‘IT’S ABOUT US’: KAMALA HARRIS ACCEPTS NOMINATION THAT JUST A MONTH AGO WAS UNTHINKABLE
Vice president delivers wide-ranging speech on the last night of the DNC in Chicago
Vice President Kamala Harris capped an historic political upheaval unprecedented in modern times when she accepted a Democratic nomination for president that seemed destined to go to her boss, President Biden.
Harris, who with running mate Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, has thoroughly electrified and transformed a party and an election that just weeks ago seemed in crisis following Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in late June.
But Harris — who would be the first Black woman elected president of the United States — has completely remade a race that Trump once seemed destined to win, while inviting comparisons to former president Barack Obama’s groundbreaking 2008 campaign.
Harris gave a speech Thursday evening, on the final night of a raucous Democratic National Convention in Chicago that all at once served to introduce herself to the American people while drawing sharp contrasts with Trump and the chaos and authoritarianism he would bring if elected in November.
She paid tribute to her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical researcher and civil rights activist who taught her about family.
“She raised us to be proud, strong Black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage,” Harris said. “She taught us to put family first—the family you're born into and the family you choose.
“Family, is my husband Doug, who I met on a blind date set up by my best friend. Family is our beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who as you just heard, call me ‘Momala,’” she added. “Family is my sister. Family is my best friend, my nieces and my godchildren. Family is my uncles, my aunts—my chitthis.”
Chittis is the Tamil word for “aunts.”
“Family is Mrs. Shelton—my second mother who lived two doors down and helped raise me. Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha...our Divine 9...and my [historically Black college and university] brothers and sisters. Family is the friends I turned to when my mother—the most important person in my life—passed away from cancer.”
The vice president also sketched the world she wants to help create if elected president.
“A country where we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite worth, deserving of compassion, dignity and respect,” she said. “A country where we look out for one another, where we rise and fall as one, where we face our challenges, and celebrate our triumphs—together.
“Today... that country feels distant,” Harris added, pinning the blame squarely on Trump and his divisive brand of leadership.
“We're at an inflection point,” she said. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone.
“It's a lot. And here's the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more.
“We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring all of us together—Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indigenous—to achieve the future we collectively want,” she added.
And Harris acknowledged the new excitement that her campaign is generating.
“It's about us. People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote,” she said. “And we've shown that, when we vote, we expand access to health care, expand access to the ballot box, and ensure that more working families can make a decent living.”
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