Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke directly to South Carolinians when she called into radio stations in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston to lay out the stakes of the 2024 election ahead of next year’s historic first-in-the-nation primary.
These calls come on the heels of Vice President Harris and Biden-Harris 2024 campaign co-chair Congressman James Clyburn traveling to the Palmetto State last month to submit the Biden-Harris campaign’s official paperwork to appear on the ballot. As the vice president noted then and reiterated last week, South Carolina Democrats represent the backbone of the Democratic Party, and their support paved the way for President Biden and Vice President Harris to win in 2020 and deliver for the American people, from investing in small businesses to capping the cost of insulin at $35 and bringing new opportunity to communities that too often have been left behind.
In case you missed it…
Vice President Harris on WTUA radio: “There is gonna be a real choice come November. On the one hand, you’ve got, [the Biden-Harris administration] who capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month. On the other hand, you have folks who are not willing to take on Big Pharma. On the one hand, you got us investing the kind of money that we have in HBCUs and growing small businesses, and doing the work that is about holding people accountable to the people and to working people. What we have done in terms of bringing capital to small businesses to grow small businesses. In fact, we haven’t seen the kind of growth that we have caused for Black small businesses, and new Black small business creation since the late 1990s. Meaning we’re seeing historic, in recent history, a number of small, small Black-owned businesses being created because of our policies.”
Vice President Harris on WJMZ radio: “It is because Black folks got out in South Carolina and around the country, often having to overcome policies that have been trying to make it more difficult for folks to vote, and stood in line, waited patiently, and voted in 2020 that Joe Biden is president of the United States and I am vice president of the United States. … It’s because we got elected, that we’re able to do what we are with accessible and affordable high-speed internet, we’re getting rid of lead pipes, we’ve invested more than $7 billion in our HBCUs. I say, as a proud HBCU graduate. It is because we were elected that we were able to make local investments in electric vehicle battery plants like the one we have in Spartanburg. It is because we were elected that we have created the most small businesses in any two-year period. … It’s because people voted that we have capped the cost of insulin for our seniors at $35 a month, knowing that Black Americans are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, Latinos 70% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. So voting matters.”
Vice President Harris on WWDM radio: “Because people voted [in South Carolina], we capped the cost of prescription medication to $2,000 a year for seniors in terms of all of their medication… in rural parts of the state, where the stories about how a lack of access or affordability for high-speed internet has set people back, because folks voted in 2020 we are now on track to get all families in America access to high-speed internet and to make it affordable. South Carolina historically has one of the largest numbers per capita of HBCUs of any state, and me as a proud HBCU graduate, because we were elected, we have now invested $7 billion in our HBCUs. I’ll tell you as vice president, it’s been my privilege to visit Benedict and Claflin and South Carolina State understanding the importance of giving resources to those incredible academic institutions. So … please understand the connection between you in South Carolina voting and all of these accomplishments actually being able to happen that are affecting people every day.”
