Former Vice President and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden followed up last week’s historic announcement of Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate—the first Black woman to sit on a presidential ticket—by also announcing that senior campaign advisor Karine Jean-Pierre would be Harris’ chief of staff, making Jean-Pierre the first Black person to serve as chief of staff to a vice-presidential candidate, LGBTQ Nation recently reports.
A groundbreaker in her own right, Jean-Pierre is a Black lesbian with Haitian roots. And she and Biden go back to 2011 at least, when she served as the deputy director of battleground states for President Barack Obama‘s 2012 re-election campaign, according to her bio. In tweeting her announcement last week, Jean-Pierre called herself “ambitious”—surely as a preemptive response to the campaign’s naysayers—and that she was ready to get to work.
Karine “ambitious” Jean-Pierre is incredibly proud to be working to elect the Biden/Harris ticket. Let’s go!! https://t.co/Y3rNNz6qJG
rn— Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre) August 11, 2020
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Anyone who doubts Jean-Pierre’s readiness should watch the viral video below. Last June, during a MoveOn forum that featured Harris, a white male protestor walked onstage and snatched the microphone out of Harris’ hands. Yet even before he could reach the Senator, Jean-Pierre, who was also on stage, jumped in front of Harris and physically confronted the man who was then pushed off-screen by Harris’ husband and others.
And because most folks love a bad-ass woman, many on Twitter applauded the news:
To Protect And To Serve. pic.twitter.com/cLUAh8ZhPB
rn— Chip Moynihan (@ChipMoynihan) August 11, 2020
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) August 11, 2020
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Kamala Harris names trailblazing Black lesbian, Karine Jean-Pierre, as Chief of Staff #NOH8 https://t.co/F9ge0q4yNb
rn— NOH8 Campaign (@NOH8Campaign) August 12, 2020
As for the presidential race, tune in tonight (August 17) for the first night of the virtual Democratic National Convention, which will feature Jean-Pierre and former Senator Bill Nelson (R-Fla.) as speakers.