Vice President Kamala Harris

When Kamala Harris joined me for the At Our Table season finale, what struck me most wasn’t how much she had done. It was how clear-eyed she remains about what still lies ahead.

Vice President Harris doesn’t talk about leadership as a title or a trophy. She talks about it as responsibility and as work that continues long after the cameras are gone and the votes are counted.

As she put it:

“We have some hard and real work that we also have to do beyond the midterms and beyond Trump. It’s a lot bigger than that. The American people right now cannot afford life. There’s been a concentration of power—economic and political—in a way that leaves people without access to the decisions impacting their lives every day.”

She spoke just as directly about the damage done by misinformation and disinformation to both our trust in government and in one another. And she was clear that facing that reality is not optional.

But the conversation wasn’t only about what’s broken. It was also about the fight that still lives inside people.

“We all know the outcome of the election, but I want us to remember the kind of energy people brought to those 107 days. The light they had in them. That fueled a sense of what is possible in our country—to fight for something, not against something.”

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That idea of holding onto what’s possible without denying what’s hard runs through how the Vice President approaches leadership.

“You’ve got to remember that’s in you. And no one election, circumstance, or individual should be allowed to turn off that light inside of you because the work we have to do right now is about the future of our country and the future of the Democratic Party. And we’ve got a lot of work in front of us.”

It’s the same clarity she brings when talking about ambition, especially for people who’ve been told—explicitly or quietly—to wait their turn.

“You will often hear, ‘Nobody like you has done this before,’ ‘They’re not ready for you,’ ‘It’s not your time,’ ‘It’s too much work’—which is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. As though we shy away from good work. Hard work is good work.”

And then the lesson everyone needs to hear:

“Don’t let their limitations—their limited ability to see who can do what—be limitations you place on yourself.”

We also talked about the cost of leadership and the toll of being misunderstood. She didn’t minimize it.

“I’m not immune to the feelings that come with being misunderstood, but I don’t believe God is going to judge us based on what other people say about us. I think God is going to judge us based on the purity of our heart, our deeds, and what we do to help people.”

That’s where she finds her footing. And honestly, that’s where I try to find mine, too.

Because leadership doesn’t ask us to disappear. It asks us to show up with clarity, courage, and a willingness to do the work.

Thank you for a wonderful first season. I’ll see you next year At Our Table.

— Jaime

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