Vice President Kamala Harris used her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to present herself as a pragmatic leader who could unite all Americans behind a “new way forward,” painting her opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, as a dangerous and “unserious man” whose election would alter the foundation of American democracy.
In a nearly 40-minute speech, delivered to tens of thousands of supporters at the United Center arena in Chicago, she said that her candidacy was not the one her party was expecting as little as a handful of weeks ago. But she told the crowd that she was “no stranger to unlikely journeys,” describing herself as the daughter of an Indian scientist whose dreams of a new life in the United States became the catalyst for Ms. Harris’s legal and political career.
“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she said. “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.”
Ms. Harris’s nomination is barrier-breaking: She is the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to accept a major party’s nomination. If elected, she would be the first female president in the nation’s history.
Yet Ms. Harris did not try to sell her supporters on a presidency that would be wildly different from the one held for the past three and a half years by President Biden, who, as a candidate, fought against a leftward drift in his party during the 2020 presidential race and later pulled Ms. Harris onto the ticket. Mr. Biden, 81, also promised to be a uniter at a time when the country was deeply divided and reeling from the coronavirus pandemic. He, too, had long embraced a “middle out, bottom up” economic philosophy focused on protecting American technology advancements, curbing the rise of global competitors and retraining workers.
On Thursday, Ms. Harris promoted policies that would address housing affordability, ideas that amount to incremental change. But what is different now is not the policies — it is the candidate, a 59-year old woman who took the stage to rapturous applause and vowed that she would push her party forward.