Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) along with members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the CBC Political Action Committee gathered in Washington, DC on Tuesday to voice their overwhelming support for Vice President Harris. Rep. Horsford said the Caucus now has one mission: to win the Speaker’s gavel.
“We have 105 days to not only win the White House, but to win a majority in the House of Representatives,” CBC’s Horsford said. “Elect Hakeem Jeffries as the next Speaker, making him the first Black Speaker in American history. Return the chairs to Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters, Foreign Affairs Chair Greg Meeks, Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott, Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson and all of the subcommittee chairs. They will not only be elevated to the chair, but to the American people.”
CBC and its PAC endorsed Harris the weekend she announced her campaign, and since then, several black organizations and lawmakers have voiced their support for her.
Members of the CBC, including former CBC chairs Reps. Joyce Beatty (Ohio), Jasmine Crockett (Texas) and Barbara Lee (California), joined Horsford in voicing their support for Harris.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (Delaware), who is running for U.S. Senate, noted that Harris has consistently made history and paved the way for others like her in the Democratic Party.
“We know that in the history of this country, there have only been three Black women in the United States Senate,” she said. “We had Carol Moseley Braun. We had Kamala Harris. We had LaPhonza Butler. And we have a fourth and a fifth coming.”
Harris, who launched her campaign on Sunday after President Biden withdrew and endorsed her, crossed the threshold for the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday with the support of more than 1,968 delegates.
The CBC’s support was not surprising, as its members had previously endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket, even as some Democrats called on Biden to step down following his poor performance in a debate with former President Trump in June.
Still, CBC members on Tuesday expressed gratitude for Biden’s time in office and his passing of the baton to the next generation.
But they also issued a stark warning to Black voters about what’s at stake in this year’s election.
“I’m old enough to remember visiting my parents’ home in South Carolina and seeing the signs that said colored and white. I don’t want to go back to that time. Those were not the best times for America,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the CBC PAC. “I remember my father and my parents not being able to vote, they didn’t have rights. We’re not going back to that America.”
Horsford and other lawmakers have strongly rejected claims that Harris is ineligible to run for president and said she needs to defeat Trump in November.
“It’s going to take all of us to defeat Donald Trump, and right now the vice president is the person best prepared and best qualified to win this nomination,” Horsford said. “She has secured our presumptive nomination. She is the person best prepared and best qualified to defeat Donald Trump, and she is the person best prepared and best qualified to move us forward, not backward. She is the future of our party, the next generation of leader.”
