Vice President Kamala Harris recognized former President Jimmy Carter’s long legacy and lasting impact in a eulogy on Tuesday, Jan. 7, just two months after he won his vote in the 2024 presidential election.

“I was in middle school when Jimmy Carter was elected president, and I remember vividly how my mother admired him,” said Harris, 60. “How much she admired his strength of character, his honesty, his integrity, his work ethic and determination, his intelligence and his generosity.”

The vice president continued, saying, “We have heard a lot today and over the last few days about President Carter’s impact in the four decades since he left the White House. “Jimmy Carter established a new model for what it means to be a former president and leaves an extraordinary post-presidential legacy.”

Harris discussed Carter’s many accomplishments at the Carter Center, calling him a president “ahead of his time” for creating a comprehensive energy policy, passing legislation to protect the environment and expand national parks, and possibly soon establishing the Department of Education the elected President Donald Trump.

She also acknowledged the diversity he brought to the White House.

“He was a president who appointed more black Americans to the federal bench between 1977 and 1981 than all his predecessors combined and five times as many women,” she noted. “And in the wake of Watergate, Jimmy Carter passed a historic ethics law to restore Americans’ trust in government.”

Harris ended the speech by discussing the former president’s character, saying, “Throughout his life and career, Jimmy Carter maintained a fundamental decency and humility.”

“James Earl Carter Jr. loved our country. He lived his faith, he served people and he left the world better than he found it,” she continued. “And in the end, Jimmy Carter’s work and these works speak more for him than any tribute we can offer. May his life be a lesson for eternity and a beacon for the future.”

Carter’s remains arrived at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on Tuesday afternoon, where he will lie in state until Thursday morning.

When his casket reached the Capitol Rotunda, a small service was held in his honor, attended by the Carter family, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and various other officials.

Harris was asked to deliver a eulogy, as were House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, both Republicans. President Joe Biden is expected to deliver a speech at the official memorial service on Thursday.

The Carter family vocally supported Harris as she waged a historic presidential campaign — and according to relatives, President Carter himself expressed enthusiasm for the trailblazing vice president long before his death on Dec. 29.

When Carter’s son Chip asked him last year if he wanted to live until his 100th birthday, the former president said, “I’m just trying to vote for Kamala Harris,” according to his grandson Jason.

Carter had already been in hospice care for a year and a half at that point — with good days and bad days, his grandson Jason Carter said — but as the election neared, the former president became “more alert and interested in politics,” Jason said Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The former president fulfilled his final wish when he filled out a mail-in ballot for Harris on Oct. 16, which was later dropped into a mailbox at the Sumter County Courthouse.

“I think he feels good,” Chip, 74, said of his father voting for Harris. “It was a good morning for him and good for us that he made it.”

Earlier this year, at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Jason opened up about why he and his grandfather supported Harris’ presidential campaign.

“Kamala Harris carries on my grandfather’s legacy,” Jason said on stage.

“She knows what is right and she fights for it. She understands that leadership is about service and not selfishness,” he continued. “That you can show strength and demonstrate decency. And that you can achieve much more with a smile than with a scowl.”