Former Vice President Kamala Harris turned the fight over diversity, equity, and inclusion into a battle over maternal health on Tuesday, declaring that “the attack on DEI is an attack on maternal care” and accusing the Trump administration of putting research and care for black women at risk.
Harris tied the fight over DEI directly to federal funding for maternal health and to the stakes of Michigan’s closely watched Senate race. She was campaigning alongside Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed, who is facing Republican Mike Rogers for the seat held by retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) in a contest that could help determine Senate control.
“The attack on DEI is an attack on maternal care,” Harris said. “An attack on DEI to recognize diversity, equity, and inclusion is an attack by definition on maternal care, including the need to protect black women in connection with their pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care.”
Harris, who has made black maternal health a focus of her public work, used her appearance with el Sayed to argue that federal research funding, medical care, and representation in the Senate are intertwined.
“When we talk about what is at stake in this moment as it relates to these midterms and who occupies seats in one of the most important bodies in our nation, if not the world, which is the United States Senate,” Harris said.
The appearance was Harris’s first public event with el Sayed since she endorsed him after his victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary last month. Tuesday’s event focused on black maternal health, an issue that overlaps with el Sayed’s background as a physician and former Detroit and Wayne County health official.
During her remarks, Harris pointed specifically to research into uterine fibroids, which disproportionately affect black women, as an example of what she described as the consequences of the administration’s approach to DEI.
“Donald Trump and his administration have cut funding through the National Institutes of Health on many research projects that they consider to fall under DEI, including fibroid research,” Harris said. “The United States Senate should be a stopgap on the abuses of this administration.”
For el Sayed, Harris’s appearance comes as his campaign works to consolidate Democratic support after a primary that exposed divisions within the party. He defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) in the Aug. 4 race and will now face Rogers in the general election in less than two months.
El Sayed has emphasized his background in medicine and public health, including his work in Detroit, as he campaigns on healthcare and other issues. Harris has similarly used maternal health to connect her political agenda to her previous work in the Senate and White House.
“When I was senator and then as vice president, I was so proud, with so many of the people in this room, to uplift to the national stage the work that you all do every day,” Harris said.
Harris’s appearance also underscored her engagement in Democratic politics as she considers whether to seek the presidency again in 2028. She has begun appearing at Democratic events in battleground states ahead of the midterm elections, including Michigan, while maintaining that she has not decided whether to launch another presidential campaign.
“This is just another Kamala Harris word salad special,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “Abdul El-Sayed is a fake doctor who can’t even define what a woman is, and campaigning with a certified loser who lost Michigan because of her woke DEI lectures isn’t doing him any favors.”
EL SAYED ‘SOFT FAVORITE’ TO WIN MICHIGAN BUT COULD STILL BE THIS YEAR’S HERSCHEL WALKER: SABATO
But on Tuesday, Harris shied away from talk of a White House return, and instead focused on the Senate race and the consequences she said it could have for maternal health.
“The stakes are so high,” Harris said. “The need for us then to tell everyone who has a vested interest in the outcome of these issues that they have power and voice in the outcome of this election, which will directly impact their lives in many ways.”