The stage at Old National Centre was absent of campaign trappings on Feb 26. There were no podiums emblazoned with slogans, no battleground state signage. Instead, former Vice President Kamala Harris sat in a comfortable chair before a sold-out crowd, her new book in hand, doing something the compressed 107-day sprint of the 2024 presidential race never allowed: reflecting.
The stop on Harris’ “107 Days” book tour drew a packed house downtown, part of an expanded 18-city tour promoting her memoir, which debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Sellers list in September and has since sold more than 600,000 copies. The visit carried particular resonance, occurring during Women’s History Month.
The book’s title derives from the breakneck pace between President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race and Election Day — a period Harris described as fundamentally different from traditional campaigning.
“The pace was different than it is now,” Harris told the audience. “Five states in one day.”
What balanced the grueling schedule, Harris said, was the energy from the people and the joy they feel about being together, organizing, and acting on a vision of what we can be and knowing it can happen.
The weight of 107 days
Harris was candid about the emotional terrain of those months and the aftermath. She described the moment she realized she had lost as “the most difficult chapter to write.”
Throughout the 107-day campaign, Harris allowed herself no time for contemplation, beginning the book only after returning home following the January inauguration.
“We thought we were winning and I wrote a victory speech,” Harris told the crowd.
Those in attendance, sympathetic and engaged, interrupted at one point with a shouted correction: “You did win.”
Joy as resistance
A central theme of the evening — and the book — was the concept of joy as an act of resistance, a phrase that resonated through the auditorium.
Harris elaborated on finding light amid struggle, urging attendees to locate it “in this very moment.”
During a question-and-answer portion, Harris fielded inquiries about her future. Asked directly whether she plans to run for president again, she said she does not know but is considering it — a response that left the door open without committing.
Harris’ message to those who remain disheartened by the 2024 outcome was consistent throughout the evening: engagement cannot be optional. She reminded the crowd of upcoming midterm elections, urging them to remain “as active as possible” and work to “take back the majority.”
The Indianapolis appearance followed a recent stop in Cleveland and preceded dates in Detroit, Madison and her hometown of Oakland.
For Hoosiers who filled Old National Centre, the evening offered not policy prescriptions or campaign-trail applause lines, but something perhaps more enduring: a conversation about perseverance, the sustaining power of joy and the work that continues regardless of electoral outcomes.
As one attendee summarized, the message was simple: keep going. You can get a copy of “107 Days” wherever books are sold.
Contact Multi-Media Reporter Noral Parham at 317-762-7846. Follow him on X @3Noral. For more news, visit indianapolisrecorder.com.
Mia Moore contributed to this report.
Noral Parham is the multi-media reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder, one of the oldest Black publications in the country. Prior to joining the Recorder, Parham served as the community advocate of the MLK Center in Indianapolis and senior copywriter for an e-commerce and marketing firm in Denver.
