Vice President Kamala Harris made an appeal to the members of Zeta Phi Beta to help her fight for “the nation’s future” during an address to the historically Black sorority in Indianapolis, Ind. on Wednesday. 

“We share a vision for the future of our nation, a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead,” the vice president said on Wednesday. “Ours is a vision of a future in which we realize the promise of America.  And I deeply believe in the promise of America: a promise of freedom, opportunity, and justice not for some but for all.”

Harris then went on to laud Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated’s history marching for voting rights and an end to segregation during the Civil Rights Movement, working with March of Dimes on maternal health and advocating for justice in the halls of the Capitol. 

“Your leadership continued in 2020, when, during the height of a pandemic, you helped elect Joe Biden president of the United States and me as the first woman vice president of the United States, and I thank you,” Harris said. “And now, in this moment, our nation needs your leadership once again.”

While Wednesday’s speech was a part of her official duties as the sitting vice president and billed by the White House as part of her “summer of engagements” – Harris embarked on separate tours around the country to speak about reproductive freedom and economic opportunity – it follows a whirlwind week in American politics that saw President Joe Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential race and endorse his vice president. 

In a matter of days, the Democratic Party – following weeks of division – appeared to coalesce around Harris, who entered Wednesday’s speech with enough support from delegates to be the party’s nominee for president. 

Harris opened her remarks praising Biden, who was set to give an address from the Oval Office on his decision to end his reelection bid on Wednesday night. 

“Joe Biden is a leader with bold vision. He cares about the future, he thinks about the future,” she said, noting the president on Wednesday will speak about his accomplishments and plan for the last six months of his presidency. “He has extraordinary determination and profound compassion for the people of our country.”

Despite technically being an official act, the vice president’s speech to members of Zeta Phi Beta, a part of the Divine Nine, a group of historically Black fraternities and sororities, hit on many of the same themes she expressed in her first two sets of campaign remarks since becoming a presidential candidate. Harris, a Divine Nine member herself, criticized former President Donald Trump for his role in overturning Roe v. Wade (Trump appointed three of the justices that ruled to reverse it) and warned those in attendance about people trying to “take us backward.” 

“So, I say, as we work to build a brighter future and to move our nation forward, we must also recognize there are those who are trying to take us backward,” she said. “You may have seen their agenda, part of it is called Project 2025.”

Project 2025 is the right-wing policy platform curated by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation with the help of Trump allies and former aides that the Harris camp has vigorously tried to tie to the ex-president, even as he has sought to distance himself from it. 

“And in the face of these attacks, we must continue to stand together in defense of freedom,” Harris said. 

The vice president also noted her work while in office thus far on maternal health, boasting that she has helped increase the number of states that extended Medicaid coverage from two months to one year postpartum from three states when she came into office to 46 now. 

Democrats are hoping Harris, the first Black, South Asian and female vice president, will help the party better connect with Black and young voters, groups with which Biden appeared to be slipping ahead of his departure from the race. In a memo on Wednesday seeking to outline the vice president’s path to victory in November, her Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon specifically pointed to support for Harris among these voting blocs. 

Harris on Wednesday noted that she and the sorority’s president, Stacie N.C. Grant, spoke about the vice president coming to address the members months ago during a meeting in the Oval Office.