Vice President Kamala Harris rallied a national teachers union convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center Thursday in only her second campaign speech since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her. 

Harris’ speech had little to do with the city, but for a brief 20 minutes, all eyes in American politics were on downtown Houston and the American Federation of Teachers’ national convention as Harris attempted to define her record to the public on her fourth full day as the likely Democratic nominee for president.

The former California attorney general and U.S. senator credited her rise in American politics to her public school teachers. 

“We need you so desperately right now,” Harris said. “Today we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other focused on the past. We are fighting for the future.”

The speech comes after an extraordinary month, beginning with Biden’s faltering debate performance in late June that led to weeks of calls for him to drop out of the race. At the same time, Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump was ascendent, surviving an assassination attempt two weeks ago before officially accepting the Republican nomination for president last week. 

Biden, who is 81, announced he would drop out of the race Sunday afternoon, then gave a primetime speech to the nation Wednesday night saying it was time to “pass the torch” to a younger generation. 

Thursday morning, the convention center ballroom was filled with enthusiastic union members, many of whom waited in line for hours to hear Harris speak. An AFT spokesperson told the vice presidential press pool that roughly 3,500 people were registered for the convention and a majority of them attended the speech.

Unions, which Biden long has been politically aligned with, are powerful endorsers at any level of politics, bringing volunteers and organizers to a campaign. The AFT is the second largest teachers union in the nation and voted to endorse Harris on Monday, the first day of the convention.

Harris told the crowd she would protect labor unions, forgive student loan debt for public servants, including teachers, and fight against conservative policies she said are harming public schools. 

“We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books,” Harris said.

Harris is working to shore up Democratic support ahead of a virtual roll call vote by delegates to the Democratic National Convention to select the party’s official nominee. No other Democrat has announced they will publicly challenge Harris for the nomination. The virtual vote could come as early as next Thursday, according to rules approved by the DNC on Wednesday. 

A majority of the nearly 4,000 Democratic delegates have said they will support her candidacy, making her the presumptive nominee, according to the Associated Press.

Harris spoke as if she already was the official nominee, bringing energy Democrats long have missed from Biden. 

That energy was reflected back by the crowd, who chanted and cheered throughout the vice president’s remarks. 

Danielle Cockrell, a teacher at Cypress Fairbanks ISD, said she got in line for the speech at 5:30 a.m. but many others had been waiting longer.

“When this happened, my enthusiasm went through the roof,” Cockrell said. “I had my doubts and reservations, but she is strong, she is younger, and she is not hiding.”

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, said he waited in line for an hour and a half to get into the event. 

“This is a new kind of energy that we haven’t seen since Barack Obama,” Johnson said. “I think the party is now excited. I think we’re going to find that people who fled from voting and got apathetic are going to get out there again.” 

Biden’s Sunday decision made 59-year-old Harris the new, younger face of the Democratic party. She interacted with the crowd, smiled and laughed throughout her speech.

Harris called Biden’s Wednesday evening address “poignant” and thanked him for his support.

“Joe has led with grace, strength and bold vision and compassion,” she told the crowd. 

The speech was less about Harris’ record in public service and more about attacking the policies of the Republican Party and former President Trump.

“Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take us back to failed trickle down economic policies, back to union busting, back to tax breaks for billionaires. Donald Trump and his allies want to cut medicaid and social security, stop student loan forgiveness and eliminate the Department of Education,” Harris said, the crowd responding with loud boos when she mentioned cuts to public education. 

Houston Republicans targeted Harris for one of the policies she did not speak about: immigration. 

In a statement titled “Kamala Harris is not welcome in Houston,” Harris County GOP Chair Cindy Siegel criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the process by which Harris has risen to become the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee.

“This deceit resulted in her being propelled to the highest point in her career without a single vote being cast in her name,” Siegel wrote in a statement. “Kamala, along with Joe Biden, has promoted policies that have hurt Texans and headed an administration that has been based upon lies to the American public.”

The policy positions Harris spoke to mirror those of her former running mate.

Harris said she would prioritize passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a codification of sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that have been stripped away over the years by court decisions. She said she would ban assault weapons, protect abortion access nationwide and establish better protections from discrimination for minorities and the LGBTQ+ community.

Former Houston ISD teacher Daniel Santos said Harris’ remarks were a breath of fresh air for teachers concerned about the direction of politics around public education. Santos was a teacher at Navarro Middle School, but quit after the most recent school year due to the state’s HISD takeover. 

“What’s thrilling today with Kamala, and what’s energetic and what’s electrifying, is because she’s hearing the voices of teachers and parents who have been crying out for equity in public education,” Santos said. 

Harris rallied the audience at the end of the speech, telling them they needed to work hard over the next three months leading up to the Nov. 5 election. 

The crowd responded with a chant of “Bring it on.”

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