3 women from different backgrounds detail why they're voting for Harris

The state of Georgia has never elected a female governor or U.S. senator. So, given that fact, we wanted to know: Are Georgians ready to make history and cast their 16 electoral votes for the first woman president?

In mid-September, NPR sat down with three women of different ages, races and religions who have seen politics in Georgia evolve through multiple election cycles. Each said they were voting for Kamala Harris this November, and detailed what her candidacy meant to them.

Read and listen to more of All Things Considered's recent trip to Georgia, including interviews with the secretary of state and Georgia GOP chairman.

Latrice Cushenberry, 54, lives in Gwinnett County

For Latrice Cushenberry, Harris feels familiar.

“She is someone that I have seen repeatedly throughout my lifetime in my grandmother, my mother, my aunt — [a] capable, competent African American person that basically can get the job done with empathy and compassion,” she said.

So when Cushenberry saw Harris become the Democratic candidate for president, she says she saw someone ascending to a position that has always existed in her life: “Of authority, of really making certain that everyone is cared for and making certain that everyone is represented.”

The fact Harris is a woman of color also resonated for Cushenberry and made her think of what she had experienced in her own life.

“I'm a person that works in a company where I'm the only person that looks the way I look,” she said. “I think it's important for her to be the most capable, to be the most competent. And her gender and her race is just a part of her, of who she is as a person. She shouldn't lead with that, I don't think, but it is critical for people to understand … that people of color are capable.”

And Cushenberry believes Harris’ ascension has helped redefine this narrative around people of color.

“Thank God, because it's quite exhausting, to be honest with you. It's exhausting to have to be in a constant state of proving because of the color of your skin.”

Eustacia McLoud Carter, 66, lives in Cobb County

Eustacia McCloud Carter is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and has lived in Georgia since 1998. She says it took her some time to come around to the idea of Harris at the top of the ticket.

“I was all-in for Joe Biden. I didn't care if we had to put him in a wheelchair, motorized, five oxygen tanks on his back,” she said. “And I was not liking the way that he was being coerced to leave. I just felt like he was a statesman and he deserved a little more respect than that.”

After Biden stepped aside, McLoud Carter said she took some time to grieve what had changed, but that once she came out of her “mourning period” she was all-in for Harris.

McCloud Carter believes much of the challenge in getting a woman in the White House has to do with the way that some men view women and their roles in society — something she qualifies as a “fallacy.”

“They see it that way, that we need to be barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen,” she said. “I did a canvas of my team of 50 barber and beauty shops, and that is the one thing I heard when I went in there, especially in the African American barbershops, ‘I'm voting for Trump.’ And they like Donald Trump. He comes out with that machoism.”

McCloud Carter said she doesn’t think all men believe this, but that there is a large part of the country that does.

“I was never raised that way. I have a father who always told me and my three sisters, ‘You can be anything you want to be.’”

Donna Smith Aranson, 74, lives in Fulton County

Donna Smith Aranson has lived in Atlanta her entire life and has volunteered for Hillary Clinton and both of Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaigns.

She feels the state is ready to elect the first female president.

“It's been an evolution. I think in our last election cycle … we elected two senators who are unique in their positions, Reverend Warnock and Jon Ossoff,” she said. “And I'm proud to say that I voted for both of them and campaigned for both of them. Is it time for a woman? God, I hope so. I do hope so.”

“I think that women have always taken second place. I think the stand on abortion and all of the things that matter to women specifically are strong issues that [Harris] backs. And that's not to say that men don't either. But … it feels more personal when it comes from a woman.”

Smith Aranson says she has seen a change over time, and that each election cycle she is watching stronger women step up. She is personally excited to see a woman running for the presidency, but adds that she’s glad that Harris has not made her gender or race the central focus of her campaign.

“She has to appeal to all people, all genders, all religions,” she said.