Political observers can discuss the many ways Oakland native U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is breaking ground as the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, but an unexpected discussion centers around her practical choice of footwear during campaign stops.
Harris is ditching the heels usually donned by women traveling with political campaigns, which means she doesn’t need to take delicate steps while disembarking from planes. Instead, she can stride down the plane stairs while wearing comfortable-looking sneakers and boots.
Last week, Harris, 55, arrived in Milwaukee wearing Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars, and Twitter went wild. On Tuesday, it was “the Timbs” that had many applauding her relatable fashion.
https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1306085691839795200
The “Timbs” are Timberland boots, which she wore while visiting firefighters and touring the scene near Fresno of one of California’s devastating wildfires. With California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also wore practical footwear, Harris surveyed the damage from a fire that came close to destroying Pine Ridge Elementary School in Shaver Lake, local reports say.
Of course, it makes sense that Harris would prefer to walk around a fire scene in sturdy boots, which she wore with a white T-shirt and a green parka jacket, but the “Timbs” stayed on while the candidate attended a community roundtable the same day to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on Latino families in Las Vegas, Nevada, PopSugar reported.
As a woman running for a top job in American politics, it’s inevitable that Harris’s personal style will garner attention, just as Hillary Clinton became known for her “Pantsuit Nation” attire.
Chuck Taylor’s. Skinny jeans. Suit jacket.
First Black woman & first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party.
Born in Oakland, California (for you birthers). Her first name is pronounced COMMA-lah. Get it straight.
American, badass… https://t.co/ubVsaFV5nR
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) September 7, 2020
First ladies also are assessed for their sartorial choices. That’s certainly the case for former model Melania Trump, who has won praise for her elegant outfits at diplomatic events. The wife of President Donald Trump, however, also has generated controversy, as when she wore a green jacket with the “I really don’t care, do you?” message on her way to visit with child migrants at the US-Mexico border.
The first lady also faced ridicule in 2017 for a footwear choice, wearing stiletto heels on a trip to survey damage from Hurricane Harvey in Texas. She did, however, change into white sneakers before Air Force One landed.
For Harris’s footwear choice on Tuesday, her niece, Meena Harris, tweeted, “THE TIMBS THO.” The Biden-Harris campaign also seized on the positive optics of her Timberland boots, with Joe Biden’s senior advisor Karine Jean-Pierre also sharing a video of the candidate skipping off the stairs, with the caption, “The Timbs.”
Some Twitter users decried the focus on a female candidate’s fashion choices, or objected to Harris getting positive attention when they disagree with her political record, but many others enjoyed the “Timbs” moment by generating memes, adding soundtracks to video clips or by creating compilations of Harris wearing the boots at other times.
https://twitter.com/JoyfullySunTzu/status/1305958253512155136
