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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris told members of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta on Wednesday that “we are not playing around” and asked for their help in electing her president in November.

“In this moment, I believe we face a choice between two different visions for our nation, one focused on the future, the other focused on the past,” she said in a speech three days after launching her bid for the White House. “And with your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”

Voters in Indiana haven’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate in nearly 16 years. But Harris, a woman of Black and South Asian descent, was speaking to a group already excited by her historic status as the likely Democratic nominee and one that her campaign hopes can expand its coalition.

On Wednesday, she thanked the room full of women for their work electing her vice president, and Joe Biden president. “And now, in this moment, our nation needs your leadership once again,” she said.

In a memo released Wednesday, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon pointed to support among female, nonwhite and younger voters as critical to success.

“Where Vice President Harris goes, grassroots enthusiasm follows,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength — and she’s going to win.”

Still, Democrats face challenges as the country is nursing frustrations over higher prices following a spike in inflation, while Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, survived a recent assassination attempt that further energized his already loyal base. But the memo was more optimistic than the narrow path the campaign saw after the 81-year-old Biden delivered a disastrous debate performance in June. He quit the race on Sunday.

Harris mentioned he’d be addressing the nation later Wednesday on why he decided to step aside, and called him a “leader with a bold vision.”

“We are all deeply, deeply grateful for his service to our nation,” she said before turning to contrast the administration’s agenda with that of Trump’s.

“These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back,” she said. “All across our nation we are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights.”

She cited the freedom to vote, to be safe from gun violence, to love whom you want to love openly, to “learn and acknowledge our true and full history,” and the freedom “of a woman to make decisions about her body and not have her government telling her what to do.”

Trump unleashed a barrage of attack lines on Harris during a rally in Charlotte, calling her his “new victim to defeat” and accusing her of deceiving the public about Biden’s health and ability to run for a second term. Trump referred to Harris as “Lyin’ Kamala” — repeatedly mispronouncing her first name — and said she is “the most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history.”

Harris landed in Houston later Wednesday, visiting the city’s emergency operations center to discuss the ongoing recovery efforts following Hurricane Beryl and to thank emergency management and first responders. She watched Biden’s Oval Office speech from Houston.

On Thursday, she’s speaking at the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed her candidacy.

While the campaign will keep emphasizing what it calls its Blue Wall of states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — to get the needed 270 electoral votes, Harris hopes to be competitive in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada as well.

Trump has generally run stronger with white voters who do not hold a college degree. AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of voters and nonvoters that aims to tell the story behind election results, found that group made up 43% of all voters in 2020 and Trump won them by a margin of 62% to 37%, even though overall he lost the election.

For Democrats, Black women would probably make a fundamental difference in November, and Harris has already shown signs of galvanizing their support.

In the 2020 election, AP VoteCast found that Black women were just 7% of the electorate. But 93% of them voted for Biden, helping to give him narrow victories in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

After Harris announced her candidacy, roughly 90,000 Black women logged onto a video call Sunday night for her campaign. It was a sudden show of support for an alumnus of Howard University and sister of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority who has made Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” her walk-on music at events.

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This story has been corrected to show the sorority meets biennially, not annually.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Insisting that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title,” President Joe Biden on Wednesday will explain in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and to throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.

The address offered the public their first chance to hear directly from Biden his rationale for dropping out of the 2024 after weeks of insisting he believed himself to be the best candidate to take on former President Donald Trump, whom he has called an existential threat to the nation’s democracy. It also gave Biden a chance to try to shape how history views his one and only term in office.

“The defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden said. “Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. And that includes personal ambition.”

Said Biden, “I revere this office, but I love my country more.”

Biden’s candidacy faced a crisis of confidence from Democrats after his abysmal debate against Trump nearly a month ago, where he spoke haltingly, appeared ashen and failed to rebut his predecessor’s attacks. It sparked a mutiny within his party over not just whether he was capable of beating Trump in November, but also whether at 81, he was still fit for the high-pressure job.

Biden tried to outlast the skepticism and quell the concerns with interviews and tepid rallies, but the pressure to step aside only mounted from the party’s political elites and from ordinary voters.

On Sunday afternoon, while isolating at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home with COVID-19, Biden finally bowed in a letter posted to his account on X announcing his decision to leave the race, followed up later by an endorsement of Harris.

“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said, saying he wanted to make room for “fresh voices, yes, younger voices.”

He added, “That is the best way to unite our nation.”

Biden’s address was being carried by the major broadcast and cable news networks. He pledge to remain focused on being president until his term expires at noon on Jan. 20, 2025, saying he would work to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, fight to boost government support to cure cancer, and call for Supreme Court reform.

The president was hoping to use the address to outline the stakes in the election, which both Biden and Harris have framed as a choice between freedom and chaos, but he tried to steer clear of overt campaigning from his official office and never mentioned Trump by name.

“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” Biden said. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.”

Biden was also looking to make the case for his legacy of sweeping domestic legislation and the renewal of alliances abroad. The way history will remember his time in office and his historic decision to step aside is intertwined with Harris’ electoral result in November, particularly as the vice president runs tightly on the achievements of the Biden administration.

His advisers say he intends to hold campaign events and fundraisers benefiting Harris, albeit at a far slower pace than if he had remained on the ballot himself.

Harris advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity sagged as voters in both parties questioned his fitness for office.

Biden, aides say, knows that if Harris loses, he’ll be criticized for staying in the race too long and not giving her or another Democrat time to effectively mount a campaign against Trump. If she wins, she’ll ensure his policy victories are secured and expanded, and he’ll be remembered for a Washingtonian decision to step aside for the next generation of leadership.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that any question of Biden resigning his office — which would allow Harris to run as an incumbent — was “ridiculous.”

Jean-Pierre said Biden has “no regrets” about his decision to stay in the race as long as he did, or his decision to quit it over the weekend. She said Biden’s decision had nothing to do with his health.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening on his decision to drop his 2024 Democratic reelection bid.

Biden posted on X that he would speak “on what lies ahead” and how he will “finish the job for the American people.” He will speak at 8 p.m. ET.

He declined to preview his message after he returned to Washington, telling reporters to “watch and listen.”

“Why don’t you wait and hear what I say?” he said.

The president departed Delaware shortly before 2 p.m. on Tuesday, after nearly a week of isolating at his Rehoboth Beach home after his second bout with COVID-19. Biden is now testing negative for the virus and his symptoms have resolved, according to a letter from his doctor, Kevin O’Connor, released Tuesday.

Holding a blue paper mask, he told reporters that “I am feeling well” but did not answer other questions, such as whether Vice President Kamala Harris can defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Biden has not been seen publicly since July 17, but he called into a campaign meeting on Monday to address staff and express his support for Harris’ bid to replace him a day after announcing he would leave the race.

Vice President Kamala Harris had a busy 24 hours after being endorsed as the Democratic presidential candidate by President Joe Biden. She has secured enough delegates to earn the party’s nomination and raised more than $81 million, a record sum for the 2024 political cycle.

Meanwhile, the Secret Service director testified before a congressional committee and was called on to resign over security failures at a rally where a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

Follow the AP’s Election-2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Trump complains again about debate plans, says ABC News ‘is not worthy’

Trump is again complaining about the plans for a debate, suggesting that he may not be as confident in facing Harris as he was Biden.

The former president had said he would debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, any place” but early Tuesday morning Trump complained for the second time since Biden dropped out that ABC News “is not worthy of holding a Debate.”

He has suggested moving the debate to Fox News Channel, which is seen as a friendlier venue for him.

Harris to visit battleground Wisconsin in first rally as Democrats coalesce around her for president

Vice President Kamala Harris is making her first visit to a battleground state Tuesday after locking up enough support from Democratic delegates to win her party’s nomination to challenge Republican former President Donald Trump, two days after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.

As the Democratic Party continues to coalesce around her, Harris is traveling to Milwaukee, where she will hold her first campaign rally since she launched her campaign on Sunday with Biden’s endorsement. Harris has raised more than $100 million since Sunday afternoon and has scored the backing of Democratic officials and political groups.

Tuesday’s visit was scheduled before Biden ended his campaign, but it took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up the mantle of her party against Trump and looks to project calm and confidence after weeks of Democratic Party confusion over Biden’s political future.

Read more about the visit and how Wisconsin is part of Democrats’ 2024 plans.

AP survey: Harris has enough support of Democratic delegates to become party’s presidential nominee

Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press survey taken in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for reelection.

Harris, who was endorsed by Biden minutes after he announced he would not accept the Democratic nomination, worked to quickly lock up the support of her party’s donors, elected officials and other leaders, and has so far received support from at least 2,214.

However, the AP is not calling Harris the new presumptive nominee. That’s because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or if Democrats hold a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.

For young voters, Harris is ‘far closer’ in age

Tatum Watkins, a 19-year-old college student from southwest Iowa and a delegate to the DNC, said she appreciates as a young woman that Harris is speaking out on issues like reproductive rights and is “far closer” in age to a whole new generation of voters.

“She is very much leaning into what’s popular right now,” Watkins said. “I’ve seen already her branding is what I can best describe as brat summer.”

Watkins said that has energized and excited her and other young Iowans, making what will be her first experience voting in a presidential election “even better.”

Rep. Dean: ‘I’ve never been more optimistic about America’

The mood among many House Democrats lifted quickly as lawmakers returned to Washington with Biden having handed off the election to Harris.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America because of his leadership, his selflessness, his putting country first,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.

“And then Kamala — woo! — I am excited,” she said. “I’m hearing from my constituents and folks they are so fired up.”

She said one way Harris could approach campaigning in a swing state like hers would be to pick Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate for the vice presidential spot.

Biden to return to the White House, Harris will hit the campaign trail

President Biden is set to return to the White House tomorrow after spending six days at his beach home in Delaware convalescing from COVID-19. Biden became ill while campaigning in Las Vegas last week and headed to his vacation home to isolate.

Vice President Harris, meanwhile, will head to the battleground state of Wisconsin as her campaign for the White House kicks into high gear.

The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy on Sunday.