Remarks on Vice President Kamala Harris - Jan. 20, 2021

DIEDRE DEJEAR: It shows women across the board that, it is possible, Kamala Harris did not have a blueprint for where she is right now – but she has created one. When she says, ‘I vow never to be the last, I may be the first of many things, but I won't be the last,’ she means that. She has created a blueprint for women who are interested in investing their time and their energy into our political system. Where women rightfully ought to be. Now Kamala Harris has shown us, how you get there.

SARAH BECKMAN: So not only did you meet Kamala, but you were very integral in her caucus campaign. Again, can you just speak to being there, with her, on the trail. And you know, even though she didn't win – now look at where she is. Any favorite memories from the trail, anything that you learned while being out there with her?

DEJEAR: The first time I met her as a presidential candidate, we had to pick her up in Omaha because there was a nutshell storm happening in the state, and we could not get her flight into Des Moines at that time, so we had to get her out of Omaha. And so my husband and I took a couple of vehicles to go pick her up, in Omaha, along with our senior staff. And in the car with us, she was in the car with me, and we were talking about what she was seeing; we were talking about wind energy – and then all of a sudden we started talking about corn and I mentioned – I think at the time, I don't remember what the news was, but there was something about corn – and we talked about the detasseling corn. And I will never forget, the term detailing was something that you know spiked her curiosity and she said, you know we need to get a memo on this this detasseling corn. She wanted to understand the process and how it worked. And you know, coming from the state of California, one of the largest ag producing states in the country, she has a great interest in agriculture. And I will never forget that – that was the not the first thing that I thought was going to pique her interest, was the tasseling porn but it was. And – that that's what I love about her, just her interests – and understanding things that she doesn't understand to increase her awareness and to expand her vision. That is one of the major characteristics of a good leader, to be visionary in that right. And you can only be visionary if you tap into the people that you seek to lead. And she never ceases to amaze me in her ability to do that – and that was rampant throughout the entire course of the campaign.

DeJear, D. [We Are Iowa Local 5 News]. (2021, January 20) Deidre DeJear on swearing in of Kamala Harris as vice president [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhn_sdgoEsQ] Retrieved on April 15, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvoiXGD8UhXXKzbI-tYo_Ig.