Editorial endorsement November 2024: Vote for Kamala Harris for president

The debate last June between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump put a spotlight on the dismal dilemma facing Americans in the upcoming presidential election: Should they vote for an octogenarian with slipping faculties or a 78-year-old whose narcissism respects neither legal nor ethical bounds?

But following the debate, one party made a change. Recognizing the health of the country was at stake, Biden withdrew from the race and cleared the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic nominee.

The choice could not be clearer. Harris, 59, brings a long career of advocating for the public from the local level to the international stage. She chose a compassionate, pragmatic leader in picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and has amassed a broad base of support that crosses party lines and ideological stances . And she shows the presidential leadership and devotion to American ideals necessary to lead the country into its next chapter. Oregonians should elect Harris as America's next president and put Trump in the rearview mirror for good.

As a prosecutor, state attorney general, U.S. senator and vice president, Harris has proven her mettle, from her precise interrogations in Congressional hearings to her calling out the global threat of Russia's unchecked ambitions . She has also effectively championed the need to protect women's health in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court's rollback of the constitutional right to an abortion, understanding the outrage of politicians' inserting their moral judgment in the care a doctor can provide a patient.

It's true that she was slow to address the immigration crisis at the southern border. But any solution requires Congress to act. And after Republican and Democratic senators negotiated a deal that would have sent additional law enforcement officers to fight human trafficking while boosting the capacity of immigration courts, Republicans killed the bill at the behest of Trump, who did not want to give the Biden Administration a win. People's lives are in the balance – but for Trump, his needs come first.

Harris has been criticized for taking more moderate positions than the progressive stands she advocated while representing California voters. But that's what Americans should hope for – someone who recognizes the needs of a broader constituency and understands the job is not to cater to the base, but to provide greater opportunities for all. And while she does not dwell on her background as a half-Black, half-Indian daughter of immigrants as reasons to vote for her, her election would mark a historic moment reflecting the limitless potential that the American ideals of opportunity, freedom and hard work can unlock.

Certainly, we wish Harris would share more details of her economic plans and offer more unscripted opportunities for the media and public to question her. And ideally, Biden would have never run for re-election in the first place, allowing other Democratic candidates to wage a robust contest of ideas before a nominee was chosen.

But focusing on what is "ideal" is the entirely wrong yardstick to use in this election. Trump, simply, should never be president again. His inciting of followers to attack the U.S. Capitol over his 2020 election loss, as laid out in his second impeachment , is the most disqualifying of his actions, but it's far from the only one. There's also the litany of lies , abuses of power , threats to punish political opponents and vicious attacks on immigrants , women and anyone who disagrees with him. He has been criminally convicted of falsifiying business records , found civilly liable for sexual abuse and been condemned by stalwart Republicans including those who served in his administration . His selection of deeply unpopular Ohio Sen. JD Vance only confirms the kind of person that Trump will surround himself with if elected to another term – those who divide Americans into winners and losers and are willing to use government's tremendous power to lock those divisions in place.

The country does not need a return to such chaos. Already we're seeing how Trump's and Vance's bizarre fabrications that immigrants are eating pets in Ohio are tearing up that community . Voters should embrace a new era and choose Harris.