kamala Harris is the first woman of color to become vice-president…
“It’s definitely, it’s historic, actually. It’s a huge inspiration to women all across the country. She’s in a position of immense power and I think it’s very important that young women across the country going forward see her and be inspired to make a change and make a difference.”