Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City on Monday, July 18, declaring that freedom, liberty, and democracy are on the ballot in the upcoming midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She implored the large gathering at the Atlantic City Convention Center to make sure that all voices are heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be able to get these days back, so each one of these days we must, with a sense of urgency, ensure that the American people know their voice and their vote matters,\u201d Harris declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is their voice. The right to vote is something that the leaders of this organization and its founders knew to be at the core of all of the other rights and freedoms to which we are entitled,\u201d she further implored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo, we know what we need to do. And, in particular, to protect the freedom to vote and a women\u2019s right to make decisions about her own body, we need people who will defend our rights up and down the ballot, from district attorneys to state attorneys general, from local sheriffs to governors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vice president received several standing ovations as she spoke of the need to vote. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade association representing 235 African American-owned newspapers and media companies, has teamed with the Transformative Justice Coalition in an effort to register 10 million more Black voters ahead of the midterm and 2024 general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Harris arrived in Atlantic City, Mayor Marty Small greeted her as she descended from Air Force Two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson spoke to the vice president and railed against politicians and the U.S. Supreme Court for \u201cthe erosion of constitutional freedom, including the right of a woman over her own body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris also decried the sharp increase in mass shootings and gun violence in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no reason for weapons of war on the streets of America,\u201d she asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin repeatedly stopping the Biden-Harris administration agenda, Harris called on voters to participate in the U.S. Senate election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe will not, and the president has been clear, we will not let the filibuster stand in our way of our most essential rights and freedoms,\u201d Harris declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI visited Buffalo, New York, to attend the funeral of an 86-year-old grandmother who went to the grocery store after, as she often did, spending the day with her husband who was in a nursing home \u2013 Mrs. Whitfield.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI went to Highland Park, Illinois, where there were strollers and lawn chairs scattered up and down a street where there was supposed to be a parade for July 4th. There \u2013 as in Uvalde, Texas; as in Greenwood, Indiana, just last night; and in so many communities across our nation \u2013 scenes of ordinary life have been turned into war zones by horrific acts of gun violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMass shootings have made America a nation in mourning. And it\u2019s not only the mass shootings. We see it in our communities every day, and it is no less tragic or outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThink about it: Black people are 13 percent of America\u2019s population but make up 62 percent of gun homicide victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis issue of the need for reasonable gun safety laws is a real issue when we are talking about the civil right, the right that all communities should have, to live in a place that is safe without weapons of war running those streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She concluded that the number of guns manufactured in the country tripled over the last 20 years. \u201cToday we have more guns in our nation than people,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarlier this month, the president signed the first federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And it was an important and necessary step. But we need to do more. We must repeal the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers. And we must renew the assault weapons ban.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City on Monday, July 18, declaring that freedom, liberty, and democracy are on the ballot in the upcoming midterm elections. She implored the large gathering at the Atlantic City Convention Center to make sure that all voices are heard. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1488,27,422],"class_list":["post-2412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlantic-city","tag-kamala-harris","tag-naacp","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2413,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412\/revisions\/2413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}