How Kamala Harris has made her presence felt in Florida over the years

Harris traveled to the state to denounce how the state was distorting Black history in school curriculums, to push back against Gov. DeSantis’ six-week abortion ban, and to promote common-sense gun measures.

Over the years, Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee this November, has consistently made the Sunshine State a priority. 

Since Harris assumed her position in the Biden administration, she has made several trips to Florida to denounce and challenge extreme measures pushed by the state’s Republican-majority led government. 

A champion for choice

On May 1st of this year, the vice president went to Jacksonville to speak about Gov. DeSantis and the Republican legislature’s extreme six-week abortion ban, as well as the prospects of a second Trump term. 

“Florida woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms,” Harris said at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, just hours after the 6-week ban took effect. She then went on to warn Floridians about the consequences of a Trump win in November.

“This is a fight for freedom — the fundamental freedom to make decisions about one’s own body and not have their government tell them what they’re supposed to do,” Harris said to applause.

Harris went on to remind Floridians that Trump has “bragged” about ending national abortion protections, and that the former president made sure of that through his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Here’s what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering, less freedom,” Harris said.

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Harris’ pro-choice record is getting more attention this week, following President Joe Biden’s decision to stand down his reelection campaign and instead endorse Harris for president. Those choices have sparked hope in pro-abortion advocates across Florida.  

“Having sat next to the vice president at reproductive rights round tables, spoken alongside her on what should have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and joined her at the White House for a convening on reproductive rights, I know that Kamala Harris is the leader we need to meet this pivotal moment in our nation’s history,” Senate Minority Democratic Leader Lauren Book said in a written statement shortly after Biden’s endorsement was announced.

A fighter for education

Earlier, in July of 2023, Harris visited Jacksonville to denounce new state standards for school curriculums after the Florida Board of Education made changes to the state’s African American history courses for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. 

The new standards included the notion that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit,” and that “acts of violence” were perpetrated by African Americans in addition to acts of violence against them.

The new curriculum, Harris said at the time, would “replace history with lies.”

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, agreed with the vice president’s assertion, calling the new standards a “big step backward” for the state and a “disservice” to Florida’s students.

A supporter of gun safety reforms

During a March visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the mass shooting in 2018 that left 17 people dead, Harris — a longtime advocate for gun safety reforms — announced the launch of the first-ever National Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) Resource Center, which will support the effective implementation of state red flag laws.

Funded by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and run by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, the center provides training and technical assistance to states and localities.

Harris also met with victims’ families and visited the high school.

“This school is soon going to be torn down. But the memory of it will never be erased,” Harris said during her visit. “And let us through the courage and the call to action of these families find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us.”

The school was demolished this summer.

Strong alliances

During those trips, the Vice President built alliances with local Democrats, such as Leader Book, state Sen. Tracie Davis, and Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan.

“Vice President @KamalaHarris has my full support as the Democratic nominee and our next President,” Deegan posted on X hours after Biden’s announcement.

Other Florida politicians and legislators – Rep. Lois Frankel, Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Sen. Shevrin Jones, Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, and Rep. Kathy Castor, among others – have also expressed their enthusiasm and support for Harris.

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