After star studded After four days of high-octane action at the United Center in Chicago, the Democratic National Convention ended Thursday with an exclamation point in one of the most chaotic presidential nominating contests in generations.
Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the party's nomination for president in 2024 to applause that may have reached the Richter scale and – as usual – a sea of balloons when she concluded her speech.
Harris began by talking about her roots as a child of immigrants in California, and her early career as a California attorney general. “Throughout my career, I’ve only had one client: people,” she said.
“And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American — regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother spoke,” Harris shouted. “On behalf of every person whose story can only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.”
Harris explained that while “Donald Trump is a man who is not serious in many ways,” the consequences of “bringing Donald Trump back to the White House are very serious.”
“Think of the power he would have — especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump without the safety nets,” Harris said.
The vice president offered a vision of America at odds with Trump’s image of “the freedom to live free from gun violence in our schools, communities, and places of worship.” She added: “The freedom to love who you love openly and proudly. The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that opens the door to all other freedoms: the freedom to vote.”
Harris touched on a wide range of issues, including the need to protect reproductive rights, pass bipartisan legislation to secure the border and create pathways to citizenship for immigrants, as well as the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Amid pro-Palestinian protests throughout the conference that urged Harris to support a ceasefire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel, the vice president used her speech to emphasize her support for “Israel’s right to defend itself,” but added that “what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months has been devastating.”
“President Biden and I are working to end this war, so that Israel is safe, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,” Harris said.
The path to the nomination was short and unexpected for Harris, but in the month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, the vice president has managed to completely change the party’s outlook less than three months before the November election.
Harris campaigned on a message of unity, progress and joy, calling for a stronger middle class through economic reform and protection of reproductive freedom and civil liberties. Throughout the convention, the Democratic National Convention lineup — which included President Joe Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, a host of Democratic lawmakers and even Oprah and Stevie Wonder — championed Harris’s forward-looking vision for the nation.
While Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are generating enough enthusiasm among voters to get Democrats back on the offensive after a disastrous debate that ultimately forced Biden out of the race, the race between her and Trump remains incredibly close. In her speech, Harris, like many others who spoke at the Democratic National Convention this week, warned of the need for voters to stay engaged over the next few months and cautioned against overconfidence.
Harris noted that the electoral and prosecutorial battles of her career “were not easy,” and “the elections that put me in those positions were not easy.”
“We have been underestimated at nearly every turn, but we have never given up, because the future is always worth fighting for. And that is the fight we are fighting now. A fight for the future of America. My fellow Americans, this is not only the most important election in our lifetime, it is one of the most important elections in the life of our nation,” she said.
The Democratic National Convention’s conclusion marks the start of the race for the White House in earnest, with Harris and Walls now officially at the top of the ticket. The battle has already taken on a different tone than the one Biden waged against Trump, with the party abandoning its “when they go down, we go up” approach in favor of taking on Republicans at their own game. Walls regularly calls Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance “freaks,” Harris’s campaign has been quick to go after the Republican ticket online, and several speakers at the Democratic National Convention have ridiculed Trump directly—describing the former president not as a tyrannical force bent on dismantling democracy but as a tired, pathetic buffoon looking to enrich himself.
Trump has noticed. “Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night taking little jabs? He was taking little jabs at your president and so was Michelle,” he said Wednesday after Obama took several jabs at Trump Tuesday night. “You know, they always say, ‘Sir, please stick to politics, don’t get personal,’ but they talk about personal stuff all night long, these people.”
The former president has been attacking Harris all week, referring to her as “comrade” while insisting that she would turn America into a communist state. It’s unclear whether attacking Harris as a far-leftist and predicting the end of the world if she wins the election will resonate with voters, but what is true now that it wasn’t six weeks ago is that Trump is losing ground in the polls and is on the defensive.
Harris pushed back forcefully against Trump and Republican attacks Thursday night. “My mother learned another lesson she used to teach,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. Show them who you are.”
“America, let’s show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for,” she added. “Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, justice, and endless possibilities.”
