Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants who is seeking to become the country’s first black and South Asian president, told the nation on Thursday, “I come from a middle-class background” and promised to be a passionate advocate for human rights as president.
“I will be a president who unites us around our highest goals,” she told a crowd that had waited all week to applaud and celebrate their newly crowned hero.
Harris vowed to be a president “who leads – and listens. Who is realistic. Who is practical. And who has common sense.”
The Vice President accepted the Democratic nomination for President with a speech that was at times stirring, at times somber, and at times deeply personal and at times sharply political.
“On behalf of all whose history could only be written about the greatest nation in the world, I accept your nomination,” she said to loud cheers as vertical “Kamala” signs bobbed up and down.
In a speech to a country that still does not fully know her history, Harris described her origins.
“America, the path that has brought me here in recent weeks was undoubtedly unexpected. But unusual journeys are no stranger to me,” she said.
“My mother, Shyamala Harris, had one herself. I miss her every day – and especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight and smiling.”
She turned to politics, promising to cut taxes for the middle class, lower consumer prices and fight hard for abortion rights, presenting a stark contrast to Republican candidate Donald Trump.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an untrustworthy man. But the consequences of Donald Trump returning to the White House are extremely serious,” Harris said.
“Think not only of the chaos and disasters during his time in office, but also of the magnitude of events since his defeat in the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes,” she said.
She recalled the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. “He fanned the flames,” Harris said, then noted that he was convicted in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
If elected, Harris said, he would “serve the only client he’s ever had: himself.”
Roots in the middle class
Harris, 59, was born in Oakland. She is the daughter of Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian immigrant who was a cancer researcher, and Donald Harris, an economics professor at Stanford University who came to the U.S. from Jamaica.
“My mother was 19 when she traveled around the world alone. She traveled from India to California with the unwavering dream of becoming the scientist who would cure breast cancer,” Harris said.
She recalled her childhood, when at home there was initially “laughter and music … in the park my mother would say, ‘Stay close.’ My father would smile and say, ‘Run, Kamala.'”
Her father, she said, taught her to be fearless, but her parents divorced and her mother raised her and her sister, renting a small apartment in the East Bay.
“In the Bay, you either live in the mountains or in the flatlands. We lived in the flatlands – a beautiful working-class neighborhood with firefighters, nurses and construction workers who all took pride in maintaining their lawns,” Harris recalled.
There was a warm, caring community there. “A family that loved us, believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything,” she said.
Her mother “never lost her composure. She was tough, brave, a pioneer in the fight for women’s health… She taught us never to complain about injustice, but to do something about it.”
She talked about the moment she became interested in a career as a lawyer and mentioned the moment she learned that her best friend Wanda was being sexually abused by her stepfather.
“I immediately told her she had to stay with us. And she did,” Harris said. “That’s one of the reasons I became a prosecutor: to protect people like Wanda, because I believe everyone has a right to dignity, safety and justice.”
Harris’ vision
After introducing herself, Harris’ speech focused on her vision – and some tough political statements.
She served as California’s attorney general and then as a U.S. senator and won the vice presidency on Biden’s ticket in 2020.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to leave behind the bitterness, cynicism and divisive struggles of the past. A chance to forge a new path forward,” she said, perhaps attempting to coin a phrase that would take its place alongside other Democratic plans like the New Deal and the Great Society.
Harris described herself as a lifelong fighter for consumers and the middle class. As attorney general, she said, she fought against big banks. She spoke about the fight against cartels that traffic in guns and drugs.
“These struggles were not easy, nor were the elections that brought me to these offices. We were practically always underestimated, but we never gave up,” she said.
Harris promised to address the needs of the middle class, saying building the middle class would be “a critical goal of my presidency. And I tell you, this is a personal issue for me. I come from a middle class background.”
She insisted that there would be “no going back” to Trump’s time as the crowd chanted the phrase over and over again.
She vowed to reduce the cost of health care, food and other essential goods, “and we will end America’s housing crisis.”
Trump, on the other hand, “isn’t really fighting for the middle class.” He will give billionaires another round of tax breaks, she said.
Trump will fight for abortion rights, she said. “Why don’t they trust women? Well, we trust women,” Harris said.
Too many freedoms are at risk, she said. She cited, among others, the right to clean air and clean water, the right to love whoever you want and the freedom of choice.
She vowed to pursue a vigorous foreign policy and to stand by Ukraine in its war against Russia. She stressed that it was time to negotiate a ceasefire and a hostage-taking agreement to end the war between Israel and Hamas while providing Israel with strong support.
“What has happened in Gaza over the last 10 months is devastating,” she said. “The scale of the suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war so that Israel is safe … and the Palestinian people can recognize their right to dignity and security.”
This sentence received the loudest applause of the evening.
Harris then got grandiose. “Wherever I go – in everyone I meet – I see a nation ready to move forward. Ready for the next step in the incredible journey that is America.”
She described a country where “unity is strength.”
“America, let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for,” she concluded. “Infinite possibilities.”
