Vice President Kamala Harris spoke Friday before the annual convention of the National Action Network in Midtown Manhattan, where she drew cheers as she praised the “Tennessee Three” and urged hundreds of attendees to “stand and protect our democracy” from Republicans.
Harris used her platform, before a supportive audience of Black civil rights activists and others at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, to deliver an address that had all the markings of a 2024 campaign speech, coming less than a year before New York Democrats hold their presidential primary on Feb. 6.
The vice president denounced Republican attacks on voting rights and reproductive rights, while making a case for why the Biden administration has been good for Americans, including for Black Americans. Invoking the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harris said the struggle for civil rights included a fight for economic justice.
The scene at the National Action Network gathering in Midtown Manhattan on Friday.
“It is the fight for paid leave and affordable child care, to permanently expand the Child Tax Credit, to cancel student loan debt, to provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs, to make sure all families can buy a home, and to protect Social Security and Medicare from attack,” Harris said.
Harris smiled as she recounted recent events in Tennessee. There, Republican legislators ejected two Black lawmakers from office after the men led a protest supporting gun control measures following the shooting deaths of six people in Nashville. Along with a third legislator, the two men, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, have gained national notoriety as the "Tennessee Three." They were quickly reinstated following a national outcry.
“Seven thousand students and parents continued to organize and march and raise their voices, and now Justin Jones and Justin Pearson are back in their seats,” she said, drawing loud cheers. “The people spoke.”
According to a March poll by Monmouth University, 36% of voters approve of Harris, while 53% disapprove. Among Democrats, the figures are much more favorable, with 76% voicing approval for Harris.
Benita Bobo, an 88-year-old Upper West Side resident, said she was inspired by Vice President Kamala Harris, who addressed the National Action Network gathering in Midtown Manhattan on Friday.
At the convention for NAN, which is led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, several attendees said they were inspired by the vice president. These included Margarita Benita Bobo, an 88-year-old Upper West Side resident, who proudly recounted the story of her family.
“My father was born in 1899 in Mississippi, to teenage parents," she said. "He was working at 6 years old at a slaughterhouse. He never forgot where he came from.”
Bobo praised the nation’s first Black and South Asian vice president for addressing the problem of gun violence, and for speaking in favor of abortion rights.
“The biggest thing is freedoms,” she said. “The freedoms of women to supervise their own bodies, the freedom to vote, the freedom to be a full-class citizen in America. And the freedom to not feel you are in danger.”
“She told it all,” Bobo said, “and she told the truth. She’s a brilliant, beautiful woman.”
