JACKSON, Miss.—Former Vice President Kamala Harris laughed as Jackson Mayor John Horhn bowed while welcoming her to Thalia Mara Hall with a key to Mississippi’s capital city. He declared Jan. 14, 2026, as Kamala Harris Day in Jackson.
“It was very important to me to come to Jackson for many reasons, but in particular, because of all the leaders, all the leaders on stage and here in the audience,” the former vice president said at her book tour event at Thalia Mara Hall on Jan. 14. “… America’s history was made in Jackson, whether we’re talking about the Freedom Riders, Medgar Evers, those families, the students at Tougaloo College.”
A sold-out crowd laughed and cheered while sitting in the theater of the newly renovated Thalia Mara Hall, which opened its doors on Jan. 14 after being closed since August 2024.
“Kamala, you don’t know what you mean to Jackson, Mississippi,” Horhn told her on stage on Jan. 14. “You don’t know what you mean to America.”
Harris rode a bus from New Orleans to Jackson for the second stop on her second leg of her book tour for her autobiography, “107 Days,” which details her 107-day 2024 presidential campaign—the shortest in modern U.S. history for a major party nominee. Mississippi comedian and musician Rita Brent moderated the discussion. Lemuria Books sponsored the event.
“If one considers themselves to be an American leader and does not spend time in the South, one cannot be an American leader,” she said. “… If you want to understand the ambitions, the dreams, the hopes and the fears of the American people, you’ve got to spend time in the South.”
Joy and empathy were major themes of Harris and Brent’s conversation. The former vice president described grocery shopping earlier that day with a mom of three who had an extremely tight budget for food. Harris asked if any of the food was specifically for the mother, and the mother said, “Well, really, it’s for them.”
Experiences like that remind Harris, she said, that being a leader is about having “a level of concern, care and consideration” for constituents, instead of being “callous” and claiming that “empathy is a sign of weakness.” Elon Musk had said “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy,” on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast when the billionaire was working for the Trump administration in March 2025.
Brent conveyed her shock over the 90 million Americans who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. She asked the former vice president how to motivate people to go to the polls and have an active political voice.
Harris asked Brent and the audience to think about families walking and pushing strollers on broken sidewalks or driving down roads littered with potholes. Every vote matters because local governments “directly impact your life,” she said.
“It is critically important that we understand our vote in local races is just as important as our vote for president of the United States,” the former vice president said.
Toward the end of their discussion, Harris answered three audience members’ pre-selected questions that Brent read to her. A local sixth grader named Penelope had recently become president of her class. She asked the vice president how she could be the best leader for her peers.
Harris congratulated her as the audience clapped and cheered. The former vice president told Penelope to listen to the people she represents and ask them how they are doing.
“When you ask it, be ready to listen because you’ll find out things that help you decide how you prioritize what you’re going to take on,” Harris told Penelope. “And the thing about being a leader is you’re not going to be able to fix everything right away. So, you’re going to also have to decide, ‘What are maybe the three things I’m going to take on right now and put my mind to, and help solve the problem and ask people to help me solve that problem.’”