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.
The singer Pink was 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. If elected, she would be the first female U.
S. president. She was to 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. "We're all here tonight for one beautiful, simple, reason: We love this country," Walz said as thousands of delegates hoisted vertical placards reading "Coach Walz" in red, white and blue. Many Americans never heard of Walz until Harris made him her running mate, and the speech was an opportunity to introduce himself.
He leaned into his experiences as a football coach, his time in the National Guard and his recounting of his family's fertility struggles — including parts of his biography that Republicans have questioned in the days since Harris picked him. While it's unclear if the speech will attract new voters, he further charmed Democratic supporters with his background and helped to balance Harris' coastal roots as a cultural representative of Midwestern states whose voters she needs this fall. Despite Harris' prominence as vice president, she spent four years in Biden's shadow, leaving some Americans unclear on her personal history and her political vision for the country.
Republicans raced to fill in the gaps, accusing Harris of being a "communist" and "dangerously liberal." Trump also targeted her race, while his running mate JD Vance describes her as a "chameleon." Harris' team emphasizes 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 the primaries, but Biden chose her as his running mate, catapulting her to the national stage. Though 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." "We know what we're dealing with in this moment. And we must remember — as the generations of Americans before us who led the fight for freedom — the baton is now in our hands.
" Kamala Harris, Democratic vice presidential nominee.
