An attendee sits next to a placard with an image of U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ahead of the start of Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Wurm
CHICAGO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will tell voters they have a chance to chart a “new way forward” as Americans this November, as she looks to introduce herself to voters and prosecute her case against Republican Donald Trump Thursday night as she accepts her party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
Harris’ address in Chicago caps a whirlwind eight weeks in American politics and manifests the stunning reversal of Democratic fortunes just 75 days until Election Day. Party leaders, who had publicly despaired over President Joe Biden’s candidacy after his disastrous debate against Trump, were jubilant both at the historic nature of Harris’ candidacy and their buoyed hopes for this November.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past,” Harris will say, according to excerpts released by her campaign. “A chance to chart a New Way Forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
Harris will be the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s presidential nomination, and if elected, she would be the first female U.S. president. And when she takes the stage, she will be looking out across a sea of female delegates and Democratic supporters wearing white — the color of women’s suffrage — the movement that culminated with American women securing the right to vote in 1920.
A festive mood filled the United Center before Harris appeared onstage, with a packed audience including running mate Tim Walz dancing and singing along to a mix of pop and classic rock. Two of Harris’ young grandnieces were brought onstage by actress Kerry Washington to remind the convention how to correctly pronounce her first name. At the girls’ direction, one side of the arena shouted “comma” and the other “la.”
Just a month after Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her to replace him atop the Democratic ticket, Harris will look to make the most of her chance to define herself to voters on her own terms before an audience of millions.
Harris will share her background rising from a middle-class family to protect others as a prosecutor, contrast her “optimistic” vision with Trump’s “dark” agenda and evoke a sense of patriotism, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive speech preparations.
Harris spoke briefly to the convention on Monday, when she thanked Biden and celebrated his record as president, and again on Tuesday, when the beginning of her rally in Milwaukee was streamed into the convention hall after Democrats reaffirmed their nomination of her with a state-by-state roll call.
Among others who will speak before Harris on Thursday were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, civil rights leader Al Sharpton and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Sharpton highlighted the historic nature of Harris’ nomination, noting that 52 years ago, he was a youth director for former Rep. Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 Democratic primary bid for the White House. Chisholm, who was Black, died in 2005, but Sharpton drew cheers when he declared, “I know she’s watching us tonight as a Black woman stands up to accept the nomination for president of the United States.”
Sharpton also introduced the now-exonerated members of the Central Park Five — the Black teenagers who were wrongly convicted of rape in New York City in 1989. Trump took out full-page newspaper ads at the time calling for five to receive the death penalty — and even today sidesteps calls to apologize.
Former Reps. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has bucked his party to oppose Trump, and Gabby Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who was nearly killed in a mass shooting in 2011, are also scheduled to speak. The singer Pink is slated to perform.
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, will be the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s presidential nomination. She’ll speak a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her choice for running mate, thanked the packed Chicago arena for ” bringing the joy ” to the election.
Despite Harris’ prominence as vice president, she’s spent four years in Biden’s shadow, leaving some Americans unclear on her personal history and her political vision for the country.
Harris will talk about her mother being the one who primarily raised her, and the family renting a small apartment in San Francisco’s East Bay. She will also detail a key part of her political origin story, when Wanda, her best friend from high school, confided in her that she was being abused by her stepfather and came to live with Harris.
“That is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor. To protect people like Wanda,” Harris plans to say.
Republicans, meanwhile, have raced to define Harris, accusing her of being a “communist” and “dangerously liberal.” Trump has also targeted her race, while his running mate JD Vance describes her as a “chameleon.”
Harris’ team has emphasized her law enforcement background, including her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. She was later elected to the U.S. Senate and sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
Her campaign imploded that year before a single primary vote was cast, but Biden chose her as his running mate, catapulting her to the national stage.
Although Harris initially struggled as vice president, her reputation grew when she became the administration’s leading advocate for abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Democrats harnessed anger over the decision to stem their losses in the last midterm elections.
When Biden stumbled in his debate with Trump in June, Harris defended him until he decided to drop out of the race. With the help of his endorsement, she swiftly unified the Democratic Party behind her candidacy, resetting a presidential race that Trump had appeared on track to win.
“We know what we’re dealing with in this moment,” Harris said this week in Milwaukee. “And we must remember — as the generations of Americans before us who led the fight for freedom — the baton is now in our hands.”
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in Washington and JJ Cooper in Phoenix contributed.
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