Oprah Winfrey has “always tried to stay out of the political fray,” her friend CBS host Gayle King said Wednesday. But the 70-year-old legendary TV personality decided to speak at the Democratic Convention this year because, according to King, “she feels there’s a lot at stake.”
“Who says you can’t go home again?” Winfrey said at the start of her surprise appearance at the convention in Chicago, where her long-running The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ended in 2011, was based.
It was the first time Oprah, who is known for her philanthropy and advocacy but has rarely made electoral endorsements, has spoken at a political convention. And in a 15-minute speech, she spoke passionately about why she is supporting the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—and what she believes to represent “the best of America.”
Read More: Read the Full Speech Oprah Winfrey Gave at the 2024 Democratic National Convention
Here are the biggest moments from Winfrey’s DNC speech.
‘There are people’
Winfrey recalled the speeches from the previous night by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. “That was some epic fire, wasn’t it?” she said. “We’re now so fired up we can’t wait to leave here and do something,” she said, referencing Barack Obama’s “fired up, ready to go” chant and Michelle Obama’s “do something” call to action. “And what we’re going to do is to elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States.”
Throughout her speech, Winfrey never named Harris’ Republican opponents, former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, though she made clear allusions to them and their campaign, contrasting a platform of fear and division with her preferred way forward.
“There are people who want you to see our country as a nation of us against them. People who want to scare you, who want to rule you. People who’d have you believe that books are dangerous and assault rifles are safe, that there’s a right way to worship and a wrong way to love. People who seek first to divide and then to conquer,” she said. “But here’s the thing: when we stand together, it is impossible to conquer us.”
“We know all the old tricks and tropes that are designed to distract us from what actually matters, but we are beyond ridiculous tweets and lies and foolery. These are complicated times, people, and they require adult conversation,” she added later. “And I welcome those conversations because civilized debate is vital to democracy, and it is the best of America.”
‘Freedom isn’t free’
Winfrey paid tribute to the late civil rights activist and House representative John Lewis as well as Tessie Prevost Williams, one of the “New Orleans Four” who was at the forefront of school desegregation in the 1960s and who passed away last month at 69.
“Congressman Lewis knew very well how far this country has come, because he was one of the brilliant Americans who helped to get us where we are. But he also knew that the work is not done, the work will never be done, because freedom isn’t free,” Winfrey said. “America is an ongoing project. It requires commitment, it requires being open to the hard work and the heart work of democracy. And every now and then, it requires standing up to life’s bullies.”
“They broke barriers, and they paid dearly for it,” Winfrey said of Prevost Williams and the New Orleans Four. “But it was the grace and guts and courage of women like Tessie Prevost Williams that paved the way for another young girl, who nine years later became part of the second class to integrate the public schools in Berkeley, California.”
Continuing on the theme of standing on the shoulders of previous generations, Winfrey lauded Harris’ upbringing. “It seems to me that, at school and at home, somebody did a beautiful job of showing this young girl how to challenge the people at the top and empower the people at the bottom. They showed her how to look at the world and see not just what is, but what can be,” she said.
“And soon and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father … grew up to become the 47th president of the United States.”
‘When a house is on fire...’
Winfrey rattled off a list of the many U.S. states she’s lived in and places she’s traveled across the country, and she said she’s not only “seen racism and sexism and income inequality and division” but “at times, I’ve been on the receiving end of it.”
But that doesn’t define America for her, she said. “More often than not, what I’ve witnessed and experienced are human beings, both conservative and liberal, who may not agree with each other, but who would still help you in a heartbeat if you were in trouble. These are the people who make me proud to say that I am an American.”
“They are the best of America,” she continued. “And despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors. When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is or how they voted. No, we just try to do the best we can to save them.”
And in a tongue-in-cheek jab at Vance’s now-viral 2021 critique of “childless cat ladies,” who he claimed wanted to make the country “miserable,” Winfrey—who is proudly unmarried and without children, and owns dogs—added: “And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too.”
‘Let us choose’
Winfrey ended her speech by urging people to see the 2024 election beyond a partisan dynamic and to embrace the patriotism and responsibility of participating in democracy. “There are choices to be made when we cast our ballot,” she said.
“Now, there’s a certain candidate that says, if we just go to the polls this one time, then we’ll never have to do it again,” she alluded to Trump again. “Well, you know what? You’re looking at a registered Independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again. Because I’m an American, and that’s what Americans do.”
“I’ve always voted my values, and that is what is needed in this election, now more than ever,” Winfrey said. “Values and character matter most of all, in leadership and in life.” Winfrey called on fellow independents and undecideds to realize that “decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024. And just plain common sense.”
The 2024 Democratic National Convention
“So, let us choose,” Winfrey concluded. “Let us choose loyalty to the Constitution over loyalty to any individual, because that’s the best of America. And let us choose optimism over cynicism, because that’s the best of America. And let us choose inclusion over retribution. Let us choose common sense over nonsense, because that’s the best of America,” she said. “And let us choose the sweet promise of tomorrow over the bitter return to yesterday. We won’t go back. We won’t be sent back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back. We’re not going back.”
“Let us choose truth, let us choose honor, and let us choose joy!” she said, as she belted out the last word to thunderous applause from the crowd. “Because that’s the best of America. But more than anything else, let us choose freedom. Why? Because that’s the best of America. We’re all Americans. And together, let’s all choose Kamala Harris!"
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