Sometimes, when Vice President Kamala Harris would see Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee coming down the hall, she would think about hiding. Harris confessed this with a smile at the memorial service for the Texas Democrat, where those in the audience were well aware of how relentless Jackson Lee could be.
Jackson Lee, Harris said, never wasted time on small talk or trivial niceties, but dug right into whatever detailed problem she was trying to solve, and what Harris could do about it.
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Harris, who took time out of her 96-day campaign for President to eulogize Jackson Lee on Thursday, praised the example she set for others over nearly three decades in Congress. Jackson Lee showed that once power had been earned, “there is an obligation to do something good with it,” Harris said.
In the week and a half since locking up her party’s nomination for President, Harris has focused her public remarks on drawing a distinction between her work as a prosecutor and Donald Trump’s criminal record. She has also laid out her vision for a country that welcomes more people into its success, a goal that she said Jackson Lee spent her life pressing her colleagues to pursue.
Speaking inside the cavernous Fallbrook Church on the northern outskirts of Houston, Harris described Jackson Lee as “one of the smartest and most strategic legislators in Washington, D.C.” and said “she was also one of the most unrelenting.”
Harris was joined on stage by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “She always expected in all of us that we would rise to a point of excellence, knowing life was too short and there’s too much to be done,” Harris said.
A few days before Jackson Lee passed away on July 19 at the age of 74, Harris described calling the congresswoman to thank her for her encouragement over the years. “I thanked her for her courage and her conviction and her relentless focus on those who are too often left out and left behind, and her unwavering belief in the power that we each have to change our country for the better.”
Harris told the story of how in the summer of 2011, when several Houston community pools were closed during the hot days of summer because of budget shortfalls, Jackson Lee called city businesses and pressured them into donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to reopen the pools.
Jackson Lee was a “coalition builder” who knew that “the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris said. Harris said that her husband Doug Emhoff and Jackson Lee had developed a bond over the years and the two had attended many events with the Jewish community of Houston together. She described her work as a champion for women’s rights, protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ federal workers, founding the Congressional Children’s Caucus, and pressing to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
“To honor her memory, let us continue to fight to realize the promise of America, a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice, not just for some, but for all,” Harris said.