CHICAGO – Kamala Devi Harris stepped into the national spotlight Thursday as part of her surprise presidential bid by introducing herself as someone who is “no stranger to unusual journeys.”
The vice president, a child of immigrants, is the first black and South Asian woman to be nominated by a major party.
Harris presented the 2024 election as an opportunity for voters fed up with Republican candidate Donald Trump to have a chance to take action in November.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to put the bitterness, cynicism and divisive struggles of the past behind us,” she said.
“An opportunity to forge a new path forward. Not as members of a party or faction, but as Americans.”
Harris attacked Trump in much of her speech, saying the former president tried to steal votes from Americans when he denied losing the 2020 election.
“Donald Trump is a very dubious man,” she said. “But the consequences of Donald Trump’s return to the White House are very serious.”
Fueled by the adrenaline rush Democrats received following President Joe Biden’s dramatic exit from the race, the 2024 Democratic National Convention will be all about showing the country who it is while reaffirming a progressive position on a range of issues.
The week was largely marked by sweeping statements from the 59-year-old Democrat from California about how he sees the country. For example, he called for an “economy of opportunity.”
How she intends to put these ideas into practice is still an open question. Republican critics accused Harris’ campaign team of being too hesitant in politics and tried to portray her as too liberal for the country.
But Democrats and their allies have not paid much attention to those claims this week, emphasizing instead vision and character and a growing sense of urgency in a race that most recognize will be decided by razor-thin margins.
Here are the key moments from the final day of the DNC convention.
Harris reintroduces herself to uncertain Americans
Harris used her prime-time speech to speak at length about her mother, Shyamala Harris, who was 19 when she came to the United States from India “with the unwavering dream of becoming the scientist who would cure breast cancer.”
The vice president said she was raised largely by her mother, who rented a house in a working-class neighborhood in California’s East Bay. She described it as “a beautiful working-class neighborhood with firefighters, nurses and construction workers who all took pride in tending their lawns.”
Many Americans are forming their first impressions of Harris after she replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee when he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race last month.
“I will be a president who unites us behind our highest goals, a president who leads and listens, who is realistic and practical, who has common sense and who always fights for the American people,” Harris said.
“From the courthouse to the White House, this was my life’s work.”
Her campaign used Harris’ story to reinforce key themes, such as portraying the vice president, a former prosecutor, as a protector. Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, her goddaughter and another relative also took the stage to tell the audience about the Kamala they know.
Before Harris took the stage, two of Harris’ young nieces joined actress Kerry Washington onstage to explain to the crowd how to pronounce “Kamala.” Trump and others have repeatedly mispronounced the vice president’s first name and misspelled it in social media posts, apparently on purpose.
In a particularly personal account expressing her sense of justice, Harris told the story of her best friend Wanda, who asked Harris what was wrong when she noticed she was sad at school.
Wanda told her that she was sexually abused by her stepfather.
“And I immediately told her that she had to stay with us. And that’s what she did,” Harris said. “That’s one of the reasons I became a prosecutor. To protect people like Wanda.”
Democrats want to combat gun violence and mass shootings
The Harris campaign may have little to say about policy issues on its website, but on Thursday night, speaker after speaker highlighted issues important to the progressive base under the guise of freedom.
The most important problem is the mass shootings that have plagued the country for decades without Congress doing much to address them.
Former Representative Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, spoke in favor of stricter rules while her husband, Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), was on stage. The shooting left six people dead and Giffords, who was shot in the head, seriously injured.
“A terrible, terrible day. I almost died,” she said.
Other speakers, such as Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, who lost her son to gun violence in 2012, took the stage and recounted personal tragedies resulting from notorious massacres.
Kim Rubio spoke about the last time she saw her daughter Lexi. The 10-year-old was among the 21 people killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, two years ago. The shooting left 19 students and two teachers dead and 17 others injured.
Abbey Clements, a former second-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, in 2012.
“You should still be here,” she said.
No Palestinian speakers on the congress stage
All week, the congress was overshadowed by demands and direct actions by protesters demanding an end to Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
But a new crisis arose after the campaign rejected a request from an undecided group of delegates to allow a Palestinian American to speak on stage.
Hours before the vice president took the stage, for example, the organization Muslim Women for Harris-Walz announced its dissolution due to the rejection, and many continued a sit-in demonstration outside the arena until Thursday evening.
According to online footage, the unattached delegates attempted to enter the convention hall arm in arm, but were reportedly prevented from returning to their seats.
Many progressive activists and politicians expressed support for giving voice to a Palestinian voice that draws attention to the humanitarian crisis, while others warned that shutting out such a perspective could backfire politically amid ongoing demonstrations against the Biden administration and pressure on Harris.
“The (Democratic) Party is making a tragic mistake in 2024 by continuing this erasure of Palestinian history (and) voice,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Harris, however, addressed the ongoing Middle East war, saying she and Biden were working on a peace agreement “to end the suffering in Gaza.”
She received the biggest applause on Thursday when she spoke out in favor of Israel’s right to self-defense, but also when she condemned the “devastating” violence faced by Palestinians.
“Now is the time to negotiate a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” Harris said.
Harris and the Democrats want to take away the Republicans’ patriotism
The Democrats used their convention on Thursday to present themselves as a patriotic party. They turned to war veterans and national security officials to portray Trump as a threat to the country and as someone who does not respect veterans.
At the same time, they tried to portray Harris as a leader feared and respected by foreign adversaries.
“She knows a tyrant when she sees one – and our allies know a leader when they see one,” said Leon Panetta, a former defense secretary and CIA director who served under several presidents.
The sharpest attack came from Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who served on the House committee that investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“I want to let the Republican Party in on a little secret,” he said. “The Democrats are just as patriotic as we are. They love this country just as much as we do. And they are just as zealous about defending American values at home and abroad as we conservatives always have been.”
Kinzinger said he was voting for Harris to “put our country first” – a message the Harris campaign is using to try to win over Republican and independent voters who have turned away from Trump.
DNC delegates waved American flags and chanted “USA!” Democratic congressmen with military service took the stage.
The Republicans have long portrayed themselves as a party of patriotism.
But Democrats believe they can use Trump’s past comments about veterans, his friendly remarks about dictators and his role in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to challenge that narrative.
“Politicians like Donald Trump are not on our side,” said Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a military veteran and Democratic candidate for the Senate in his state. “They call patriots like Senator McCain ‘losers.’ John McCain was an American hero. Show some respect.”
US Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), a former astronaut and US Navy captain, said at the convention: “The world is literally laughing at Trump, but folks, this is not funny. When he was president, the world laughed at us. The threats we face are too serious.”
Explosion in Central Park 5: Trump demanded our execution
If there is one group that has a reason to oppose Trump, it is the five black and Latino men from New York who, as teenagers, were wrongly accused of attacking a white jogger in 1989.
Trump bought an infamous full-page ad calling for her execution.
Along with Reverend Al Sharpton, the group originally known as the Central Park Five (and now prefers to call itself the Exonerated Five) attacked the former president, saying Trump wanted to kill them for a crime they did not commit.
“This man believes hate is the driving force of America. That is not the case,” said Yusef Salaam, one of the men who is now a member of the New York City Council.
“We have the constitutional right to vote. In fact, it’s a human right, so let’s use it. I want you to walk with us. I want you to march with us. I want you to vote with us.”
