“We are not going back,” said U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) during a 20-minute speech at a Harris-Walz rally in Detroit on Monday.
The longtime member of the U.S. House of Representatives told about 250 black women at Detroit’s Garden Theater – an African-American-owned venue – that Vice President Kamala Harris is a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president who served in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
“We have to focus on having a candidate for president of the United States of America like we’ve never seen before,” Waters said. “A woman who is highly qualified. Someone who can prosecute the case. We’re prepared to do whatever we have to do. Whatever sacrifice it takes.”
If Harris, the Democratic nominee, is elected in November, she would be the first black, South Asian and female president of the United States. The Democratic National Convention will take place next week in Chicago.
Waters and other speakers argued that the conservative right Project 2025 Agenda would harm black Americans by “taking away their health care, increasing costs for families, undermining public education, and supporting policies that widen the racial wealth gap,” according to a press release from the Harris-Walz campaign. Waters and others also said the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the Roe v. Wade has also “made the delivery room even more dangerous for black women.” A right-wing Supreme Court overturned roe in 2022.
The event featured several elected officials, including Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Wayne County Commission Chairwoman Stephanie Young (D-Democrat), Alisha Bell, Detroit City Council members Mary Sheffield and Mary Waters, Detroit Board of Education member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, and Detroit NAACP Executive Director Kamilia Landrum. Also in attendance were business owners, teachers and school administrators, autoworkers and union representatives, and clergy.
“We know firsthand the damage (Trump) has done,” Young said. “The rhetoric and contempt that Trump shows toward our community. We lived through his presidency. We know firsthand and we can only guess.”
Longtime political activist Lavonia Perryman Fairfax attended the event and said the excitement surrounding the Harris-Walz ticket was considerable.
“It’s like a tsunami of joy has hit Michigan,” Perryman told Fairfax.
Donna Givens Davidson of Detroit added:
“I’m seeing more solidarity between black and white women than ever before in my life. I’ve seen white men… people come together. And joy is going to win this election.”
