CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris capped the star-studded Democratic National Convention on Thursday by vowing to unite Americans and usher in a “new way forward” — but offered little insight into her policy agenda that would achieve that. Instead, Harris, 59, formally accepted her party’s presidential nomination in a speech that focused on her “middle-class” background and painted former President Donald Trump as an “unserious man” whose election would have “extremely serious” consequences on American democracy. In the nearly 40-minute address, Harris leaned heavily on her childhood and her “unexpected” journey to the White House.
“America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” she said. “My mother Shyamala Harris had one of her own.
I miss her every day–especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight, and smiling,” she continued. “My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakeable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.
” The former California attorney general highlighted her upbringing in a “working-class” neighborhood in San Francisco‘s Bay Area. “It was mostly my mother who raised us. Before she could finally afford to buy a home, she rented a small apartment in the East Bay.
In the Bay, you either live in the hills or flatlands. We lived in the flats — a beautiful wo.