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Vice President Kamala Harris previewed her presidential campaign’s focus on women’s reproductive rights and social and economic equality during her remarks Wednesday afternoon at the Zeta Phi Beta Inc. Grand Boule conference in downtown Indianapolis.
In a 15-minute speech to the historically black sorority, Harris largely referred to herself and her campaign as “the future” as compared to Republican ticket whom she said wants to pull the country back.
She focused her message on the fight for a variety of rights.
“We are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms,” she said, referring to voting rights, reproductive rights rolled back under the reversal of Roe v. Wade and more.
Harris, who is of Black and South Asian descent, would become the first female president, if elected. The audience of over 6,000 raucously applauded when Harris explicitly mentioned her intention to become president.
The event was one of her first stops since President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid last Sunday and endorsed Harris.
Harris, 59, has emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Indiana delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted unanimously Monday evening to endorse her.
Campaign priorities she mentioned in her speech Wednesday included affordable health care, gun control and economic adjustments for the working class. She also spent considerable time on topics especially affecting women, including reproductive rights, maternal mortality and child care expansion.
Her attendance at the Grand Boule adds to her long history with historically Black sororities. The vice president also spoke to Delta Sigma Theta last year in Indianapolis.
Harris attended Howard University where she joined Alpha Kappa Alpha. Her sorority along with Zeta Phi Beta are part of a cohort of historically Black sororities and fraternities nicknamed the “Divine Nine.”
Following Harris’ entrance into the presidential race, the Divine Nine announced a voter mobilization push. She spoke to her sorority’s members earlier this month in Dallas.
The crowd was expectedly pro-Harris, punctuating her sentences with a wave of applause, camera flashes and hands waving in the air.
Regarding Biden’s dropping out of the presidential race, Harris commended the president, saying he has accomplished much in his career and will continue to do so in the next six months. He has a “bold vision” and “an extraordinary determination and profound compassion for the people of our country,” she said.
She touched on several wins from their administration, including student loan debt relief, expansion of postpartum Medicaid coverage and a proposal to prevent medical debt from impacting credit scores.
Harris briefly touched on her Republican opposition without mentioning Donald Trump by name. Instead, she alluded to his ticket, calling the direction of his campaign as extremist.
She condemned Project 2025, a policy agenda laid out by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation for a new GOP administration, and called it an attempt to “return America to a dark past.”
She said the 900-page document calls for the roll back measures like preschool for children, Medicaid coverage and insulin price caps for the elderly.
Trump has said he is not associated with Project 2025. However, several members of his former administration contributed to it.
Indiana Republicans responded to Harris’ visit by criticizing the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the immigration crisis on the southern border.
“Joe Biden tasked Kamala Harris to be our border czar, and it’s been an unmitigated disaster, as every day thousands of illegal immigrants are following through our southern border with an end goal of either taking Hoosier jobs or bringing drugs to our state, and it needs to stop,” U.S. Sen Mike Braun, the GOP candidate for Indiana governor, said in written remarks.
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Senator Braun did you vote for the bipartisan immigration bill that was the toughest legislation on immigration in decades? I think not, so give it a rest on immigration.
Valid point. Trump told his minions to put the mix on to make it another campaign issue based on his usual lies and BS. So sad that good people believe his stories. Still truly the greatest conman ever.
Harris solutions
– women already have the same rights as everyone else
– abortion is to take away the states rights and we have a good Indiana law protecting children. She needs to retake biology class.
– she’s against giving incentives to families with children. Instead, providing welfare for single mothers whose dads are nowhere involved. Project 25.
– Biden, not congress cut tax receipts with debt forgiveness (undemocratic way) creating envy to all that paid their loans
– go look at arrest of illegals driving in our communities. Many every week. . I’m sure no insurance. Some have had DWIs. It’s an underground economy. She’s a complete failure at our border. The FBI director said today they catching horrible illegals crossing.
– what in earth can she do about healthcare cost? The only way is for supply to out pace demand. Price controls will fail us all. That’s what all democrats socialist believe and think is the solution.
We are looking at the extremist Harris. Trump never prosecuted his political opponents. She’s a seasoned prosecutor and she should scare every American because she will find laws to put people jail while turning her head to corruption in her own friends and donors. She did it in California.
Lmao everything you just said is completely laughable. It’s got a nice dose of conspiracy, failure to understand Kamala’s role in the border crisis (it was not her job to “fix the border”), general whining, made-up “underground economies,” a lack of understanding of basic economics, and no understanding of the healthcare system. You’re a real winner, bud.
It’s laughable that David G. thinks Indiana has a “good law” protecting children. He needs to read this IndyStar article:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/2023/08/16/indiana-dcs-class-action-lawsuit-alleges-system-fails-to-protect-kids/70604332007/
Under the current administration, inflation is out of control, families can’t afford to buy groceries, gas and take care of their kids, businesses have been run out of major cities across the country by drug addicts and the homeless, men playing in women’s sports, constant hand-outs which all of the tax payers end up paying for, and woke policies are destroying the country.
Don’t get me wrong, I voted for Biden in the last election. Think I’m gonna run with the GOP this time around. Time for a change.
Inflation started under Trump. The CPI started its jump in July of 2020, before Biden was even elected. I’m not trying to downplay the current issues, but let’s not pretend that Trump’s catastrophic economic policies didn’t start this. Republicans have never, ever been good at managing the economy (always the biggest deficit-spenders, by far the most quarters of economic recession and it’s not close). Maybe we could start addressing the homelessness issue by addressing housing costs and supply, which Republicans very much don’t want to do so they can keep the Apartment Association happy.
If you think the “billionaire” ex-president and his “venture capital” running mate will improve the plight of the middle class, you need to research their past more closely. People bearing those labels care only about THEMSELVES and their own wealth. Everyone one else be damned.
Inflation is not out of control – it has come down lower than any other country and the economy is doing well. And what exactly is your definition of woke? Teaching kids the real
history of the US? Go ahead, vote for project 2025 – I dare you!
What is with the minions of Left-wing Progressive Dems on a business journal site?! That immigration bill was “bi-partisan” only in that Sen Lankford got suckered in, and it was “the toughest” on immigration only in that it was the toughest that Dem senators would agree to. It was still wholly inadequate in that it allowed for massive numbers of illegal immigrants, daily. The bill was a cynical ploy by a Democratic party trying to obscure from voters the fact that Biden-Harris threw open the border in 2021 after undoing Trump’s successful “remain in Mexico” policy.
It was a bi-partisan piece of legislation that passed the Senate with enough votes to overcome the filibuster. Left-wing progressives are on a business journal site because 1) business isn’t exclusive to conservatives and 2) conservatives are historically very bad at managing business and the economy. It’s not surprising that a number of leading business owners and economists are more left-leaning.
Some us are Lugar Republicans left behind by a party taken over by cranks and opportunists.
Er, Trump said it would be a “win” for Democrats so don’t vote for it. The word win should give you a clue, Einstein…
I have lived with Trump/Pence policies. I have lived with Biden/Harris policies. I’ll be voting Trump/Vance.
Which policies?
A big tax cut and Covid and don’t forget meeting with our enemies. That’s all trump did. Don’t forget the GOP healthcare plan?? And infrastructure week lol.
You need a better broker, then. My portfolio is gangbusters.
Not sure why anyone would support a felon. Only in Indiana.