CHICAGO—Vice President Kamala Harris delivered the biggest speech of her political career at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, accepting the party’s nomination and introducing herself to the nation as her abbreviated 2024 campaign enters the final stretch.
Harris took the stage 32 days after the sudden exit from the race of President Joe Biden, who had faced unrelenting pressure within his party to abandon the campaign as he lagged behind former President Donald Trump in battleground states. Biden called Harris on the eve of her speech to wish her luck.
The speech Harris delivered before an enthusiastic audience at the United Center highlighted her middle-class roots, framed the contest between herself and Trump as a battle for the future of the country, and argued that the Democratic agenda aligns with the banner of patriotism, which is more commonly seen as a defining characteristic of the Republican Party.
The sea change followed on the heels of the Republican National Convention, where Trump basked in the national spotlight after his defiant, fist-pumping emergence from an assassination attempt at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
That spotlight shifted quickly to Harris when Biden tagged her into the race, adding yet another twist to an election season that had already seen the indictment and conviction of the former president and the indictment and conviction of the current president’s son.
Despite Harris’s rapid rise in the polls, Democratic Party strategists and leaders, including former President Barack Obama, warn of a tight race ahead. Another twist will likely come the day after the gavel closes the DNC convention. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy is expected to end his campaign, endorse Trump, and swing a portion of his 5 percent support toward the Republican candidate, further tightening an extremely close race.
In broad strokes, Harris painted hers as the path forward for all Americans.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward, not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans,” Harris said.
“I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”
Harris introduced herself to voters who may know her by name but are unfamiliar with her background. She spoke of her middle-class upbringing and years as a prosecutor and attorney general. The personal introduction was a conscious decision by the campaign, according to the Harris campaign director, Jen O’Malley Dillon
“This is a pretty big part of the whole campaign, this phase right now,” O’Malley Dillon told reporters on Aug. 21. “We all know who the vice president is, and the American people know what they like. But they don’t know her that well, and they don’t know her story.”
Harris’s rise to the top of the Democratic ticket is a turnabout compared to her lackluster performance in the 2020 Democratic primary, in which she trailed then-candidate Joe Biden and at least six other candidates before dropping out of the race. Biden picked Harris to serve as the running mate, and the pair went on to defeat Trump in the tumultuous 2020 election. Nearly four years later, Harris is using the vice presidency as the launching point for her presidential bid, much like Biden did after serving under President Barack Obama.
After recounting her early life, Harris zoomed in on Trump, centering on Project 2025, an attack theme repeated throughout the four-day convention. Trump has definitively distanced his campaign from Project 2025, a set of policies drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Even so, Democrats have seized on the opportunity to tie the policies to Trump, illustrating the point with oversized props representing the booklet and quoting from its pages.
“We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025,” Harris said. “But America, we are not going back.”
On abortion, Harris attributed proposals from Project 2025 to Trump, saying he intends to create a national abortion ban regardless of the wishes of Congress. Trump has said regulating abortion should be left to the states.
“Simply put, they are out of their minds,” Harris said.
Trump responded to the speech on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Why didn’t she do something about the things of which she complains?” Trump asked in one post, referring to her role in the Biden administration.
In another post, Trump wrote, “Kamala’s biography won’t lower prices at the Grocery Store, or at the [gas] Pump!”
Harris touched on several more policy areas before closing her speech. On the border crisis, she blamed Trump for sinking a recent bipartisan border bill in Congress, promising to revive the bill and sign it.
For his part, Trump, during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in southern Arizona on Aug. 22, criticized Harris’s immigration policies, saying she was to blame for the situation at the border since Biden had put her in charge of addressing the root causes of migration.
On foreign policy, Harris vowed support for Israel and lamented the devastation in Gaza. She mentioned China in the context of future tech competition but made no mention of the Chinese Communist Party, which the U.S. military and intelligence community consider the top threat to the United States.
Harris closed her address with an impassioned appeal to voters of all political persuasions to embrace her vision for the future.
“Fellow Americans, I love our country with all my heart. Everywhere I go—in everyone I meet—I see a nation ready to move forward. Ready for the next step, in the incredible journey that is America.
“I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation. That inspired the world. That here, in this country, anything is possible. Nothing is out of reach.”
