Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a historic acceptance speech at the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention. Harris is the first woman, the first Black woman, and the first Southeast Asian woman to be nominated for President of the United States.
Harris entered the stage to chants of “USA, USA, USA” and told the crowd, “We’ve got to get to some business” and thanked attendees profusely for their cheers. She then thanked her “most incredible husband” Doug Emhoff. The pair celebrated their wedding anniversary Thursday.
“To our President Joe Biden, when I think about the path that we have traveled together, Joe, I am filled with gratitude,” she said. “Your record is extraordinary as history will show, and your character is inspiring.”
“And to Coach Tim Walz, you are going to be an incredible Vice President,” she continued.
“So, America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was unexpected, but I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” Harris added as she spoke about her parents, Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald J. Harris, and their moves across the country. After her parents split up, Harris said, her mother raised herself and her sister in “the flats, a beautiful, working class neighborhood … all who tended their lawns with pride.”
“My mother was a brilliant, five foot tall brown woman with an accent,” she said. “As the eldest child, I saw how the world would sometimes treat her. But my mother never lost her cool … she taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it. Do something about it.”
“And she also taught us, never do anything half-assed,” Harris laughed, “and that is a direct quote.”
Her parents met at a civil rights gathering, Harris continued, and instilled those values in her. “At a young age, I decided I wanted to do that work, I wanted to be a lawyer. When it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue, I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life.”
Harris shared a story about her high school best friend, Wanda, who was often “sad at school” and didn’t always want to go home. Wanda was being sexually abused by her stepfather, which prompted Harris to tell her friend to come live at her own home. Harris became a prosecutor, she continued, to protect people like her friend because “everyone has a right to safety, to dignity, and to justice.”
“To be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people,” Harris added. “And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother, and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be President of the United States of America,” Harris concluded to cheers and applause.
“And with this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and devisive battles of the past — a chance to chart a new way forward,” she continued. “Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
“I promise to be a president for all Americans,” Harris insisted. “You can always trust me to put country above party and self.”
“This is personal for me,” she continued. “The middle class is where I come from.”
“That’s why we will create what I call an opportunity economy — an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and the chance to succeed.”
Trump, she said, “doesn’t actually fight for the middle class — instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends.” The GOP nominee also plans to “enact what in effect is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that will raise prices on middle class families to almost $4,000 a year.” The Harris administration will pass its own tax cut, she insisted.
The United States cannot be “truly prosperous” she said, unless Americans can “make their own decisions, about their own lives, especially about matters of heart and home.” Harris then spoke about Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and the decisions that have resulted. “Over the past two years I’ve traveled the country and women have told me their stories … stories of women miscarrying in a parking lot, developing sepsis, losing the ability to ever again have children, all because doctors are afraid they may go to jail for caring for their patients.”
“As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress,” Harris said. “And get this: he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.”
“Simply put, they are out of their minds.”
“One might ask, why is it that they don’t trust women?” Harris continued. “Well, we trust women … and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.”
Harris also spoke about additional freedoms that are under duress: marriage equality, environmental freedoms, and more. The election will afford the opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, she added.
Harris also promised to bring back a bipartisan border support deal that Trump axed and to sign it into law. “I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system,” she said. “We can create an earned path to citizenship and secure our border.”
Harris addressed international security at length and spoke about her experiences as Vice President. She promised to “stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.”
“With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock,” she continued, “because now is a time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done. And let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.”
“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost,” she said. “Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, and freedom to self determination.”
“So fellow Americans, I love our country with all my heart,” Harris said. “Everywhere I go, in everyone I meet, I see a nation that is ready to move forward. Ready for the next step in the incredible journey that is America. I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world.”
“That here, in this country, anything is possible,” she said. “That nothing is out of reach.”
“An America where we care about one another, look out for one another … and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us,” Harris continued.
Harris then repeated another lesson from her mother: “Never let anyone tell you who you are — you show them who you are.”
It’s time to “fight for this country that we love, to fight for the ideals that we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American.”
“So let’s get out there, let’s fight for it, let’s get out there, let’s vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told. Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.”
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