From the Arkansas Advocate:
In a speech billed as her first keynote since her 2024 election loss, former Vice President Kamala Harris accused the Trump administration Saturday of not paying attention to Americans’ cost of living concerns and called for a “revival of the American dream” as she addressed a packed ballroom in Little Rock.
Harris’ remarks at the Democratic Party of Arkansas’ annual Fisher Shackelford Dinner came as the former party standard-bearer mulls a possible third run for president in 2028. Her remarks occurred before a reported shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, which President Donald Trump was attending for the first time as president before he was evacuated.
The president was unharmed, according to the Secret Service and posts on Trump’s social media accounts.
While much of Harris’ speech focused on criticism of her former campaign foe and his administration, she also urged Democrats to look beyond him toward a “revival of the American Dream” where workers could afford homes, groceries, childcare and vacations.
“To spark an American revival, we must start with a bold agenda where our public dollars go to affordable housing and healthcare and childcare, not spent on reckless foreign wars that no one wants,” Harris said.
Harris portrayed a dire picture of American political, economic and civic life, and accused the Trump administration of breaking core campaign promises to lower the cost of living and end foreign wars through his tariff policies and involvement in the war in Iran.
She also criticized Trump’s artificial intelligence policies, saying he is allowing tech companies to be in charge while AI “is about to upend our workforce and economy,” as well as the tax and spending cut law that passed last summer.
Harris condemned Arkansas’ Republican-led state Legislature, too, including over Arkansas’ role as the only state not to expand Medicaid for postpartum mothers.
Harris blamed both national Republicans and Democrats for historically supporting policies and positions that harmed working Americans, saying both had bought into the idea that stock market growth and cutting social programs will spur economic prosperity for all.
“Even though working people did everything right, worked from the day through the night, we saw that the economic system essentially stopped delivering for them, and over time, the American dream for many has all but turned into an American myth,” Harris said.
Harris said these broken systems contributed to economic inequality, polarization and disenchantment with America’s political and civic systems, specifically calling out social media companies for using algorithms that “fuel rage.”
Harris said “a certain collection of leaders” are exploiting this “epidemic of discontent and distrust” for personal gain — though she said Trump was a “source and symptom of the problem,” rather than just a source.
“Let’s also understand there will be no term limit on the broken system that produced him. And the entrenched elite who continue to benefit from the current status quo have a vested interest in preserving it,” Harris said.
Harris said that a better future can be built “if we’re willing to fight for it.” The better future would require more than legislation, with fractures in American society needing mending, she said.
Harris’ Arkansas visit, which also included a stop earlier at Little Rock Central High School, brought her to a predominantly Republican state where she lost to Trump by 30 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. Republicans hold every statewide office, all of Arkansas’ congressional seats, and a majority of both chambers of the Legislature.
Arkansas Republicans hit out at Harris’ visit too. The state Republican party paid for a mobile billboard to drive around Little Rock’s downtown carrying ads slamming several donations made by Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic nominee challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, to Harris’ and former President Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns.
When Harris’ visit was announced, Shoffner said she didn’t plan on attending the speech.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former press secretary for the first Trump administration who is now also widely viewed as a potential 2028 hopeful, welcomed Harris to Arkansas in a Facebook post earlier Saturday. Sanders’ post cited Harris’ 2024 loss and criticized her “radical, crazy agenda.”
“You’re welcome to visit anytime, and maybe while you’re here you’ll see why residents of your state are fleeing the left’s crazy, failed policies in California and moving to Arkansas,” Sanders wrote.
