Oprah, Harris Share Stage In Oakland County To Tackle Voter Questions

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI — Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris shared a stage with Oprah Winfrey Thursday night in metro Detroit to tackle several hot-button issues, such as the cost of living, abortion and gun ownership.

The livestreamed event took place at a Farmington Hills studio in front of roughly 400 live guests and thousands more across the nation watching online.

Oprah hosted the event, "United for America 2024" in a format similar to her long-running TV talk show.

"I am here because I care deeply about the future of our country," Winfrey said in her opening remarks from the studio.

During the event, Winfrey switched between taking questions from video on the live video feed and listening to personal stories from live audience members.

One of those members in the studio was Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old woman who has emerged as an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child. She became pregnant and eventually had a miscarriage.

"When Roe v. Wade was overturned, I woke up with the harsh reality that my abuse is over, but my story is not," Duvall said inside the studio. "And I just could not fathom thinking about the other Hadleys out there."

Harris praised Duvall for her courage to share her story during what the vice president has called a "healthcare crisis" that is being caused because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"They have no right to be in your womb," Oprah added.

Oprah also listened to a Georgia woman share the story of her daughter, who died after delayed medical care when she developed a rare complication from taking abortion medication, which led to an infection.

Amber Thurman’s death, which was first reported Monday by ProPublica, happened just two weeks after Georgia’s strict abortion ban went into effect in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The abortion ban made it a felony, with few exceptions, for doctors to perform dilation and curettage (D&C), which would have removed fetal tissue left behind.

Doctors delayed the procedure until Thurman had been at the hospital for 20 hours, and she died on the operating table, ProPublica reported, leaving behind a 6-year-old son.

"Initially, I did not want the public to know my pain. I wanted to go through in silence. But I realized that it was selfish. I want y'all to know, Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family — a strong family — and we would have done whatever to get my baby — our baby — the help that she needed," said Thurman's mother, Shanette Williams. "You're looking at a mother that is broken."

Oprah also turned to 15-year-old Natalie Griffith, who is an Apalachee High School student who was shot at during a shooting in Georgia earlier this month.

Oprah asked Natalie where she was shot, and the teen responded by pointing to the bandages covering her shoulder and wrist.

Natalie's mother, who was sitting next to her in the studio, tearfully recalled the moment she received a call at work from a friend notifying her of the shooting.

"My heart just dropped," she said.

On the topic of gun ownership, Harris criticized assault weapons, saying they have no place in our society as they're "designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly." But Harris also noted that she's a gun owner and said if someone breaks into her home, "they're getting shot."

"I'm not trying to take everyone's guns away," Harris said.

Oprah also pointed to the live video feed where voters from across the nation asked Harris economic questions.

A young couple from Pennsylvania asked Harris what her plans are to lower the cost of living. A graduate student in Virginia asked Harris what her plan is to help make housing more affordable.

Harris said they are not the first to tell her that the American Dream is"far more elusive than it’s been."

Harris said she plans to tackle price gouging, provide $25,000 in down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers and a $50,000 tax deduction for start-up small businesses and expand per-child tax credits.

Celebrities, including Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller and Julia Roberts, also tuned in to the event and cast their support for Harris in the race.

Polls show the presidential race tightening, with voters largely focused on the economy.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was also in the studio and said the race in Michigan will likely be as narrow as it was in 2016 and 2020.

"We’ve got to do the hard work," Whitmer said. "In 2016, we were short 11,000 votes. That’s two votes per precinct, which tells you that a conversation you have with a loved one or a neighbor or a fellow parishioner, whoever in your life you can talk to, we’ve got to do it."

Trump won Michigan 2016 by roughly 11,000 votes in 2016, and Biden won Michigan by roughly 154,000 votes in 2020.

Some polls show Harris with a lead as large as five percentage points above Trump, while others show the race in a dead heat.