Harris: ‘I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last’

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Saturday acknowledged the history she made as the first woman to be elected to the office — and added she wouldn’t be the last.

“While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities,” Harris, wearing a white pantsuit in homage to women’s suffrage, said in her first address to the nation as vice president-elect. 

Harris acknowledged the historic nature of her election to women of all stripes and praised the role Black women play in the democratic process. She also paid tribute to her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 19. 

“I’m thinking of [my mother] and the generations of Black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight,” Harris said.

“Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality and liberty and justice for all, including the Black women who are often, too often, overlooked but so often prove they are the backbone of our democracy,” she continued to thunderous applause. 

#BREAKING: Sen. Kamala Harris: “While I may be the first woman in this office — I will not be the last.” #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/eaV3bITqdr

— The Hill (@thehill) November 8, 2020

Harris made history on Saturday when she became the first woman, the first Black person, and the first person of South Asian descent to be elected vice president of the United States. 

President-elect Joe Biden, who made history as the oldest person and second Roman Catholic elected to the presidency, also praised Harris’s achievement in his address. 

“Don’t tell me it’s not possible in the United States. It’s long overdue,” Biden said.