Chicago — Vice President Kamala Harris wrapped up the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, accepting the party’s historic presidential nomination and seizing one of her few opportunities to speak to an audience of millions.
Harris is set to lay out her vision for the country and make her case against Republican Donald Trump, capping a tumultuous month that began after President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection bid and endorsed her as the Democratic nominee instead.
Harris has three goals for her speech, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive nature of the speech. She will share her background as a middle-class woman and a prosecutor who has protected others, and she will invoke patriotism by contrasting Trump’s “dark” agenda with her “optimistic” vision, the official said.
Harris spoke briefly at the convention on Monday, thanking Biden and congratulating him on his accomplishments as president, and again on Tuesday when crowds poured into the convention hall after her rally in Milwaukee after Democrats reaffirmed their nomination in a statewide roll call.
Others scheduled to speak before Harris on Thursday include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, civil rights leader Al Sharpton and American Federation of Teachers President Randy Weingarten. Singer Pink is also scheduled to perform.
The daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, Harris would be the first black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s presidential nomination. If elected, she would become the first female U.S. president. She will speak a day after her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, thanked Chicago’s stadium for “bringing joy” to the campaign.
“We are all gathered here tonight for one beautiful and simple reason: We love this country,” Walz said as thousands of delegates held up vertical signs that read “Coach Walz” in red, white and blue.
Many Americans had never heard of Waltz before Harris named him her running mate, and the speech was a chance to introduce himself. He talked about his experience as a football coach, his time in the National Guard, his family’s struggles with infertility — all parts of his biography that Republicans have questioned since Harris chose him.
While it’s unclear whether the speech will appeal to new voters, he did add to his appeal to Democratic voters with his background, and Harris’ coastal roots positioned him as a cultural representative of a Midwestern state that voters need this fall.
The governor’s 17-year-old son, Gus Waltz, openly wept throughout the speech, wiping tears away with a tissue as he watched from the front row of the convention hall, directly in front of the governor.
“That’s my dad,” he said through tears.
Despite her high profile as vice president, Harris has spent four years in Biden’s shadow, leaving some Americans unclear about her personal history and political vision for the country.
Republicans have raced to fill that gap, calling Harris a “communist” and “dangerously liberal.” Trump has also targeted her race, with his running mate J.D. Vance describing her as a “chameleon.”
Harris’s team highlighted her law enforcement background, including time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. She was later elected to the U.S. Senate and sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Her campaign collapsed that year without a single primary vote being cast, but she was thrust into the national spotlight when Biden chose her as his running mate.
Harris initially struggled as vice president, but her reputation grew after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, when she became the administration’s leading advocate for abortion rights. Democrats used the anger over the decision to stave off defeat in the last midterm elections.
When Biden stumbled in the June debate with Trump, Harris defended him until he decided to drop out of the race. Thanks to her support, she quickly unified the Democratic Party, resetting a presidential race that Trump seemed destined to win.
“We know what we’re dealing with,” Harris said this week in Milwaukee. “And we must remember that, like generations of Americans before us who led the fight for freedom, the baton is now in our hands.”
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Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed from Washington.
