In a surprise appearance on Wednesday night, Oprah Winfrey made a vigorous appeal to independent and undecided voters to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris. She spoke of the “best of America” and using “common sense” to decide who to vote for, while taking a couple of implicit jabs at the GOP ticket. This was Winfrey’s first time speaking at a national political convention.

“Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values, and that is what is needed in this election now more than ever,” Winfrey said. “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”

“And common sense tells you that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect, they’re the ones to give it to us,” she said. 

Winfrey noted that she herself is registered as an independent voter who is “proud to vote again and again and again,” taking a swipe, without naming him, at former President Donald Trump’s recent comment to Christians that they just need to vote in this one election. (Trump and his campaign sought to clarify that, despite the alarm from Democrats and democracy advocates, he was talking about evangelical Christians not voting en masse.)

The former daytime television host and Chicago native also used her remarks to tell the story of Tessie Prevost Williams, who helped integrate public schools in New Orleans in 1960 and who died last month. 

“And soon and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father – two idealistic, energetic immigrants – immigrants – how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States,” Winfrey said of Harris. 

Winfrey also made a direct appeal to Americans to remember that we are “not so different from our neighbors.” She noted that she has traveled the country and while she has seen racism and sexism – occasionally, she said, being on the receiving end of it – more often than not she has witnessed “human beings” who will “help you in a heartbeat.” 

She used the example of a house on fire to make her point, arguing that when Americans see a burning home they don’t ask the homeowner’s race or religion or how they voted.

“And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too,” she said in a reference to a phrase used by Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance that has received widespread criticism.  

“These are the people who make me proud to say that I am an American, they are the best of America,” she said. 

Winfrey, whose endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 was critical in helping to energize his longshot presidential bid, leaned into themes of positivity as she sought to make the case for Harris and Walz.

“Let us choose truth,” Winfrey said. “Let us choose honor. And let us choose joy. But more than anything else, let us choose freedom. Why? Because that’s the best of America.”