CHICAGO — Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president to end an upbeat convention Thursday, saying the nation has an opportunity in the November election to push past bitterness and cynicism and “chart and a new way forward.”
“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,” the vice president told Democrats at the packed United Center.
Harris — and many speakers during the four-day convention — seemed determined to present a sunny view of the future and contrast that with warnings by Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign that the nation is in “chaos.”
Delegates waved American flags and “KAMALA” banners Thursday and periodically chanted “USA, USA” and a Harris campaign theme: “We’re not going back.”
Among the 15 or so people in the vice president’s box was Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a candidate for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat left open by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin.
Red, white and blue balloons rained down on Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff when the speech ended. As the song “Freedom” played, the couple was joined on the stage by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen.
Harris, 59, whose campaign slogan is “For the People,” was seeking to distinguish herself from President Joe Biden, 81, who withdrew from the race in July amid questions about his age.
Harris has emphasized most of the same issues — such as abortion rights and safeguarding democratic principles — that Biden did. But the convention, in its choice of speakers and performers, was designed to attract young voters whose support, polls showed, had been slipping when Biden was running.
DNC live coverage: Kamala Harris invites voters to chart a ‘new way forward’
Harris was a California senator and, before that, the state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney. Since vice presidents receive only modest media coverage, her address was essentially an introduction for many Americans.
She told of being shaped by her late mother, Shyamala Harris, who raised her after coming to California from India.
She described living in northern California’s East Bay in “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.”
“The middle class is where I come from,” said Harris, whose speech emphasized uplifting people of modest means.
She said Trump “doesn’t fight for the middle class” but rather for his “billionaire friends.”
Her criticism of Trump was cast as a warning.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said.” But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider the power he will have — especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution.”
She referenced the war in Gaza, saying she and Biden “are working around the clock. Because now is the time to get a hostage deal and ceasefire done.”
On abortion in particular, she said Trump would further threaten abortion rights, which have been eroded since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.