“Significance of her election is so great, it simply can’t be measured,” says TV mogul.
In TV mogul Oprah Winfrey’s eyes the significance of Kamala Harris‘ election as the first woman, first black and first Indian American vice president of the United States is so great, it simply can’t be measured.
“I think what she means for women of the world is so extraordinary,” she told People magazine in an interview Monday. “For women here in the United States, we can’t even measure it.”
“Because to see someone who looks like you in this role, you see what’s possible for yourself. Period.”
“And the generational impact: You can’t put a price on it. You can’t put a measurement on it,” Winfrey, 66, said. “I’m just hoping we get through the inauguration and turn the page on this really challenging time for democracy.”
Watching Harris give her victory speech Saturday night, clad in a suffragette white-pantsuit on television, Winfrey couldn’t help but feel emotional for what the moment signified. “Wasn’t that something? I must say I had a little water running, too,” she said.
“I was thinking the other day, ‘I wish Maya [Angelou] were alive to see it,’ ” Winfrey said, referring to the revered writer-poet and activist who died in 2014.
READ: What Kamala Harris’ election means to me (November 9, 2020)
“But maybe she’s working it on the other side. Because there’s no way to measure the what the election of Kamala Harris means for all women, all colors, everywhere.”
The election was significant beyond Harris’ win, said Winfrey, because of what the Biden-Harris ticket embodies to her.
“This election was one of the most important I’ve ever been alive to witness,” she said. “For me, what was really at stake, beyond all of the policy issues, was character and decency … and that’s what I was voting for.”
Winfrey who this year launched “OWN Your Vote”, a bipartisan campaign to encourage Black women to get to the polls saw her engaging with voters across seven swing states in town hall-style events, one of which featured Harris.
The campaign also included the direct mail of voting information to Black women in key cities like Milwaukee and Atlanta.
“We are so delighted to see that Black women literally changed this country. They came out to vote in Milwaukee, Atlanta, Philadelphia and they swung this election,” Winfrey said. “We were honored to play a part in that.”