Former Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a Democratic get-out-the-vote push ahead of the midterms with one of her favorite pieces of political wisdom: If you feel powerless, you are powerless. And if you feel powerful, you guessed it, you are powerful.
Harris joined the GOTV event Monday, with 29 days until Election Day, urging Democrats to get “back out in the streets,” knock on doors, make calls, and turn out voters.
“And you know I have a saying, I have many sayings, but one of them is, ‘You know when you feel powerless you are powerless. When you feel powerful you are powerful,’” Harris said.
“And we are powerful.”
There was plenty more power to come…
“We are right now in that phase where we can remind folks that we are all in this together and that the voice of the people is powerful and that the power is with the people,” she said.
Harris said Americans have spent the last year and a half feeling “hopeless” and “powerless,” while arguing that the midterms give voters a chance to change the direction of the country.
“We are in the phase where we can do something to change the course of where this stuff has been going,” Harris said.
She called President Trump’s administration “the most callous, the corrupt and incompetent presidential administration we’ve ever experienced.”
Harris also blamed the Iran war for causing “at least a 50% increase in the cost of gas” and said she has met people struggling to buy enough groceries to get their families through the week.
The former vice president who lost the 2024 election to Trump told Democrats they have opportunities to flip House and Senate seats, governorships, and state legislatures. She named Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
Harris later called Trump a “tyrant” while arguing that the Founders anticipated a president abusing his power.
“Our founders, they imagined a moment like this,” Harris said. “They imagined that there would be a moment where there may be a tyrant occupying the White House.”
“They imagined a moment I suppose where there would be a bunch of people bending the knee at the foot of the tyrant,” she said.
Harris said the Founders created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances, but argued Democrats cannot rely on the Supreme Court.
“We know we can’t count on the Supreme Court,” Harris said.
She instead pointed to Congress and the chance for voters to change its makeup in November.
“And again this is a moment where we have to remember the founders understood that the people will kick in with their power if we are seeing an abuse of power from the executive or any other branch,” Harris said.
Harris ended by thanking the people taking part in the GOTV effort and giving them one final push.
“This work matters. You matter,” Harris said. “Please take care of yourselves and know that we have so much to do that is good work and yes hard work is good work.”