Passion project. Meghan Markle is speaking out ahead of the 2020 election, using her platform to urge others to vote.
“When I think about voting and why this is so exceptionally important for all of us, I would frame it as, we vote to honor those who came before us and to protect those who will come after us,” the Duchess of Sussex, 39, said during the virtual When All Women Vote #CouchParty on Thursday, August 20. “Because that’s what community is all about. And that’s specifically what this election is all about. I think we’re only 75 days away from Election Day. That is so very close, and yet there is so much work to be done in that amount of time.”
Markle then spared no detail on how vital casting a ballot will be this fall. “We all know what’s at stake this year,” she noted. “I know it. And all of you certainly know it if you’re here on this fun event with this — then you’re all just as mobilized and just as energized to see the change that we all need and deserve.”
The former actress, who did not endorse a specific candidate but has been critical of President Donald Trump in the past, further reiterated the power of every individual’s voice. “The fight is worth fighting, and we all have to be out there mobilizing. … At this juncture, if we aren’t part of the solution, we’re part of the problem. If you’re complacent, you’re complicit,” she insisted. “We can make the difference in this election. And we will make the difference in this election.”
Elsewhere during her appearance, Markle touched on the 19th Amendment but also pointed out the inequity of the historic achievement.
“This week we are recognizing the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which of course gave women the right to vote but not all women,” she explained. “And specifically not women of color. As we look at things today, though it had taken decades longer for women to get the right to vote, even today we are watching so many women in different communities, who are marginalized, still struggling to see that right to come to fruition. It’s just simply not OK.”
Markle, who moved back to California with Prince Harry and their 15-month-old son, Archie, in March after stepping away from the British royal family, has been vocal about voting in the lead-up to the November 3 election.
“One of my favorite quotes, and one that my husband and I have referred to often, is from Kate Sheppard, a leader in the suffragist movement in New Zealand, who said, ‘Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops,’” she told Marie Claire earlier this month. “That is why I vote.”
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