Imagine What One Year Of A Kamala Harris Presidency Could Be

This column is part of HuffPosts She the People series: stories by Black women exploring Kamala Harris historic candidacy. To read more, visit our hub .

Imagine with me: Its January 2026, one year since we inaugurated Kamala Harris as president. We are celebrating Americas Quarter Millennial and the progress we have made since the founding of America 250 years ago. Our everyday lives are better and we have entered a golden era.

Inflation is down thanks to Harris economic plans. We have legal abortion protections. We now have resources for our aging parents and grandparents, affordable prescription drugs, and Medicare to cover home health care costs, giving elderly Americans the ability to live with dignity.

The national minimum wage is now $15 an hour, changing the prospects for millions who had been laboring for $2.13 an hour in states like Louisiana or for the federal wage of $7.25. Federal voting rights are protected and restored. Assault weapons are illegal, and we finally experience a drop in the gun deaths of young people.

The White House celebrates immigrants from all over the globe, and provides a pathway to citizenship for those who have been contributing to this country for years but have lived in fear of deportation. Dreamers have hope of gaining an earned pathway to citizenship. 

Mainly, though, we feel better as Americans, as people. There is a new horizon of possibility for collective welfare and good governance and decency and respect for others. The overwhelming sense of dread is gone, the us versus them talk coming from leaders and found online has given way to big ideas to build an economy that will outlast the climate crisis. We are building a country where everyone belongs, and everyone can claim part of the American story. And banning books, and attacks on trans people are no longer in vogue or accepted as normal behavior.

Imagination is power in politics. Kamala Harris candidacy is possible first because we imagined it could be so. We are in a moment of expansive imagination for the future of this country and we decided that we would not accept the dark declarations of Trump but instead have created a fate of our own making. 

Inspiring people to reimagine America governed by women of color is the force behind my work. Opening the door to Congress, the Supreme Court, Cabinet positions, governors mansions, and the White House has changed the lives of millions for the better. Nearly a decade ago, I dared the country to turn to women of color and recognize our courageous vision and skilled leadership during Trumps dangerous and chaotic first term. This is what I envisioned when I organized the nations first presidential forum for women of color in 2019. And its why I am doing everything I can to elect Kamala Harris to the White House. 

What I see is that millions more now share the vision that women of color have held for the country. Millions more are committed to expanding justice, building solidarity, and supporting a new generation of leaders to defeat MAGA efforts to install fascism and protect white supremacy. It is Black women, for example, who are leading the Kamala Harris coalition. We are helping the electorate imagine a way to get out of the Trump morass we find ourselves in, and we are doing so with joy and purpose and transformation. That is where we are today the choice of a politics that is equal parts collective imagination and action steps and this has created the conditions that are ripe for change. 

Nowhere does this ring more true than this election cycle. By envisioning a brighter future, we can motivate our country to put in the work on Election Day to choose Kamala. This is how we ensure Tuesday furthers our centuries-long fight for a true multiracial democracy. This is how we elect a woman of color to our nations highest office. 

This is a future that our imagination can conjure and it is a future represented by the candidacy of Kamala Harris. She will be a president who will make a concerted effort to lead all people, with Cabinet and federal appointees that reflect our nations diversity a multiracial democracy representative of its people.

Today, in 2024, this is the world I imagine whenever I close my eyes. Dreaming of this future is one of the most powerful tools we have right now. We have the ability to shape this future if we can imagine it, we can make it so.

Early voting has begun across the country, and people are returning ballots every day. If you havent voted yet, make a voting plan. Get your ballot in now or go to the polls tomorrow. Use your vote to make this imagined future our reality.