ST. LOUIS—Vice President Kamala Harris took to a St. Louis hotel stage and told a national audience of Democrats that the Biden administration has “a lot of good material” to take to voters in 2024.
Harris has spent the past few weeks traveling to college campuses talking to younger voters about gun legislation, climate change and reproductive rights and repeated many of those themes Friday in front of a meeting of the Women’s Caucus at the DNC’s fall meeting.
She spoke of the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs that overturned abortion access and in states like Missouri, which had a trigger law banning abortions without exceptions that occurred soon after.
The sober conversation with former DNC chair Donna Brazile grew animated about 30 minutes in, when Harris said, “we’re gonna win” setting off the loudest applause.
Harris took issue with polling, which as recently as August showed Only 36% of U.S. adults approve of the President’s handling of the economy, slightly lower than the 42% who approve of his overall performance, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Harris celebrated policy wins on climate issues, prescription drug credits for seniors, the administration's push for student loan debt relief, which she said all resonate with voters.
“Popular, popular, popular. We just need to let everybody know who brought it to them. That’s do-able.”
“We are the ones who believe nobody should be made to fight alone. We have strength on our side, we have competency on our side. What we are doing is popular with the American people. We are going to win and I’m gonna also say this. We are gonna win because we love our country,” Harris said.
Democrats haven’t won Missouri since 2008 when the Obama-Biden ticket narrowly defeated John McCain and Sarah Palin. Former President Donald Trump won Missouri by 18.5 points in 2020.
For Missouri Democrats, who in 2024 will try to crack Republican control of all statewide offices in addition to the state’s U.S. Senate seat, the vice president’s appearance and the DNC’s meeting here has served as motivation and an opportunity to show party leaders that Missouri’s down ballot races are worth the investment.
“We’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and again be able to share the pathway to victory and how we know we can take back not only the governor’s mansion but flip several state senate, state house seats,” said Minority Floor Leader Crystal Quade, a candidate for governor in 2024. “It’s been a very great chance for us to really have that dialogue with people and I think it’s going to bring some dollars in for the campaign season.”
The DNC fall meeting ends Saturday in St. Louis.