Credit: (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

WASHINGTON — After weeks of uncertainty about their ability to hold the White House, Democrats are eager to campaign for Kamala Harris, their party’s presumptive nominee for president, as a leader to extend the legislative accomplishments of the Biden administration.

They’re also keenly aware of the symbolic power and historical significance of electing Harris, 59, the daughter of a mother from India and a father from Jamaica.

The prospect of electing not only the first woman to the presidency but also the first person of Asian descent and the second Black person in U.S. history has Democrats on Capitol Hill, in New Jersey and beyond buzzing.

“A lot of my Asian American colleagues here are super excited,” Rep. Andy Kim (D-3rd) said Tuesday. “As an Asian American running for office, the idea that there’s an Asian American running for president who could very well win, it’s exhilarating.”

“I just keep hearing people say, ‘I never imagined this during my lifetime,’” Kim said, referencing the idea of an Asian American becoming president. “And I think that shows you how ready people are for this and how exciting it is.”

Democrats off the back foot

After President Joe Biden said Sunday he would not seek reelection, Democrats in Washington feel like they have gained political momentum in the last few days, and as they look toward November, that they’re poised to vault two history-making candidates into office.

Harris, who has amassed enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination for president but has not been officially nominated, was just the 10th Black American to join the Senate.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, pressed his GOP colleagues Tuesday not to say racist or sexist things about Harris and instead criticize her policy views.

“This election will be about policies and not personalities,” Johnson told reporters. “This is not personal with regard to Kamala Harris,” he said, “and her ethnicity or her gender have nothing to do with this whatsoever.”

Republican attacks

Some House Republicans and other GOP commenters have taken to calling Harris a “DEI” candidate, using the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion as a pejorative.

“Intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming Republican, referred to Harris in a television interview this week. “I think she was a DEI hire.”

Kim, running to win the Senate seat that outgoing Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez is vacating in August, would be the ninth senator of Asian American, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian origin, according to the Senate Historical Office.

He would also be the first Asian American senator from the East Coast.

“I do recognize people are paying attention to this, Asian Americans, Korean Americans all over the country with my race,” Kim said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

Impact of Kim’s candidacy beyond NJ

During his campaign, Kim has heard from people in New Jersey and elsewhere, including apolitical Asian Americans who feel connected with his race, he said.

“People will tell me, ‘My mom is super excited and she never gets excited about politics,’ and that makes me happy that we’re breaking through, that people see this as an historic moment,” Kim said.

Kim’s primary opponent in the Senate race would also make history if he is elected in November. Republican Curtis Bashaw, who is gay, is at odds with many in his party on the issue of LGBTQ+ rights.

Democrats take stock of Harris

In interviews in recent weeks, New Jersey Democrats said they feel that while Biden had struggled on the campaign trail, they still have a strong campaign strategy — to emphasize the accomplishments of the Biden administration, highlight Harris as a far younger candidate than former President Donald Trump and reinforce what another Trump presidency might mean.

Trump, 78, has said he would govern like a dictator, pursue his political enemies through the legal system and uproot the climate policies of the Biden administration.

‘People don’t always want to be told to vote against something. We have to give them the vision.’ — Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th)

Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th) lauded the administration’s achievements, particularly the infrastructure law, a broad bill on climate, tax and health care policy and computer chip legislation.

“The Biden administration has an incredible track record to run on,” Menendez said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

“At the end of the day, there were concerns about his ability to communicate those successes to the electorate,” Menendez said of Biden.

Big ambitions

Democrats should offer a more ambitious vision of what is possible, said Menendez, who declined to discuss his father’s conviction on corruption charges last week and political legacy.

“People don’t always want to be told to vote against something. We have to give them the vision. Can you imagine if we were able to do this? Can you imagine if we were able to cut childcare costs like this? Can you imagine if we were able to have the largest investment in affordable housing in a generation?” Menendez said.

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st) said he’s been pleased with Harris on labor, trade and union policies.

“She has been lockstep with the Biden agenda, and his relationship with unions goes back 50 years,” Norcross, a former union official, said in an interview. “She’s been good with unions, there’s no question about that, but not for 50 years.”

Still, Norcross said, Harris, who is close with Marty Walsh, Biden’s first labor secretary, has carved out her own ties with unions.

“I think the vice president is on her way to having that long relationship,” he said.

Polls in swing states that will likely decide the presidential race, like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, show the race, still months out, will likely be close.