ELECTION 2024 CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to close out the Democratic National Convention late Thursday night and accept her party's historic presidential nomination. Harris was to lay out her vision for the country and prosecute her case against Republican Donald Trump, capping a whirlwind month that began when President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and endorsed her to replace him atop the Democratic ticket. Harris had three objectives for her speech, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity: 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.
Harris spoke briefly to the convention 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 on the schedule to 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. Former Reps. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who bucked his party to oppose Trump, and Gabby Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who was almost killed in a mass shooting in 2011, were also scheduled to speak.
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