Sheryl Lee Ralph of ‘Abbott Elementary’ to appear in MontCo with VP Kamala Harris

Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph will join Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Montgomery County on Wednesday, the Biden-Harris campaign confirmed Sunday.

First reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the event will be focused on “reproductive freedom,” part of Harris’ tour through battleground states to speak about abortion access. In April, Harris made campaign stops in Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada where she focused on reproductive rights And in March, she spoke at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, believed to be the first sitting president or vice president to visit an abortion provider.

Harris spoke in Jacksonville, Florida on May 1, the day a six-week abortion ban took effect in the state,  and put the responsibility for the new restrictions directly at the feet of former President Donald Trump.

“As of this morning, 4 million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This is the new reality, under a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said during the Jacksonville appearance. 

Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee for president, said in a recent wide-ranging Time magazine interview that he plans to release more details soon about how his administration would regulate access to medication abortion.

He told the magazine he has “strong views” about access to mifepristone, one of the drugs used in medication abortions. He did not rule out a nationwide ban, or imposing new restrictions on abortion during the interview. On the campaign trail, Trump has noted he appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade.

Ralph, who is married to state Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia), has spoken out on abortion access before, appearing at a “Bans Off Our Bodies” rally in Harrisburg in 2022, as the country awaited the Supreme Court ruling that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade. At the 2022 event, Ralph said, “no one else should have the right to tell me what to do with my own body.”

Hundreds attend ‘Bans Off Our Bodies’ rally in Harrisburg

She and Harris also have appeared together before, including at an event in Ghana last year.

Ralph stars in the Philadelphia-set TV sitcom “Abbott Elementary” as teacher Barbara Howard, a role that won her an Emmy award in 2022.

Further details about Wednesday’s visit were not available Sunday. The trip will be Harris’ third to Pennsylvania this year; in February she appeared in Pittsburgh to tout the Biden administration’s dedication of $5.8 billion in federal funding toward lead pipe removal and clean water projects, including more than $200 million in Pennsylvania. She spoke to educators in Philadelphia last month about the administration’s push to reduce student loan debt.