Kamala Harris addresses high-dollar LGBTQ donors at D.C. fundraiser
Vice President Kamala Harris headlined a D.C-based fundraiser for high-dollars LGBTQ Democratic donors on Wednesday night, promoting the conformation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court as a key victory.
“I was proud for a number of reasons,” Harris said. “Probably the obvious reason, in terms of what this means in terms of the history that continues to be made — one could say, parenthetically, ‘Sadly, we’re still making firsts,’ but we are doing it. And I was proud to be there for that reason.”
As Harris pointed out at the event, she presided last week over the vote on. Jackson in the Senate, making the first Black woman to serve as vice president a key player in the confirmation of the first Black justice to the Supreme Court.
Among the prominent LGBTQ donors present at the private home for the fundraiser was Claire Lucas, a lesbian and deputy finance chair for the Democratic National Committee. The DNC counted 86 people resent at the event and Lucas told the crowd the DNC “blew past” their fundraising goal by 50 percent, according to a White House pool report.
Harris didn’t explicitly mentioned any LGBTQ issues in her remarks, despite concerns over the advancement in state legislatures over legislation targeting the LGBTQ community, including measures prohibiting transgender girls from sports and the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” law. Topics Harris touched on included her lead role in the Cabinet meeting at the White House earlier that day as well as climate change, infrastructure and workers rights.
Amid expectations Democrats are in store for a drubbing in the mid-term elections as inflation continues to soar and Americans widely believe the war in Ukraine will get worse, Harris urged the crowd to keep their chin heading into November.
“Elections matter,” Harris said. “Because the accomplishments we have been able to achieve so far, I am certain would not have occurred had it not been for all the work that you all did to turn out the largest numbers of voters we’ve seen.”