The Kamala Harris campaign stop in Macon Friday featured five prominent Georgians speaking behalf of the vice president, who wasn’t in attendance herself.
The stop, which was focused largely on Harris’ stance on abortion and pushes by Republicans to restrict abortion access, targeted voters in one of the most-watched swing states.
Abortion promises to be a major issue for Georgians in the upcoming presidential election. In Georgia, most abortions are banned at six weeks.
The stop in Macon is one of several across the state, and those stops will feature a wide cast of speakers including entertainers, politicians, activists and everyday residents discussing their personal experiences with abortion and reproductive health.
So who came to Macon to pull for Harris?
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams
Nikema Williams is a member of the U.S. House representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, which covers much of Atlanta. It’s most famous for being the seat formerly held by John Lewis, a civil rights activist who died in 2020.
Williams also serves as the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, and was previously a Democratic elector in the Electoral College during the 2020 presidential race. She also served as a Georgia state senator from 2017 to 2020.
Williams is no stranger to abortion rights. Prior to her work in politics, she worked as the vice president for public policy at Planned Parenthood Southeast.
Notably, she will also be up for re-election this November, although she is heavily favored to win due to her being from a heavily Democratic district.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
Keisha Lance Bottoms served as the mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022. During her tenure as mayor, she was a vocal opponent of then-President Donald Trump and Georgia Republicans.
In 2018, she signed an executive order forbidding the city jail from holding people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and created Atlanta’s first LGBTQ+ advisory board. She also rebuked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for re-opening businesses in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She declined to run for a second term as mayor, instead joining President Joe Biden’s administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. She currently works as a member of the President’s Export Council.
State Rep. Miriam Paris
Paris is a representative in the Georgia State House. She is a Democrat whose district includes portions of Macon.
A Macon native, she served on the Macon City Council and then helped merge the city and county as a Georgia state senator.
She was elected to the Georgia House in 2016, and serves on the Appropriations, Education, and Special Rules Committees.
Like Williams, Paris is also up for reelection this November.
Shere é Whitfield
Shereé Whitfield is a television personality known for being an original cast member of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
Since her time on the show, she has become an author and fashion designer. She was also an executive producer on the show “Selling It: In the ATL,” which follows female realtors trying to succeed in the Atlanta real estate market.
Latorya Beasley
Latorya Beasley is an abortion rights advocate from Alabama.
She began talking about reproductive health after the Supreme Court of Alabama halted in vitro fertilization across the state earlier this year. She was planning on using IVF to have her second child, but had her embryo transfer appointment canceled due to the ruling.
After the ruling, Beasley spoke about her experiences at a roundtable in Birmingham, Alabama, convened by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. She was also invited to attend the State of the Union address in Washington, D.C., in March as a personal guest of First Lady Jill Biden.
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