Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to reach black male voters by revealing to them that she was the “first vice president” to “grow chili peppers” at the vice president’s residence.
In a video posted to X, Harris can be seen speaking to black men and informing them that she grew “chili peppers” at the vice president’s residence, and noting that she grew “scotch bonnet peppers.”
“You may not know, but you will appreciate, I’m the first vice president to grow chili peppers at the vice president’s,” Harris told the men, adding that she grew “scotch bonnet peppers.”
Harris has previously claimed that she is the first vice president to grow chili peppers “at the vice president’s residence.”
In a video on X from September 2023, during an interview, Harris was asked what she did “for self-care.” Harris explained that she works “out every morning” and loves “to cook,” adding that she was “growing peppers.”
“One of the things I — every morning, no matter how little sleep, or how much sleep I’ve had, I work out every morning,” Harris said. “Every morning. I get on the elliptical. I love to cook, and in fact, at the official vice president’s residence, I’m growing peppers. I’m pretty sure I’m the first vice president of the United States that has been growing scotch bonnet peppers, and jalapeno peppers, and I’ve grown Thai chili peppers.”
During a conversation with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) in August, Harris again claimed , “I’m the first vice president, I believe, who has ever grown chili peppers.”
Harris’s claim that she is the first vice president to grow chili peppers comes as former President Thomas Jefferson reportedly grew cayenne peppers, according to the website for Jefferson’s Monticello plantation.
Jefferson first recorded the planting of this pepper at Shadwell, his birthplace, in 1767 (just before his twenty-fourth birthday) and included them among the hundreds of plants listed in his garden calendar for 1812. This versatile tropical fruit is used in cooking – fresh or dried – as a hot, spicy flavoring. The green or ripe pods can be pickled, used in chili vinegar, and in pepper-sauce and salsa. The glossy red fruits are also desirable in decorations and dried-flower arrangements.
Prior to being elected president, Jefferson served as the vice president between March 1797 and March 1801.
Harris’s words come as a recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 78 percent of black voters expressed support for Harris, a 12 percent decrease from the 90 percent that President Joe Biden received during the 2020 presidential election.
During a recent event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, former President Barack Obama warned that not enough black voters were supporting Harris in the upcoming presidential election.
A Washington Post/Ipsos poll, which surveyed roughly 1,083 black voters, found that 82 percent expressed that they would “definitely” or “probably” support Harris in the upcoming election, an increase from 74 percent who previously expressed support for Biden in April.
