Oprah Winfrey spoke at a Democratic convention for the first time on Wednesday night, giving an enthusiastic endorsement to Kamala Harris while encouraging independents and undecided voters to turn out for the Democrats.
In a forceful, vigorous speech that ranged from school integration to childless cat ladies, Winfrey sought to encourage voters to cast their ballot for “the best of America”.
Winfrey said she was a registered independent and called on other independents and undecideds to vote.
“Values and character matter most of all. In leadership and in life. And more than anything, you know this is true, decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.
“I’ve actually travelled from the red wood forests … to the Gulf Stream waters,” Winfrey said, referring to the Woody Guthrie song This Land Is Your Land. She said she had seen sexism, inequality and division, and been on the receiving end of it, but she had also seen that more often than not, people will help you when you are in trouble.
“They are the best of America, and despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbours.
“When a house is on fire, we don’t ask whose house it is,” Winfrey said, adding that “if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too”.
Winfrey’s comments were a reference to the Republican vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance, who has faced criticism for saying that the US is run by “childless cat ladies”.
“Civilised debate is vital to democracy, and it is the best of America,” Winfrey said.
In her Wednesday night appearance, Winfrey also spoke about Tessie Prevost Williams, who, at age six, was part of the first two desegregated classrooms in New Orleans. Williams died in July this year.
The New Orleans Four – as Williams and another three students became known – paved the way for a “girl, nine years later, to become part of the second integrated class” at her school in California, Winfrey said in reference to Harris, who was part of a bussing programme in Berkley.
“Soon, and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants … grew up to become the 47th president of the United States,” Winfrey told the crowd.
Asked afterwards about her decision to speak, Winfrey told CBS: “There couldn’t have been a life like mine, a career like mine, a success like mine, without a country like America. Only in America could there be a me.
“And all of the freedoms that I have enjoyed, the successes that I have enjoyed, I feel that they’re on the line and at stake in this moment.”
Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020, but Wednesday was her first appearance at a Democratic convention. Her appearance was kept secret and, according to her friend Gayle King, when Winfrey entered the convention centre for a rehearsal she wore a hat, sunglasses and face mask to hide her identity.
In 2012, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland tried to establish the correlation, if any, between celebrity endorsements and votes.
They used Winfrey’s endorsement of Barack Obama ahead of the 2008 Democrat primary to examine whether it had any effect on the polls.
The researchers concluded that Winfrey’s endorsement was worth about a million votes for Obama, who beat his main primary challenger, Hillary Clinton, by about 270,000 votes in the states used in the sample.