SE Valley Times

Jim Torgeson, Gilbert town councilman, said Vice President Kamala Harris' support for reparations for black Americans "only divides our country further."

"Harris' Reparations proposal only divides our country further solely based on ethnicity (just ask Chinese and Irish slave descendants)," Torgesen told SE Valley Times. "It panders to a particular group using money and assigns responsibility to another that had nothing to do with slavery.  We should be more concerned about Opportunity for All and celebrating the American Dream for all.  United we stand, divided we fall."

Six in 10 voters in seven battleground states, including Arizona, oppose Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for providing reparations to Black Americans, according to a new poll released last week by American Greatness that surveyed voters in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Harris’ support for reparations for Black Americans is opposed by 60% of voters in those states, with only 27% supporting her stance, Grand Canyon Times wrote in an analysis.

The American Greatness poll was conducted by North Star Opinion Research among 1400 likely voters, 200 per state, in each of the seven battleground states.  

While running for U.S. President in 2019, then-U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said she supported reparations for black Americans.

"I think there has to be some form of reparations," said Harris in an interview with black online news site, The Root.

When the interviewer asked Harris if, as president, she "would be willing to lead a conversation on what reparations for Black people would look like," Harris replied, "yeah."

This was just one of numerous times Harris has backed reparations for black people.

“I’m serious about taking an approach that would change policies and structures and make real investments in black communities," she told the New York Times in February of 2019. 

During her time as a U.S. Sen. for California, Harris co-sponsored a bill with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker introduced in April 2019. This legislation aimed to create a commission to study impacts of slavery and "ongoing discrimination against African-Americans," as well as make "recommendations on reparation proposals for the descendants of slaves." 

A potential goal outlined in the bill was to create a "national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery and its continuing racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans."

Harris also told the Des Moines Register in 2019 that reparations would not be as simple as "writing a check," and that research needed to be done in order to come up with solutions to address "the systemic issues that are present and will continue to exist."

Harris was elected Vice President in 2020 alongside President Joe Biden (D). She was recently slated as the new Democrat candidate for the upcoming presidential election when Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her. Before being elected as Vice President, Harris served as the District Attorney of San Francisco, the Attorney General of California, and as a U.S. Senator from California.