Kamala Harris tells Democrats: ‘I see a nation that is ready to move forward’

Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination for President Thursday night (Aug. 22), while laying out a stark contrast between herself and her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump.

In accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris made history as the first woman of color to lead her party for President.

“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be the President of the United States of America,” Harris said.

Her convention speech was a combination of biography, experience, policy positions, and contrasts with her general election opponent.

Harris talked about her family growing up in a middle-class neighborhood in Oakland, California. Her parents divorced when she was in grade school and her mother, of Indian descent, raised Harris and her sister, who introduced her earlier in the evening. Her father was Jamaican.

Harris shared two sayings that her mother instilled in her. First, she said her mother encouraged her to get involved when she witnessed injustice.

“My mother taught me to do something about it,” she said.

Her parents met at a civil rights gathering and frequently took her to rallies and meetings when she was young. The pursuit of justice encouraged her to consider a career as a lawyer. When her best friend in high school confided to her that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather, Harris had her move in with her family and it steered her to a career as a prosecutor, her first elected office. She was later elected Attorney General and U.S. Senator in California.

“In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us, is a harm against all of us,” she said. “No one should be made to fight alone. We are all in this together.”

Harris said she used to announce in the courtroom that she was “Kamala Harris, for the people.”

“To be clear, my whole career I’ve only had one client – the people,” she told the convention crowd.

Harris used a significant portion of her primetime speech to call out Trump by name and draw positions of difference. She said “we are not going back” on calls to cut Social Security, kill the Affordable Care Act, and eliminate the Department of Education and its programs, such as Head Start and pre-school funding.

“We are charting a new way forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class,” Harris said, laying out a call for a middle-class tax cut without providing details. Trump has said he will resurrect tariffs against foreign countries, a move Harris said would raise taxes on middle class families.

Harris criticized Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and she condemned his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court that led to the overturning Roe v. Wade and the right for women to have an abortion.

The vice president said she would sign a bipartisan border security bill that she accused Trump of killing through Republican supporters in Congress. “I will sign it into law,” she said.

In foreign policy, Harris laid out her experience working with foreign leaders and maintaining national security. She said as commander-in-chief, she would “care for our troops and their families and honor their service and sacrifice,” another shot at Trump who has questioned the military service of war heroes like former Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and the sacrifice of Gold Star families.

She pledged to stand strong with Ukraine and NATO allies and said she and President Joe Biden were working tirelessly to free hostages and strike a cease fire deal in Gaza.

“I see a nation that is ready to move forward,” she said. “No one of us have to fail for all of us to succeed… in unity, there is strength.”

She closed her speech with another lesson learned from her mother.

“My mother used to say, ‘Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are,” she said. “Let’s write the next great chapter in the greatest story ever told.”