When PoliticsNation host Rev. Al Sharpton asked Vice President Kamala Harris about voter turnout in next year’s presidential election, Harris confessed, “I’m worried about it.”
The vice president went on to add that much of her worry stems from “a lot of effort and laws that have been passed to try and make it more difficult for people to vote.”
Harris and Sharpton are well-positioned to share a conversation about voter suppression. Sharpton has been a tireless fighter for civil rights for decades and is the founder and president of the National Action Network. As a child, Harris often marched alongside her parents — especially her mother — and cited those experiences as part of what inspired her to run for president in 2020.
The vice president turned the conversation back to the reverend and asked, “I mean, can you imagine, Rev? In the United States of America, we went through all these fights, the March on Washington, John Lewis, all of that. And these so-called ‘leaders’ who are so bold as to unapologetically propose laws and make it more difficult for the American people to vote.”
She concluded, “So I do worry that we have to do everything we can to remind people of why it is important.”
The pair discussed another tough topic: parts of the country that “like to target” Harris. As Sharpton put it, “They don’t realize that you are used to that because you come out of that kind of fight.”
Harris agreed and explained, “There’s no choice. And let me just say this also, there’s a lot of joy in being in this fight for freedom, for the promise of America. It’s a fight for something, not against something. It’s also a fight, and this needs to be said, that is to try and bring us together, understanding we all have so much more in common than what separates us.”
Watch Vice President Harris express her concerns about voter turnout in the clip above.