Cheryl Harris: Pushing for Change and Saving Democracy One Campaign at a Time

Cheering for the underdog – while promoting democratic ideals – runs deep in Cheryl Harris’ lineage.  She credits her parents for being role models that propelled her to advocate for change and teach others that the world can be a better place–if you get involved.

Cheryl serves as the 2^nd Vice Chair for the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County (DPBC) under Chair Flora Lucero, former chair of the West Side Democrats, who appointed her to the position earlier this year.  This is her third time holding this post since 2005.  Her first was when she served from 2005-2009.  She was elected again in 2017 and served for two years.

An active member of the West Side Democrats, she considers herself a progressive Democrat, a label she wears proudly.  “Despite my Pollyanna appearance, I’ve always been an iconoclast,” Cheryl said. “I’m always for pushing the envelope and trying something new.  I love change and pushing people to make change.”

She said she always had a sense of right and wrong and remembers her first memory of recognizing injustice and inequality as a child.

“We would drive downtown from the Northeast Heights to go to church every Sunday,” Cheryl recalled.  “Dad would drive through the Santa Barbara/Martineztown neighborhood. I couldn’t really verbalize it then but I would see outhouses and smoke coming from tin chimneys and unpaved streets and I thought: “Something is wrong. We live in Albuquerque, and why don’t these neighborhoods have paved streets like the rest of Albuquerque?  Why do people look like they’re camping out and not have electricity?” To Cheryl, “It just seemed wrong.”

Cheryl was born and raised in Albuquerque where her mom was a school teacher at Mission Avenue Elementary School in the North Valley, which at the time was in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Her dad served in WWII.  Cheryl attended college at UNM and eventually married and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she helped get signatures in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s.  She would take her young daughter with her and is proud to report that her daughter is now a politically active lawyer.

She moved back to Albuquerque with her second husband, Bob, in 1996 to be close to her parents.  She had a very successful career as a facility manager with the USWEST telephone company where she worked for 30 years.  Cheryl had always loved landscaping and urban planning, so she returned to UNM and earned a Master’s degree in architecture. She speaks fondly of this time in her life surrounded by students younger than her.

“I had a lot of fun in school,” Cheryl said.  “It was a great learning experience.”  She also helped “train up” her younger peers about what was going on politically at the time.  One of her biggest concerns then – as it is now – is that too many people are apathetic about politics. “They don’t see the relevance of their political involvement having an impact on their day- to-day lives.”

In 2000, she retired from working and became even more active in politics. She volunteered for both the Gore and Kerry Presidential campaigns and met many other like-minded activists.  It didn’t take long for her to become Chair of Precinct 274 in Southeast Albuquerque.

She entered her one and only campaign as a candidate for the  Albuquerque Public School Board in January 2011 and nearly beat the incumbent.  Later that Fall, her beloved husband died of a sudden heart attack.

She knew that not winning that race was in her best interest as she realized she would not have been able to grieve while serving on the school board. She loved Bob’s dedication to her and her children, and how much he supported her activism. “Bob would haul tables, make signs, and drive me around,” Cheryl said.  “He was wonderful.”

Cheryl continues to help educate and encourage others to get involved. She credits her ability to work well with people and often convinces them to do things and gives them confidence that they can succeed.  On most nights you will find her on a zoom meeting helping candidates on the westside with their campaigns or organizing huddles to help get voters engaged in the process.

Asked how to get more people interested and active in politics, she urged more civics education in high schools. “We’re short changing our kids sometimes in the things they should go out in the world knowing such as consumer and finance law,” Cheryl said.  “As Democrats, we should try to push for some reform in our school curricula to turn out more educated citizens.  I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t want to be informed, be active, and take a stand.”

She warns that our current Democratic party faces an uncertain future. “There are two factions of the party – the ones that are comfortable with change and want to make systemic change, the other group wants to make changes in very incremental steps,” Cheryl said.  “If we don’t change,  the next generation is going to come back and create a new party.”

 “Young people are not going to stand for some of the things that are going on now.  The AOCs (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s) of the world will make that change, and I will be right behind them,” she added.

If you know Cheryl, you know that she’ll bring you along, too.