Kamala Harris Stumps for Tennessee Democrats in Nashville

Also present were state Reps. Harold Love (D-Nashville) and John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville), as well as state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville), Metro Councilmember Delishia Porterfield and several other elected officials. 

Harris encouraged Democrats to take to the polls in the Dec. 2 7th Congressional District special election, but did not say the name of the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Aftyn Behn.

Behn made a brief appearance some 15 minutes before Harris arrived, telling supporters that she had “stuff I had to go to,” and left the event.

"People around the nation are watching you," Harris said to the Democratic crowd. "There are people you will never meet, who may never know your name. But because of your activism, because of what you will do over the next two weeks, as a marker of what you will continue to do, will have an impact on so many people around the country."

Hours later, during her book tour appearance at the Ryman Auditorium, Harris again spoke about the special election, and again, did not mention Behn by name.

She reflected on her own presidential race electoral defeat to President Donald Trump just over one year ago, telling moderator Tim Miller, a former Republican political advisor who now works with The Bulwark media company, that she “was grieving on behalf of the people that I knew would be harmed.”

“Our fight is for something, not against,” Harris said, adding that “the contrast is clear” between the Democratic and Republican parties.

Harris defended her choice to originally support former President Joe Biden in his short-lived reelection campaign before her subsequent nomination after he dropped out of the 2024 race, while acknowledging that her sprint of a campaign could have been run differently with potentially different outcomes.

Harris spoke about Democrats support of affordable health care, child care, and “going against corporate greed and going against anyone who is breaking the law at the expense of working people.”

She also fielded questions on topics including the Epstein files, artificial intelligence, DOGE, Trump’s immigration crackdown and the president's comments earlier in the day defending Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when questioned about the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Harris toured recent Democratic wins across the country, saying that New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani “energized people and brought people in, and I think that’s good for democracy.”

“They’re all Democrats representing different ideas and a different approach, and I think that all of it is welcome because they are speaking to the people in their communities and where they live to be active and engaged, and I think that’s a good thing,” she said.

Harris attacked Trump’s actions in office, saying that he was working on “destruction” and “not disruption,” and warned, “it may get worse before it gets better.”

“When the time comes that we get past this, there’s going to be a lot of work to do, and some people talk about ‘rebuild,’ but I don’t think of it that way, because there’s some stuff happening before that wasn’t working. We need to be honest about that, and we cannot afford to have nostalgia about how things were,” Harris said.

“Part of this moment should reinforce for us the power of the people to make decisions when we are looking at the degree about reform and transformation and transformative opportunities that we have.”