Remarks by Vice President Harris in a Keynote Handle on the 2022 Texas Democratic Occasion Johnson-Jordan Reception

October 9, 2022

Hyatt Regency Austin
Austin, Texas

5:44 P.M. CDT
  
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Good night.  (Applause.)  Good night, Texas Democrats.  Oh, it’s good to be with you.  Have a seat.  Have a seat.  It’s good to be with all of you.  Thanks all for what you might be doing. 
 
I — you recognize what, Chairman, I needed to come right here and simply personally be on the bottom with you to thanks, since you all are performing some heavy lifting.  And we’d like you, and we’re relying on you.  And also you encourage us — and by “us” I imply all around the nation — as a result of we all know what you’re coping with right here in Texas, and we all know you keep dedicated and you retain preventing for the perfect of who we’re as a nation. 
 
And so, at the beginning, I wish to say thanks, Texas Democrats, for all you do.  (Applause.)  Thanks.  Thanks.
 
And, Chairman, you’ve got been extraordinary.  We had an opportunity to simply catch up a little bit bit earlier.  And, you recognize, these are the moments the place, after we take a look at what we’re up towards, the place — it actually does reveal the leaders amongst us. And you’ve got been a unprecedented chief right here.  And I thanks on your partnership and all that you simply do. 
 
So, it’s a good day to be in Texas.  And — (applause) — and I’m instructed a fair higher day to be a Longhorn.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.)  So, congratulations.  And it’s good to be with you.
 
So let’s get proper to enterprise.  Because the Chairman mentioned, 31 days — 31 days till this November’s election.  And as we all know, which is why we’re right here collectively, we have to make every day depend.  And we have to remind individuals right here in Texas that this Tuesday is the final day to register to vote.  Proper? 
 
And we have to remind individuals — and I’m saying this as a result of I’d say this anyplace within the nation — we have to remind folks that Texas Democrats are Texas powerful.  (Applause.)  You might be Texas powerful.  Powerful like Texan President Lyndon B. Johnson — (applause) — whose household is right here with us.  Luci Baines Johnson — I frolicked with them earlier on the library — a pacesetter in her personal proper, who reminds us each time that President Johnson, he by no means backed down from the toughest fights.  Towards fierce opposition, he labored beside leaders of the Civil Rights Motion, the labor motion, mobilizing Individuals to enact the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid.  (Applause.) 
 
Take into consideration how powerful he and also you had been to know the chances towards getting any of that executed — the lack of lots of people to have the ability to see that it was attainable.  However you and he did. 
 
Allow us to keep in mind one other nice Texan, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan — (applause) — who, by means of toil and triumph, confirmed our nation the true which means of braveness.  And once I take into consideration these two Texans and the legacy that they left, I do know that, like all of you, I stand on some actually broad shoulders.  And I look out then, additionally, at this crowd tonight and I’m reminded of June 2021. 
 
So, June of 2021, when your governor and different extremist so-called leaders had been pushing S.B. 1, a full-on assault on voting rights, Democratic members of the Texas legislature left this state in principled protest.  (Applause.)  And I’m positive they’re out campaigning proper now, however I wish to say that these legislators got here to the White Home as a result of they knew — and if any of you might be right here, you knew — that this isn’t solely a Texas combat, this was a nationwide combat.  Proper.  (Applause.)
 
And I met with the group in Washington.  And though S.B. 1 handed, they and also you demonstrated the grit that actual leaders in Texas are product of.  And I want to ask them — (applause) — to all the time be acknowledged for the braveness that they present as a result of, I’m going to let you know, individuals from across the nation met with them after they arrived and had been so impressed by their braveness and their compassion. 
 
In order we transfer ahead, I’ll say that after we take a look at the place we’re right now, there’s a lot that we have to cope with.  And I consider that when you recognize what you stand for, you recognize what to combat for.  (Applause.) 
 
That’s the type of toughness we noticed from LBJ, from Barbara Jordan, and now from all of you — the identical spirit that led Joe Biden and me to obtain the most important vote in Texas of any Democratic presidential ticket — (applause) — due to you — the most important in half a century. 
 
And also you all know, since you had been a lot part of it, in 2020, individuals right here and throughout our nation put their belief in Democrats.  We knew what we stood for, so we knew then what to combat for.  And because the Chairman mentioned, over these final 20 months, Democrats have delivered.  Truly, I’ll say, over these final 20 months, Democrats have delivered large time.  (Applause.)
 
Simply mirror: On the top of the pandemic, Democrats stood for and delivered aid to the American individuals, as a result of after we get up, we are saying, “No person ought to be capable of combat alone.  We obtained to combat with them.”  When persons are struggling, we get up and say, “Not on our watch.  We’re going to assist individuals out.”
 
And so what did that embody?  It included a tax minimize for working households so mother and father had more cash to pay for meals and medication and faculty provides for his or her youngsters. 
 
Simply two months in the past, we handed the Inflation Discount Act to decrease vitality prices, to decrease healthcare prices, to cap the price of insulin to $35 a month.  (Applause.)
 
We made the most important funding to deal with the local weather disaster in historical past — (applause) — due to what y’all did in 2020.
 
Democrats additionally — what we’ve been in a position to accomplish, lengthy overdue, is to tackle Large Pharma and provides Medicare the ability to barter drug costs on behalf of 60 million Individuals.  (Applause.)  And by the best way, we’re paying for this by making firms pay their justifiable share.  (Applause.)  And you recognize what?  Not one Republican in Congress voted for any of that. 
 
Democrats expanded background checks for gun purchasers, as a result of we stand with the unimaginable households of Uvalde who channeled their anguish into advocacy to demand motion and to save lots of lives.  (Applause.)
 
We’re preventing for immigration reform and can proceed to defend DACA and stand with DREAMers as a result of America is their residence.  (Applause.) 
 
We’re canceling scholar mortgage debt.  Greater than — (applause) — proper.  Greater than 3 million college students and debtors right here in Texas at the moment are eligible to have as much as $20,000 in debt canceled.  And nationally — and nationally, we are going to wipe out all loans for 1 / 4 of Black college students and virtually half of Latino college students within the course of.  (Applause.)
 
Since our administration took workplace, unemployment reached its lowest stage in 50 years.  (Applause.)  And yesterday — simply yesterday, Hispanic unemployment hit its lowest stage in historical past.  (Applause.)
 
And President Biden appointed and confirmed essentially the most various group of judges in our historical past, together with the primary Black lady to serve on the USA Supreme Court docket, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.  (Applause.) 
 
And talking of the system of justice, we’re additionally altering — y’all might need heard that this week — the federal authorities’s method to marijuana.  (Applause.)  As a result of the underside line there may be: No person ought to must go to jail for
smoking weed.  (Applause.) 
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We (inaudible)!
 
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  And on our nation’s infrastructure, we made the most important funding in a technology.  And in Texas, meaning $8 billion creating jobs in large cities and small cities and within the Texas Hill Nation; investing in important tasks like $25 million to put in bike lanes and new sidewalks on Phone Street in Houston; and thirty —
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.) 
 
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Proper.  (Applause)  And $30 million to increase the Barbara Jordan Terminal at Austin-Bergstrom.  (Applause.)
 
And so, what all of this tells us is that we, as Democrats, have proven what we’ve all the time identified: We stand for the center class.  We stand for working households and for equality and fairness for each American.  We combat, then, for good jobs.  We combat, then, for inexpensive healthcare and alternative for all.  And it tells us, when Democrats are in cost, nicely, we ship.  We ship.  (Applause.)
 
However, Texas, our work is certainly, as everyone knows, removed from completed.  The USA Supreme Court docket simply took a constitutional proper, that had been acknowledged, from the individuals of America — from the ladies of America.  And whereas extremist so-called leaders trumpet the rhetoric of freedom, they assault the very foundations of freedom.  And a type of individuals is the governor of this very state. 
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo —
 
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Even earlier than the Dobbs choice, he and different governors handed a few of the most radical, most anti-women legal guidelines in our nation, with no exceptions even for rape or incest.  They criminalize healthcare suppliers for merely doing their job.  And now, many of those extremist so-called leaders are calling for an abortion ban nationwide.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo —
 
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Nationwide.  They consider authorities, not ladies, ought to make selections about their very own our bodies.  Properly, we don’t.  (Applause.)  We don’t.  We belief the ladies of America.  We belief the ladies of Texas.  (Applause.)  
 
Recall — as a result of there are such a lot of ironies and hypocrisies in all of this as nicely, proper?  Recall: When Dobbs was determined, these so-called leaders mentioned, “Properly, we must always return this challenge to the states.”  These similar people are those who’re passing legal guidelines making it harder for individuals within the states to vote — (applause) — legal guidelines like S.B. 1 — undemocratic legal guidelines, un-American legal guidelines. 
 
And the place do we expect that is heading?  Properly, simply as Clarence Thomas mentioned the quiet half out loud, contraception is on the road.  Marriage equality is on the road.  With Republican Occasion leaders in cost, healthcare is on the road.  Social Safety can be on the road. 
 
So, Democrats, I say what everyone knows, what the Chairman simply mentioned: The stakes are excessive, and the stakes are excessive up and down the poll.  As a result of give it some thought, as docs are being criminalized, take note of these native prosecutor races.  As large lies are being perpetrated, take note of these secretary of state races.  And as state leaders are undermining rights, elect Beto O’Rourke as your subsequent governor.  (Applause.)
 
And let’s maintain on to the U.S. Home of Representatives.  (Applause.)  And let’s increase our majority in the USA Senate.  (Applause.)  As a result of right here’s the factor: We simply want two extra seats in the USA Senate.  Okay?  The stakes are excessive.  We’d like two extra seats.  As a result of right here’s the factor: With two extra seats, we will codify Roe v. Wade.  (Applause.)  Two extra seats.  Two extra seats.  With two extra seats, we will move the Ladies’s Well being Safety Act.  With two extra seats, we will move the Freedom to Vote Act.  (Applause.)  And with two extra seats, we will move the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act.  (Applause.)  Simply two extra seats.
 
And President Biden has been clear on that time.  We is not going to enable archaic Senate guidelines to face in the best way — it’s known as a filibuster — of defending these two freedoms. 
 
And I’ll let you know, so along with being Vice President, you all know I’m additionally the President of the Senate.  (Applause.)  And so, as President of the Senate, I’ve the excellence of getting damaged John Adams’s file of tie-breaking votes thus far.  (Laughs.) (Applause.)  Thus far.  And let me simply let you know, I can not wait to solid the tie-breaking vote to move voting rights and reproductive well being rights.  (Applause.)  Can not wait. 
 
So that is the place we’re.  Now we have momentum on our facet.  Proper right here in Texas, you all right here have registered greater than 300,000 new voters because the Dobbs choice got here down — 300,000.  (Applause.)  Take into consideration that. 
 
In Kansas — oh, Kansas.  Man, Kansas.  Kansas.  Kansas voters turned out in file numbers to guard reproductive rights.  (Applause.) 
 
And take into consideration Alaska.  Democrats are successful, in locations like Alaska, momentum.  And it’s no surprise, then, that these extremists are so scared to let Individuals vote.  So let’s simply construct — let’s proceed to construct on our momentum. 
 
And over these subsequent 31 days, allow us to clarify: In case you consider in freedom, if you happen to consider in equality and justice, then vote for Democrats.  (Applause.)  In case you consider that ladies’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights are basic to America, vote for Democrats.  In case you consider immigrant justice is key to America, vote for Democrats.  If you wish to convey down healthcare prices, if you wish to shield Social Safety, if you wish to increase financial alternative to assist the center class, then who do you vote for? 
 
AUDIENCE:  Democrats! 
 
THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Democrats. 
 
And in closing then, I’ll paraphrase the phrases of a terrific American chief, Coretta Scott King, who mentioned: The wrestle for justice is a unending course of.  And freedom is rarely actually received; you earn it, and also you win it in every technology. 
 
So, we’re selecting up the motion that was began right here in Texas and so many different locations, impressed by leaders like LBJ and Barbara Jordan, understanding we’re the leaders of this technology and this second. 
 
And so, I’d simply add one factor to what Mrs. Coretta Scott King mentioned: You earn it and also you win it in every technology, and also you earn it and also you win it in every election.  (Applause.)
 
So, within the subsequent 31 days, Texas Democrats, allow us to combat like we by no means have earlier than, as a result of after we combat, we win.  Thanks all.  Might God bless you.  And should God bless America.  Thanks.  (Applause.)
 
END       6:06 P.M. CDT

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