Har­ris makes sur­prise appear­ance at Nation­al Black Cau­cus of State Leg­is­la­tors con­fer­ence

Har­ris thanked the group, which held its con­fer­ence in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., for its work address­ing the com­mu­ni­ty needs of African Amer­i­cans across the nation.

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“I knew y’all were in town, and I couldn’t let it go with­out com­ing by to say hel­lo and to say thank you to every­one here,” Har­ris said in rare pub­lic remarks since con­ced­ing to Trump.

Lat­er, dur­ing her brief talk, the vice pres­i­dent thanked the group for “all the sup­port you have giv­en me.”

After wish­ing the crowd hap­py hol­i­days, Har­ris implored the audi­ence to “cel­e­brate each oth­er” and called for a reju­ve­na­tion of their mis­sion.

“You all are the lead­ers on the ground who are doing the work that is about lift­ing peo­ple up,” Har­ris con­tin­ued. “Your work ben­e­fits peo­ple that, for the most part, may nev­er know your name or mine, peo­ple you may nev­er meet.”

With­out nam­ing Trump, Har­ris said 2025 will be “an impor­tant year” as a new Repub­li­can admin­is­tra­tion takes con­trol and as the GOP con­trols the House and Sen­ate.

“I am here to thank you in advance for that pledge that you have made and con­tin­ue to make,” Har­ris said.

Despite the elec­toral loss­es, Har­ris said the group “had impact in every way, and we have tak­en on the work of build­ing com­mu­ni­ty and coali­tions” before urg­ing it to stay com­mit­ted to that vision.

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“Yes, it will be hard work, but hard work is good work. Hard work is joy­ful work,” Har­ris said. “And we are up for the moment.”

Democ­rats have gone into full-on soul-search­ing mode after Trump won all sev­en bat­tle­ground states, the pop­u­lar vote, and cement­ed GOP con­trol over Con­gress. Some activist mem­bers of the par­ty are strug­gling to mount up the 2016 lev­els of resis­tance Trump faced in his first admin­is­tra­tion.

Sev­er­al hun­dred African Amer­i­can lead­ers were in atten­dance at the con­fer­ence, includ­ing Gov. Wes Moore (D‑MD), a ris­ing star in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, and for­mer Geor­gia guber­na­to­r­i­al nom­i­nee Stacey Abrams.

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Harris’s address to the con­fer­ence was kept under wraps until she appeared onstage.

The vice pres­i­dent has kept a low pro­file since the Novem­ber elec­tion loss. She will join Pres­i­dent Joe Biden on Thurs­day evening for the final Nation­al Christ­mas Tree Light­ing of their admin­is­tra­tion.