As Kamala Harris’s last-minute campaign for the White House gains steam, comments from the vice president have resurfaced showing she has quite the affinity for Meghan Markle.
This comes amid speculation that the Duchess of Sussex will soon endorse Harris for president, joining the list of her celebrity supporters including George Clooney, Beyoncé and Kesha.
Harris did not cross paths with Markle during her vice presidency, Newsweek Magazine reported, but had previously made two public statements about royalty.
In October 2019, while Harris was still campaigning to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, she retweeted a video of Markle speaking to a reporter about how she was struggling to deal with salacious media coverage of her first pregnancy with son Archie.
“Any woman, especially when they’re pregnant, is very vulnerable,” Markle said at the time. “Also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked me if I’m OK.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has retweeted two statements from Meghan Markle in the past, though she has not crossed paths with the royals during her tenure as Joe Biden’s second-in-command.
Amid speculation that Markle will publicly support Harris for president, one British commentator believes she could use the endorsement to “boost” her own political career.
In her retweet of the video, Harris wrote: “This is incredibly important. We must remember that showing emotion is a sign of strength.”
-Meghan, we are with you.
Months later, Harris interacted with a clip of Markle giving a virtual speech to the 2020 graduating class of her former high school in Los Angeles.
In one part of her speech, Markle addressed the political climate of that summer, which had been dominated by Black Lives Matter protests over the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others.
She said she had been apprehensive about making her thoughts known, fearing her statements would be “shredded.”
That culminated in her saying, “I realized the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing,” before listing the names of black people who have been killed by police, including Philando Castile, Tamir Rice and Stephon Clark.
Harris endorsed Markle’s message, calling it a “powerful statement” in her retweet.
“The only wrong thing to say is to say nothing. Thank you, Meghan, for this powerful statement,” then-Senator Kamala Harris wrote on June 5, 2020.
This is the first time Harris has spoken publicly about Markle, with the Duchess speaking out about the struggles she had with negative media attention during her pregnancy.
Harris also retweeted a June 2020 clip of Markle addressing racial violence against Black people at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests.
The racial unrest sweeping the country at the time also led to widespread pressure on Biden to choose a black woman as his running mate. CNN reported.
Biden would choose Harris as his vice presidential nominee in August 2020, but would later deny having chosen her due to pressure from Democrats.
Harris’s complimentary remarks about Markle are receiving renewed attention, as Daily Express royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams foretold Markle will support the likely Democratic nominee.
Not only that, Fitzwilliams believes he could use this endorsement to “provide a springboard for a political career of his own.”
Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, stepped down from their roles in the Royal Family in January 2020 and moved to the US in June of that year.
Since then, they have grown increasingly comfortable getting involved in American politics, although Markle has long championed causes that support women and girls.
In 2020, they urged Americans to register to vote and reject misinformation.
For the 2024 election, the couple has already joined a campaign to warn American voters against AI-generated misinformation.
Markle has even considered running to replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died in September 2023 at the age of 90.