If Black women weren’t already energized about the upcoming 2020 elections, Kamala Harris recently sat down with ESSENCE, to remind us that we should be.

“The power is in your hands,” the Democratic senator said of the voting power our specific bloc holds. Harris believes that Black women showed exactly how much influence we hold during the senate elections in Alabama and should continue to wield that power to determine the next President of the United States.

“Lets’s keep doing what we do,” she encouraged.

A number of key elections, following 2016, were determined by African-American female voters, including the 2018 midterm elections. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 55 percent of eligible Black women voters cast ballots in November 2018, putting the bloc six percent above the national turnout. It’s also why experts interviewed for a recent Fortune article, named us the “key voting bloc going into the 2020 presidential race.”

Harris believes that our efforts to always be informed stem from an understanding that there is so much at stake. “It’s about an expression of voice,” Harris added. “And it is such a powerful and strong voice – the voice of Black women. And it needs to be heard.”

As a candidate, Harris insists that she will do everything she can to encourage ownership of that power “cause it is real” she says. “And it can and does determine the outcome.”

“We don’t have time for someone to give us the lead. We take the lead.”