American television host and producer Oprah Winfrey speaks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
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Media mogul and influential talk show host Oprah Winfrey gave an impassioned speech in support of the Harris-Waltz campaign on Wednesday night.
“We’re so excited right now and we can’t wait to get out here and do something. What we’re trying to do is elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States,” she said.
Winfrey has previously used her political and social capital to influence public opinion and back Democratic candidates in key elections, a phenomenon aptly dubbed “The Oprah Effect.”
In endorsing President Biden and Harris in 2020, Winfrey emphasized the significance of Harris being a woman of color on the Democratic presidential list.
“I was thinking the other day, ‘Maya [Angelou] “If you were alive you could see it,” Winfrey said. People Magazine 2020. “But maybe she’s hustling on the other side, because there’s no way to measure what the election of Kamala Harris would mean to all women, all people of all skin colors, everywhere.”
Before 2007, Winfrey had never publicly endorsed a political candidate, but when she supported former President Barack Obama over former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, her endorsement had a significant impact on the election. Researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the University of Maryland found that Winfrey’s endorsement was ultimately worth about 1 million votes to Obama.
Winfrey endorsed Clinton in 2016 and President Biden in 2020. Notably, she Approved Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman defeated Mehmet Oz in the 2022 midterm elections. The Dr. Oz Show With the help of Winfrey and her production company, Harpo Productions.
Winfrey has also advocated for protecting the voting rights of black women, and in 2020 founded OWN Your Vote, a subsidiary of the Oprah Winfrey Network, to fight voter suppression across the country.
See Winfrey’s full statement below.
