Vice President Harris accepted her party’s presidential nomination Thursday night with a speech calling on voters to write “the next great chapter” in American history.
The words pointed to Harris’ unusual recent history: She became the candidate after President Biden decided not to run for reelection and endorsed her a month ago.
She also suggested that if she defeats former President Trump this fall, she would make history by becoming the first woman to hold the highest office in the United States.
And it was all wrapped up in patriotism, the central focus of the final day of the four-day Democratic National Convention.
“Now it is our turn to do what generations before us did — to be guided by optimism and faith, to fight for the country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to assume the great responsibilities that come with the greatest privilege on earth — the privilege and honor of being an American,” Harris told the captivated crowd.
“Together let’s write the next great chapter of the greatest story ever told,” she added, placing herself firmly within the country’s great history.
The vice president is expected to bring up his background as a prosecutor and lean into that theme to counter President Trump.
“Let me be clear: throughout my career, I have had only one client: the people,” Harris said. “On behalf of the people, on behalf of all Americans regardless of party, race, gender or what language your grandma speaks, on behalf of my mother and all those who have been on an unlikely journey…on behalf of all people whose stories can only be told in the greatest country on earth, I accept your nomination.”
Harris spoke about the fight she has fought as California’s Attorney General, including fighting drug cartels that traffic guns, drugs and humans, fighting for seniors and fighting for people facing foreclosure on their homes.
“We were underestimated at every turn, but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for,” she said.
About 15 minutes into her speech, Harris turned her attention fully to Trump, calling him a “clumsy man” but saying the consequences would be severe if he was re-elected.
“Donald Trump tried to squander your votes, and when that failed, he sent an armed mob into the Capitol where they attacked police officers,” she said.
She noted that President Trump has been convicted of fraud and charged with sexual abuse, and that he is considering pardoning people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“Just think, think of the power he would have, especially since the United States Supreme Court just ruled that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution. Imagine Donald Trump without the guardrails. Imagine how he would use the enormous power of being president of the United States,” she said.
She walked back on her statement that the public is her only customer, saying Trump’s only customer is “himself.”
Harris, whose mother is Indian and father is Jamaican, said she wanted to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and vowed to protect voting freedom.
She also promised to revive and pass into law a border bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators that was effectively killed by President Trump and House Republicans, who said it was insufficient.
On foreign policy, Harris said she would ensure America has the strongest fighting force in the country and, responding to “USA” chants from the crowd, vowed to “protect, honor and never disrespect” the service of veterans.
Harris also said she wanted to strengthen America’s global leadership, saying President Trump had threatened to abandon NATO and US allies.
She was referring to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, a hot-button issue that led demonstrators to gather outside the convention to protest the Biden administration’s handling of the war and its pro-Israel stance.
“Now is the time for a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” Harris said to applause from the crowd, adding that she would always defend Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 deadline attack.
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months has been devastating,” Harris said, “with many innocent lives lost and desperate, hungry people repeatedly fleeing in search of safety.”
She reiterated that she and Biden are committed to ending the war and called on Palestinians to “realize their right to dignity, freedom and security,” eliciting some of the loudest shouts of the night from convention attendees.
But her comments did not signal a break with Biden on the war, as some Democrats had hoped.
The vice president said he was “rooting for Trump to win” the November election because dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un “know how easily he can manipulate them with flattery and favors.”
“In the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where America belongs,” she said.
Harris spent much of the opening moments of her speech paying tribute to her late mother, Shyamala Harris.
“I miss her every day, especially now, and I know she’s looking down and smiling,” she said.
Her mother came to the United States from India at age 19 in hopes of finding a cure for breast cancer.
Ms. Harris quoted her father, who separated from her mother when she was in elementary school, telling her as a child: “Run, Kamala. Run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.”
“My mother was a smart, 5-foot-tall, brown-skinned woman with an accent,” she says. “Growing up, I saw how the world treated her sometimes, but she never lost her cool.”
“She also taught me to never do anything half-heartedly,” she added.
When Harris took the stage, she first thanked her husband, Second Mate Doug Emhoff.
“Happy anniversary Dougie. I love you so much,” she said. The couple were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary.NumberAnniversary on Thursday.
Emhoff, his children Ella and Cole, Harris’ sister Maya Harris, brother-in-law Tony West and their daughter Meena Harris sat in the front row during the speech, and Emhoff was joined onstage by his family and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and his family for the balloon drop afterward.
