Credit: Edward Saenz / Que Onda Magazine.
By Indira Zaldivar & Edward Saenz
Houston (Que Onda Magazine) – Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive new Democratic candidate for the upcoming presidential election, addressed hundreds of public education staff at the American Federation of Teachers Union convention in Houston on Thursday as her election campaign kicked off.
Kamala, immediately endorsed by President Joe Biden after the 81-year-old ended his presidential bid, outlined her campaign points before a crowd of more than 1,500 people at George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.
“We are not going back,” Harris said in reference to calls to limit freedoms such as book banning, change public education’s curriculum including limiting teacher’s freedoms in the classroom, restricting reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and more.
“A proud product of public education,” Harris thanked AFT for being the first union to endorse her presidential bid.
“It is because of Mrs. Wilson and so many teachers like her that I stand before you as vice president of the United States of America,” Harris said. “And that I am running to become president of the United States.”
The vice president condemned “a full-on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms.”
“We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books,” Harris said. “Can you imagine?”
“There are those who are really trying to take us backward,” she warned, referencing the Project 2025 policy agenda that drew boos from the crowd.
Harris emphasized how this election comes down to choosing between “two very different visions.”
“A country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she said.
“The beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question when we vote.”
If Harris is successful in her election campaign against former U.S. President Donald Trump, 59-year-old Harris would become the first woman, Indian American, second African American, elected to that position.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 5.
“Our country faces a question,” Harris asked. “What kind of country do we want to live in?”
