INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris told members of the historically black Zeta Phi Beta fraternity on Wednesday that “we are not messing around” and asked for their help in electing their president in November.
“I believe we face a choice at this moment between two different visions for our country, one focused on the future, the other on the past,” she said in a speech three days after running for the White House. “And with your support, I will fight for the future of our country.”
Indiana voters haven’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate in nearly 16 years. But Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian descent, spoke to a group already excited by her historic status as the likely Democratic nominee, and one her campaign hopes will help build its coalition.
On Wednesday, she thanked the women in the room for their work in electing her vice president and Joe Biden as president. “And now, at this moment, our nation needs your leadership again,” she said.
In a memo released Wednesday, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon pointed out that support among female, non-white and younger voters was critical to success.
“Wherever Vice President Harris goes, grassroots enthusiasm follows,” wrote O’Malley Dillon. “This race will be close and hard-fought, but Vice President Harris is in a strong position – and she will win.”
Still, Democrats face challenges as the country reels from frustrations over higher prices caused by a surge in inflation and Republican candidate Donald Trump recently survived an assassination attempt that mobilized his already loyal electorate even more. But the memo was more optimistic than the narrow path the campaign took after the 81-year-old Biden’s disastrous performance in the June debates. He quit the race on Sunday.
Harris mentioned that he would address the nation later Wednesday to explain the reasons for his resignation, calling him a “leader with a bold vision.”
“We are all deeply grateful for his service to our country,” she said, before comparing the administration’s agenda to Trump’s.
“These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back,” she said. “Across the country, we are witnessing a full-scale attack on hard-won and hard-fought freedoms and rights.”
She cited the freedom to choose, safety from gun violence, openly loving who you want to love, “learning and acknowledging our true and complete history,” and the freedom “of a woman to make decisions about her body without the government telling her what to do.”
Trump unleashed a barrage of attacks on Harris during a rally in Charlotte, calling her his “new victim to defeat” and accusing her of trying to mislead the public about Biden’s health and ability to run for a second term. Trump referred to Harris as “Lyin’ Kamala” – repeatedly mispronouncing her first name – and said she was “the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history.”
Harris landed in Houston later Wednesday and visited the city’s emergency operations center to discuss ongoing recovery efforts after Hurricane Beryl and to thank emergency management and first responders. She watched Biden’s speech in the Oval Office from Houston.
On Thursday, she will speak at the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, which has supported her candidacy.
While the campaign will continue to emphasize the so-called “blue wall” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to secure the necessary 270 electoral votes, Harris also hopes to be competitive in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Trump generally does better among white voters without a college degree. AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of voters and nonvoters designed to uncover the story behind election results, found that this group made up 43% of all voters in 2020, and Trump won them by a margin of 62% to 37%, even though he lost the election overall.
For Democrats, black women would likely make a fundamental difference in November, and Harris has already shown signs of mobilizing their support.
According to AP VoteCast, black women made up just 7% of the electorate in the 2020 election, but 93% of them voted for Biden, helping him to narrow victories in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
After Harris announced her candidacy, about 90,000 black women tuned in to her campaign via video call on Sunday night. It was a sudden show of support for a Howard University graduate and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister who has made Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” her entrance music at events.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the sorority meets every two years, not annually.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
