Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center at Roxbury Community College Wednesday evening, rallying voters less than one week away from the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Wednesday was the third time in the past two months that Harris visited Boston.
At another event earlier in the afternoon in Boston, Harris discussed President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and its impact on the city of Boston. However, in Roxbury, Harris’ speech was focused on “driving voters to the polls,” according to a press release for the event.
“We are here today, six days out, to fight for the right of every person to be able to exercise their voice in every way and in particular, during this election, through their vote,” Harris said in the college’s gymnasium, filled with an estimated 200 supporters.
Harris was joined by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey and Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Kim Driscoll, incumbent Rep. Ayanna Pressley, attorney general candidate Andrea Campbell and state auditor candidate Diana DiZoglio, as well as Mayor Michelle Wu.
Pressley, who represents the 7th district of Massachusetts — which includes much of Greater Boston, including Roxbury — spoke ahead of Harris and Healey.
“While the Republicans are playing with people’s lives, the Democrats are doing the work of changing and saving lives,” Pressley said. “Six days from today, November 8, we will send a resounding message that a politics of justice and healing is what we deserve and what we demand.”
Healey took a few minutes to address her opponent, the Republican gubernatorial nominee Geoff Diehl, and said Diehl is an “election denier” and that he wants to “defund Planned Parenthood.”
“Massachusetts, we are going to once again reject Trumpism,” Healey said. “We will always protect a women’s access to an abortion.”
Harris described Healey as a “fighter for justice who has stood for justice, stood for equality her entire career, and will continue to do that work.”
The vice president was interrupted by protesters, who began yelling and were removed immediately, twice in the first few minutes of her speech.
“We are six days from an election, and democracy is on the ballot,” Harris said as the protesters were led from the gymnasium. “You know, I’ll tell you, all voices count.”
Aisha Miller, an attendee of the rally said she was “inspired” by the rally, and said this election is “very important.”
“If the Republicans end up taking the House and the Senate, we will be going backwards, especially when it comes to women’s rights,” she said.
Hawa Gabriel, a Boston resident and Healey supporter, said she was unable to see the vice president speak because she arrived at the rally late.
“I know with the energy that I see here now, it was a fire starter earlier,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel also said she believes a woman’s right to an abortion will eventually prevail and that she hopes the U.S. can “turn a new leaf.”
Harris closed her remarks by describing democracy as a “duality,” with the ability to “defend and secure individual rights, liberties and freedom” on one side, and the fragility of it on the other.
“(Democracy) will only be as strong as our willingness to fight for it. And so fight for it we must, and fight for it we will. And when we fight, we win,” she said.
Election day in Massachusetts is Tuesday, Nov. 8.
An estimated 200 supporters!! In a college gym? Harris and Pressley fighting for democracy? Seems like no one cares what either one of them has to say. Guess that’s because neither one of them says anything about the current concerns of middle class citizens. The democrats are done in three days.