VP Kamala Harris to deliver keynote speech at annual King Day at the Dome in Columbia

Vice President Kamala Harris will be the keynote speaker at the annual King Day at the Dome festivities, the NAACP South CarolinaState Conference told The State Tuesday.

Harris’ visit on MLK Day, which falls on Jan. 15, will come nine days after she visits Myrtle Beach to deliver the keynote remarks at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society annual retreat.

The King Day at the Dome appearance will be Harris’ eighth visit to South Carolina since becoming vice president, and comes as Democrats will kick off their presidential primary nominating process with the Palmetto State.

Harris is the first woman and Black American to serve as vice president.

Remarks at the State House are scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon.

King Day at the Dome started in 2000 as a protest against the Confederate flag flying above the State House when 46,000 people attended the event, which includes a march from Zion Baptist Church on Washington Street to the State House.

After the 2000 King Day at the Dome, lawmakers negotiated a compromise to lower the flag from atop the State House dome to a spot on the State House grounds, flying next to the Confederate Soldiers Monument, located in a prominent place near the busy intersection of Main and Gervais streets. The annual march continued to protest the presence of the flag, which was eventually removed in 2015 after the Charleston church shooting that killed nine Black churchgoers at a Bible study.

Harris’ visit also has political motives.

The state Democratic Party is working to make sure its voters, who in South Carolina are predominantly Black, participate in the Feb. 3 Democratic primary and not crossover to the more competitive GOP primary on Feb. 24.

President Joe Biden, along with Harris, are running for reelection this year.

Biden has two challengers in the Democratic primary: U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota, and self-help author Marianne Williamson.

King Day the Dome has become a must-attend stop for presidential campaigns.

Former President Barack Obama spoke at the rally alongside other Democratic presidential hopefuls, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, at the event in 2008.

In 2019 U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, and Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, both spoke at the State House ahead of their respective 2020 presidential campaigns.

In 2020, Biden, Sanders, current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; California billionaire Tom Steyer; and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, attended.

Also speaking during the King Day festivities this year will be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat. Jeffries is slated to be the keynote speaker at the Zion Baptist Church prayer service before the march to the State House. The service is scheduled from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.