Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event in Chicago, IL

Private Residence
Glencoe, Illinois

4:23 P.M. CDT

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)

     Good afternoon, everyone.  Good afternoon.  Good afternoon.

     Please — please have a seat.  Good afternoon.

     (Referring to a handheld microphone.)  Is this on?  It is now on. 

     Karen and Jon, thank you so very much for opening your beautiful home for all of us.  I — you know, I was saying to them: I know that it kind of — it — we have a big footprint when we travel.  (Laughter.)  And so, it is no small matter to just invite a few friends over and a few other friends. 

     But thank you.  This is very kind and generous of you, and it really makes a difference.  So, thank you to our hosts, please.  (Applause.)

     And to the host committee and to everyone here, thank you all for the support, for being here, and for loving our country — really, for loving our country. 

     You know, on the point about being the first woman, my mother had many sayings, and one of them she would say to me, “Kamala, make — you know, you may be the first to do many things.  Make sure you’re not the last.”  And when I think about the young women that you are referring to and that I meet, I very much look at them knowing that they are going to just soar.  They are going to soar.  And I often remind them that they have to remember all the people that they may not see at the moment who are cheering them on every step of the way.

     So, thank you all for being here.  This is — let’s see –there.  Let’s give that another go.

     Thank you all for being here. 

     This election is probably one of the most, if not the most important election of our lifetime.  I know Invest in [to] Elect and the folks who are leading it and who are part of it have been a part of these elections for almost every cycle in recent memory.  And every cycle, we have talked about the critical importance of the presidential election.  This one, I absolutely believe, is the most consequential of any we have been involved in in any recent time. 

     In fact, I say to a lot of folks that, listen, I think that we have to understand this election is fundamentally about a basic question: What kind of country do we want to live in?  It is also about understanding our power as Americans.  

     And by that, I mean, as Vice President, I have now met over 150 world leaders — my staff has counted — (laughter) — presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and kings — many of them now multiple times.  We have formed relationships and friendships. 

     The last three international trips that I took were, at the beginning of this year, to Munich for the Munich Security Conference, where I spoke on the stage representing America’s perspective on what is happening, in particular, in the context of our NATO Allies.  I, before that, at the end of last year, was in Dubai for COP28, the global climate conference, to represent our perspective there.  And I was also in the UK to — to speak about the — what I believe to be the concerns and — and the benefits, but the future of AI — in particular, around safety.

     All that to say, just the last three trips, to a one, when I saw other world leaders, they came up to me and essentially said, “Hope you guys are going to be okay.”  And understand, when they raised this point, it was purely out of self-interest. 

     In fact, the speech that I gave at Munich for — if anyone is interested, I’ll make sure and get it to you — there with our European allies, I was speaking, really, to an American audience but reminding, then, us — speaking there in Munich — about the 1930s.  Let us remember what happens when America removes itself from the global community. 

     In my speech, I then talked about the fact that isolation does not equal insulation.  And I say all that, then, in the context of the consequence of this election, yes, to us and to the rest of the world.  And then we understand, in that context, the power that we each have in this moment — a power that will impact people we’ll never meet and people that will never know our names.

     But because of your activism and your commitment to our country and what we stand for, I do believe the world will be better off.  This is the context of this election.

     We have — I have — have it written down.  I think we have now 173 days to go.  It sounds like a lot of time, but we know it’s not.  And I will say we are winning.  We are winning, and we will win.  (Applause.)  We are winning, and we will win.  We are winning. 

     We are winning when you think about the work of our administration — our President, Joe Biden — the work that we have done.  History is going to show we have broken — talk about breaking barriers –broken absolute new barriers and thresholds in terms of what we have done, rivaling Eisenhower — the investment in America’s infrastructure. 

     What we have done in creating over 15 million new jobs, over 850,000 new manufacturing jobs — bringing manufacturing back to the United States in a way that we know we need.  If no one understood the concept of supply chains before the pandemic, we know it now.  (Laughter.) 

     What we are doing to invest in CHIPS and Science — we were just talking about science and yet — many of you know, my mother had two goals in her life: to raise her two daughters and end breast cancer.  She was a breants c- — breast cancer researcher.  I grew up going to the lab with her.  She’d take us after school and on weekends.  The idea that we are putting such a significant investment in scientific research in this moment —

     The work that we have done on climate.  By my estimate, at least a trillion dollars over the next 10 years we are dropping on the streets of America to invest in resilience, adaptation, and to invest in a clean energy economy — a new economy.

     The work that we have done that is about investing in a broad-based economy and all the macroeconomic measures that tell us it’s working.  I think about it in the context of what we are doing to challenge industries with these government investments to invest in the private sector.  We have estimated that at least over $700 billion of private-sector investment has happened to match what we have been investing.  Right?  (Applause.)  

     We are winning.  We are winning in terms of when you think about economic measures and how people are doing and the cost of living.  We finally took on Big Pharma to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices so that now seniors will have a cap on the annual cost of prescription medication of $2,000 — (applause) — $2,000 a year.  It’s a game changer.

     We have capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month.  (Applause.)  What that will mean for seniors who, for years, had to determine whether they could either afford their insulin or afford rent. 

     We are winning as an administration.  We are winning as a party.  Take a look at the midterms.  Take a look at the end of last year in those special elections.  Did you see what happened in Wisconsin with that court? 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Yeah, we did.  Yeah, we did.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Did you see what we did in Virginia?

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Yes, we did.  Yes, we did.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Did we see what happened from Kansas to California, from Montana to Ohio, when choice and freedom was on the ballot?  (Applause.)  In so-called red and so-called blue states, when it was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom.  The American people voted for freedom. 

     We are winning.  As a campaign, we have opened up — I don’t know, I’ve lost count how many offices, especially in all the swing states.  Let me tell you, in the last four months, I have personally taken 40 trips. 

     In fact, I just landed here from Milwaukee, where I was earlier today.  I started the day in D.C.  But I was in Milwaukee today because I’m in the midst of an Economic Opportunity Tour that I started, speaking with small businesses about what we have done to expand access to capital for small businesses.  We’re — and we’re seeing historic small-business growth because of the work of our administration.

     So, we are winning.  And I think it’s very important for us to understand that momentum is on our side.  While we are so aware of the stakes, let’s know momentum is on our side. 

     And let us understand, then, that, in many ways, this campaign and this election is really about what I believe to be the promise of America.  You know, I — I believe in the promise of America.  I am empirical evidence of the promise of America.  (Laughter.)  And I believe that, very much, that is also what is at stake: to keep and to build on the promise of America, which is a promise for everyone to enjoy equal rights and opportunity and dignity. 

     The promise of America, a democracy, understanding that du- — there’s a duality to the nature of democracy.  On the one hand, great strength when it is intact — what it does to protect individual liberties and freedoms.  And on the other hand, its fragility, that it is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. 

     There is a direct connection between the promise of America and our willingness to fight for it.  So, we’re actually where we need to be, which is we are being challenged, as Americans, to fight for our country and to realize — and if nothing made that more clear than the Dobbs decision — that we can’t take anything for granted ever if we’re not prepared to fight.

     So, that’s where we are.  You know, many of you have heard me speak many times, and I will, as I often do, paraphrase Coretta Scott King, who famously said: The fight for civil rights — which is the fight for equality, which is the fight for justice, which is the fight for freedom — the fight for civil rights, she said, must be fought and won with each generation. 

     She had two points.  The first, then, being that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent.  And the second point being: And, therefore, understanding that’s the nature of it all, when you have to fight to maintain and uphold these rights, do not despair.  (Laughter.)  Let’s not throw up our hands.  It’s time to roll up our sleeves, right?  (Applause.)  It’s time to roll up our sleeves.

     So, I’ll end all of that and all of this, then, with saying: This is a critical time.  And we who are in this fight together, which is all of us under this beautiful tent — we understand.  And let’s just hold on to the fact we’re not fighting against anything; we are fighting for something. 

     And when we look at who the former President is, we have empirical evidence of the fact that America’s leadership needs to be about competence, care, concern for the American people and the ability and desire to actually do something about the condition of the American people.  On the other side, it’s about chaos. 

     And so, my last point is this.  You know, in the last several years, I think there’s a certain perversion that has taken place and taken hold that suggests that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down.  See the former President.  But what we all know is that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. 

     The true character trait of leaders is to have empathy, to have some level of care and concern, much less just curiosity, about the suffering of other people and then to take it upon oneself to do something to alleviate their condition.  That’s what we’re into.  (Laughter.)  That’s what we’re about.  And as much as anything else, that’s what this election is about: showing who we are as Americans.

     And I know we’re going to be okay.  And I thank you all very much.

     Thank you.  (Applause.) 

     END                 4:38 P.M. CDT

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