Wilmington, Del. — In case you missed it, Lisa Blunt Rochester joined MSNBC’s The Weekend to discuss her bid for the Senate, what she is hearing from Delawareans, and the stakes of 2024. Blunt Rochester — who now serves as a national co-chair for the Harris-Walz campaign and served as a Biden-Harris co-chair — also spoke about Kamala Harris’s vision for the future and Joe Biden’s enduring legacy.
Watch the full interview here.
On her priority — making a difference — in her run for the Senate:
- “For many of us who are doing this work each and every day — whether it is Vice President Harris or County Executive Angela Alsobrooks — we’re just doing the work and letting the work speak for itself.
“We’re also sharing our lived experiences and why they are important. [But] for me, when I’m talking to folks up and down the state of Delaware, our focus […] is really about making a difference in people’s lives. They see that, they feel that every single day.”
On her focus on the stakes in Delaware in the final days before Nov. 5th:
- “I’m focused […] on making sure that people understand what we’re up against — and why the stakes are so high.
“We tell people, don’t take Delaware for granted. Don’t take this race for granted because I don’t take any single vote for granted, and it’s just important that people know this is about everything from our reproductive freedoms and our democracy to things as basic as clean drinking water. And those are the things that I’ve worked on in Delaware.”
On what she would say to undecided voters in the final stretch:
- “Vice President Harris said it clearly: her focus is for the people. It is about lifting all of us up.”
On what she is hearing in Delaware about the stakes of 2024:
- “A lot of people think of Delaware as just a blue state, but we literally are only three counties, and we vote blue, purple, and red.
“Yesterday, […] a woman actually whispered in my ear, ‘I voted for you early,’ and then she said, ‘I’m an R.’ […] It goes to the point that people have to look at the future of this country. How do we turn the page on darkness? […] I’ve seen the split screen of Donald Trump serving, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris serving. We know that Donald Trump says he wants to be a dictator on day one. To me, this is a moment where each and every one of us has to ask ourselves, what direction do we want this country to go in.”
On what is on the line in the coming days:
- “Everything from our reproductive freedoms — as Michelle Obama talked about the other night — to our democracy, to creating an opportunity economy — which is what Kamala has focused on.
“In this moment I’ve heard Delawareans say to me two things: I’m excited and I’m anxious, I’m excited and I’m scared. And what I’m telling people is take that energy and use it as focus, use it as fuel to get as many people to the polls as you can.”
On Joe Biden’s enduring legacy for Delaware and for America:
- “We are immensely proud of the leader that he has been for this country. He will go down in history, and we are just grateful — I think that is the biggest word that I hear from Delawareans.
“This will be the first time, for many of us, that he’s not going to be on the ballot in some way, and we want him to have peace of mind.
“It’s one of the reasons why I think our greatest gift to Joe Biden is to make sure Kamala Harris is elected.”