CHICAGO — In a surprise appearance Oprah Winfrey delivered a speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. Oprah, a registered independent, appeared at a political party’s convention for the first time since 2008.
“Values and character matter most of all. In leadership and in life,” said Winfrey. “And more than anything, you know this is true, decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”
Winfrey discussed the discrimination she faced during her time in Mississippi and her start in television in Nashville. During her speech, she says she experienced division, racism, sexism, and classism. However, she realized people will help you when you are in trouble.
“I’ve actually traveled from the redwood forests … to the Gulf Stream waters,” Winfrey said, referring to the Woody Guthrie song ‘This Land Is Your Land’. “They are the best of America, and despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors.”
Winfrey offered a takedown of Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance. She referenced a 2021 interview in which Vance took issue with “childless cat ladies” in America.
“When a house is on fire, we don’t ask whose house it is,” Winfrey said, adding that “if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too”.
Winfrey, 70, does not have any children of her own.
Oprah makes comparisons to the ‘New Orleans Four’
During her speech, Winfrey highlighted Tessie Prevost Williams’ activism as one of the “New Orleans Four.” They effectively integrated the city’s public schools on November 14, 1960. Williams was joined by Gail Etienne, Leona Tate and Ruby Bridges. That activism, Winfrey says, propelled Harris to attend an integrated public school in the 1970s.
“And it seems to me that at school and at home, somebody did a beautiful job of showing this young girl how to challenge the people at the top and empower the people at the bottom. They showed her how to look at the world and see not just what is, but what can be. They instilled in her a passion for justice and freedom and the glorious fighting spirit necessary to pursue that passion,” Winfrey said. “And very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants — how this child grew up to become the 47th President of the United States.”
