The ongoing fight for voting rights was recently brought up by Vice President Kamala Harris during a public engagement in South Carolina. Speaking at the annual retreat of the Seventh District African Methodist Episcopal Church’s Women’s Missionary Society, Harris stressed the value of preserving voting rights without specifically bringing up former President Donald Trump’s removal from the ballot in two states.
Republicans, according to Harris, are trying to “silence the voice of the people” through a number of legislative initiatives. She objected to legislation that restricted early voting, outlawed drop boxes, and made it unlawful to provide food or drink to voters in line. Harris presented these acts as an assault on the inviolable right to vote as well as a violation of the neighborly ideal of love.
The Vice President made reference to the riots that occurred on January 6, 2021, characterizing them as an additional assault on the freedom to vote, with demonstrators attempting to “overrule the votes of millions of Americans.” She thanked the black women in attendance, recognizing their contribution to Joe Biden’s election as president and her own election as the nation’s first black vice president.
President Biden is scheduled to appear at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, the scene of a racially motivated mass massacre in 2015, at the same time as Harris’s speech. It seems that both Biden and Harris are concentrating their efforts on South Carolina in an attempt to win over voters there for the 2024 elections.
This emphasis on South Carolina coincides with a USA Today poll showing a decline in black voters’ support for Biden in comparison to the general election of 2020. According to the poll, 63% of black voters prefer Biden, a sharp decline from his prior results.
Harris’s comments and the administration’s actions in South Carolina are indicative of their plan to fortify their position in crucial states before to the elections of 2024.