Harris makes pitch to Black women sorority’s meeting in Indianapolis

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday traveled to solidly Republican Indiana, where she pitched herself to women of color, a voting bloc she hopes turns out for her in droves in November.

Ms. Harris gave the keynote address at the historically Black Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s biennial convention in Indianapolis. The event was scheduled weeks before President Biden’s stunning withdrawal from the race on Sunday.

Although it was not viewed as a campaign event, Ms. Harris, a Black woman of Indian descent, didn’t waste any time trying to galvanize the attendees who were already excited by her historic role as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“In this moment, our nation, as it always has, is counting on you to energize, to organize and to mobilize to register folks to vote to get them to the polls and continue to fight for the future our nation and people deserve,” she told the crowd.

“We know when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change and when we vote, we make history,” Ms. Harris said. 

She also assailed GOP nominee former President Donald Trump and Project 2025, which she said would erase the progress Black women made under the Biden administration. Project 2025 is a policy document authored by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. Mr. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, but Democrats have presented it as his agenda.

“These extremists want to take us back,” she said. “But we are not going back. Ours is a fight for the future. Ours is a fight for freedom.” 

Ms. Harris also leaned heavily into Mr. Trump’s three Supreme Court justices being part of the high court that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. She pledged to restore Roe v. Wade by codifying it through Congress if she’s elected president.

Black women could make a critical difference for Ms. Harris, who is in a tight race against Mr. Trump less than three days into her campaign. 

Although Black women comprise just 7% of the electorate, 93% of them voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, according to data from AP VoteCast. Many of those Black women were in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, sending Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris to the White House. 

In a memo released Wednesday, Harris campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon underscored the need for female, minority and younger voters to Ms. Harris’s success as a candidate. 

“Where Vice President Harris goes, grassroots enthusiasm follows,” Ms. O’Malley Dillon wrote. “This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength — and she’s going to win.”