Former Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off the Democratic vote ahead of the midterm elections with one of her favorite pieces of political wisdom: If you feel powerless, there’s nothing you can do. If you feel powerful, you guessed it, you are.
Harris participated in a GOTV event on Monday, 29 days before Election Day, urging Democrats to “get back to the streets” and call door to door to turn out voters.
“You know I have a saying, and I have many sayings, but one of them is, ‘You know, when you feel powerless, you are powerless. When you feel powerful, you are powerful,'” Harris said.
“And we are strong.”
There’s more power coming…
“We are now at a stage where we can remind people that we are all in this together, that the people’s voice is powerful and that the power lies in the hands of the people,” she said.
Harris said Americans have felt “hopeless” and “powerless” over the past year and a half, while arguing that the midterm elections gave voters a chance to change the direction of the country.
“We’re at a stage where we can do some things to change the course of these things,” Harris said.
She called President Trump’s administration “the most callous, corrupt and incompetent presidential administration we have ever experienced.”
Harris also blamed the Iran war for causing “gas costs to increase by at least 50 percent,” and said she encountered people struggling to buy enough groceries to sustain their families for a week.
The former vice president, who lost to Trump in the 2024 election, told Democrats they have opportunities to unseat House and Senate seats, governorships and state legislatures. She listed Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin.
Harris later called Trump a “tyrant” while arguing that the Founding Fathers expected the president to abuse his power.
“Our founders imagined a moment like this,” Harris said. “They imagined that one day there might be a tyrant occupying the White House.”
“I think they imagined a moment where a group of people would kneel at the feet of a tyrant,” she said.
Harris said the Founding Fathers created three co-equal branches of government to provide checks and balances, but he doesn’t think Democrats can rely on the Supreme Court.
“We know we can’t count on the Supreme Court,” Harris said.
Instead, she pointed to the opportunity for Congress and voters to change its makeup in November.
“In this moment, we have to remember again that the founders understood that if we saw abuse of power in the executive branch or any other branch, people would use their power to step in,” Harris said.
Harris concluded by thanking those involved in the GOTV effort and giving them a final push.
“This work matters. You matter,” Harris said. “Please take care of yourselves and know that we have a lot to do and it’s good work and yes, hard work is good work.”