Vice President-elect Kamala Harris traveled to Georgia on Monday to stump for Democrat Senate candidates Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, telling voters that 2020 — which she described as a “rough” year — “ain’t over until January 5th.”
Harris began her speech in Columbus by thanking voters for supporting the Democrat ticket in November and congratulating them for doing “what no one thought could be done.”
“And you made a statement not only about who is Georgia, what is the voice of Georgia … but you also made a statement about who we are as a country,” she said before reflecting on 2020.
“January 5th,” she said, repeating the day of the runoff, which will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate.
“You know 2020’s been a difficult year. 2020’s been rough. You know people keep making jokes about 2020, like we want this thing to be over. But you know what? As far as I’m concerned Georgia, Columbus, 2020 ain’t over until January 5th,” Harris said as she broke out in laughter.
“That’s when 2020 will be over. That’s when we’ll get this thing done because as you know, everything is at stake when it comes to the need to elect Rev. Raphael Warnock, to elect Jon Ossoff … everything is at stake,” she continued, adding that “everything that was at stake in November is at stake leading up to January 5.”
“And just like we did, we’ll do it again,” she said as she accused Republicans of trying to suppress the vote.
“Why are so many powerful people trying to make it so difficult for us to vote? We have to ask the question why, and we know the answer. Because they know our power. They know when we vote, things change. They know when we vote, we win,” she concluded.
“So what we did in November, we can do again because it comes from a very deep place inside of us,” Harris said, adding that this is “about our lives.”
The January 5 runoff will determine the balance of power in the Senate. Duel Democrat victories would result in a 50-50 split in the upper chamber, giving the power to the party in control of the White House.