Kamala Harris powerfully introduced herself to America as the official Democratic Presidential nominee laying out her vision for the States saying “Let us write the next great chapter in the greatest story ever told.”
As the former Californian senator officially accepted her party’s ticket for the White House, she launched an excoriating attack on her Republican rival, Donald Trump. The final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was dedicated to highlighting Harris’s policies, which she has been criticised for not stating earlier.
Speakers took to the stage one by one to discuss gun control, national security, climate change, foreign policy, environmental justice, women’s rights and race before the new leader powerfully set out her vision. Harris told delegates at a packed United Centre that if she is voted into the White House on November 5, she will be President for all Americans.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, she said. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans. 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. I will be a President who unites us around our highest aspirations. A President who leads — and listens. Who is realistic, practical. And has common sense. And always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.”
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As soon as she began speaking, Trump began “live truthing” her address. However he appeared to be stuck on the Bidens, bizarrely posting about the president’s. “WHERE’S HUNTER?” Trump wrote. Her speech then took a hard pivot from universal language of fairness and patriotism to a searing list of the threats posed by Trump.
Harris went on to warn what a second term of her political nemesis would look like. “We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in ‘Project 2025.’ … In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. 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 that he would be immune from criminal prosecution," she said.
"Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.”
Project 2025 is a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation that aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape America’s government and consolidate executive power if Trump wins the election. She systematically took Trump to task over the overturning of Roe V Wade that gave women abortion access, which he has taken credit for.
The Vice President also directly addressed what strategists of both parties see as a top vulnerability. - the southern border. She blamed Trump for scuttling the bipartisan congressional border bill and said she would sign it if president. Harris also said she would back Ukraine against Russia, always support Israel to be able to defend itself and work to end the suffering in Gaza. Her campaign is barely three weeks old, but her slogan, “We are not going back,” has become universally recognisable among voters.
Before she took to the stage, relatives of gun violence victims, police, and many with military service appeared on stage to outline what they said Harris would bring to the White House. Shooting survivor and former Representative Gabby Giffords told how, as President, she would renew her plans for tighter gun control. “Kamala can beat the gun lobby and can beat gun trafficking,” she said.
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“They should still be here,” Newtown, Connecticut, teacher Abbey Clements said of the students and staff killed at her Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012. Kim Rubio of Uvalde, Texas, recalled the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, during which her daughter was killed. Later, Senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly, who is married to Gifford, slammed Trump on foreign policy, including his reversal of the United States’ commitment to NATO.
“Donald Trump skipped his intelligence briefings. He was too busy sucking up to dictators and dreaming of becoming one himself,” Kelly said. He told the audience that Harris knows that “standing with our allies means standing up for Americans. The world laughs at Trump, literally,” Kelly said. "But folks, it is not funny. When he was President, that meant the world was laughing at us. The threats we face are too serious.”
He argued that America’s standing in the world and the global alliances that took decades to build are at stake. Kelly, who represents the critical battleground state of Arizona, said “the choice isn’t even close” between Harris and Trump but acknowledged that in states like his, the race could be tight. One of the most striking moments came when highlighting how it is hoped she will repair a divided America.
Four of the Central Park Five, who were found guilty of rape, leading Donald Trump to take out full-page ads demanding they be executed, only for them to be later proven innocent, took to the stage. They included Dr Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Raymond Santana and Kevin Richardson - all of whom are black. Salaam, who is now a member of the New York City Council, criticised Trump, saying the former President wanted the five to be “unalive, he wanted us dead.”
Attacking the businessman for maintaining that stance despite scientific evidence, he added that Trump has “never changed, and he never will. That man thinks that hate is the animating force in America. It is not,” Salaam said, issuing a call to action for people to vote for Kamala.
Before they spoke, civil rights leader Al Sharpton addressed delegates on behalf of his organisation, the National Action Network, at the Democratic National Convention. He compared Trump and Harris’ records.
“On one side of this race is Donald Trump, a fellow New Yorker I’ve known for 40 years,” he said. "Only once, once, in that time did he take a position on racial issues. He spent a fortune on full-page ads calling for the execution of five innocent teenagers. It was there that I saw Trump loved to fan racial flames. On the other side is a woman that I’ve walked with in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the 59th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday.’”