Duke alumna Melinda French Gates announced her support for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, marking the first election cycle in which she has endorsed any political candidate.
French Gates, Trinity ‘86 and Fuqua ‘87, endorsed Harris through a July 23 post on X, where she called on the importance of advocating for reproductive freedom, caregivers and women’s rights.
“I am proud to support Vice President Harris,” French Gates wrote. “... She has been crisscrossing the country to make the case for reproductive rights while courts and state legislatures are trying to take them away. She spearheaded legislation to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health care. She is leading on policies to make paid leave, child care and elder care more affordable for families.”
French Gates shared in a July 25 CBS Mornings interview that she has already donated to Harris’s campaign and “will continue to support her.”
The philanthropist’s announcement comes following a history of avoiding making political endorsements, noting in the past that they could compromise her ability to collaborate with politicians across the aisle on philanthropic work.
“I’ve never endorsed a candidate,” French Gates said in the CBS interview. “I’m a very independent voter. I will continue to vote sometimes Democratic, sometimes Republican. But I think she is the right candidate right now.”
French Gates publicly expressed her support for Harris’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, before he ended his reelection campaign earlier this week, marking her first-ever political endorsement. In a June 20 post on X, French Gates shared that because “this year’s election stands to be so enormously consequential for women and families … this time, [she couldn’t] stay quiet.”
French Gates endorsed Harris just over two months after her May 14 announcement that she would be resigning from her role as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she and her then-husband Bill Gates founded in 2000 to address inequalities in healthcare, education and wealth globally.
As a part of an exit agreement with Gates, French Gates received $12.5 billion to pursue her own charitable work aimed at empowering women and families globally as well as in the United States — initiatives that align with her endorsement of Harris.
“We need a leader who will stand up for reproductive freedom. A leader who understands that supporting caregivers leads to healthier families and a stronger economy. A leader who knows that when women have their full power in society, we all thrive,” French Gates wrote. “... I want [Harris] fighting for our country for the next four years.”
Although French Gates admits that much of her past work has been focused on improving conditions overseas, she wrote in a May 28 guest essay in The New York Times that “in the post-Dobbs era, [she] now feels compelled to support reproductive rights here at home.”
Through her organization, Pivotal, French Gates has committed to invest $1 billion into addressing the United States’s high maternal mortality rates, abortion rights and the inequalities women of color face in healthcare quality and access.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed a 12-week abortion ban in July 2023, a controversial law that went into effect through an override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and has since faced legal challenges. It includes exceptions of up to 20 weeks for rape or incest and up to 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal abnormalities.
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Abby Spiller is a Trinity junior and editor-in-chief of The Chronicle's 120th volume.