Eight years after Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to win a major party nomination for president, Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday picked up the torch in Chicago, potentially putting her on her own historic path to finish the job.
In accepting the Democratic nomination at the United Center, Harris could become the first woman and the first Asian American to ascend to the Oval Office.
Harris framed the November election as “a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past. A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.
“On behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race gender, or the language your grandma speaks, on behalf of my mother … on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another,” Harris said. “On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination.”
The former California senator and attorney general noted the unprecedented nature of taking President Joe Biden’s place atop the ticket four months ahead of the election — “but I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” she said.
That was encapsulated in her middle-class upbringing under her immigrant mother, Shyamala Harris, the nominee said to a jam-packed United Center to close out the Democratic National Convention.
"My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer,” Harris said.
"Before she could finally afford to buy a home, she rented a small apartment in the East Bay. In the Bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands. We lived in the flats — a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers, all who tended their lawns with pride.”
“She told us we could be anything, and do anything,” Harris said. “My mother was a brilliant, 5-foot-tall Brown woman with an accent … She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it.”
Harris says her mother also taught Harris and her sister “never do anything half-assed. And that is a direct quote.”
The Democratic nominee told delegates "Donald Trump is an unserious man," but the consequences of another Trump presidency “are extremely serious.”
“Consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune to criminal prosecution,” Harris said. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. He would use the immense powers of the presidency … not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had. Himself.”
Harris’ remarks capped a four-day star-studded and energetic convention that Democrats hope will continue to mobilize voters in key battleground states ahead of the November election against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Earlier, former Republican Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger declared “Donald Trump has suffocated the soul of the Republican Party,” on a night that also featured high-profile Democratic governors, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.
"The Republican Party is no longer conservative" and loyal only to Trump, Kinzinger said, calling Trump "a small man who pretends to be big."
Illinois Democrats hailed the potential of a trailblazing candidate.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul earlier this month participated in a Harris fundraising call with more than 40,000 Black men from across the country and spoke about the misogyny among Black men who were resistant to support her because she’s a woman.
“If you can demonstrate that you can appreciate someone as qualified as that, who's a woman, and push our full support behind them, that demonstrates that you don’t have the insecurity, and that demonstrates you as stronger,” Raoul said on Thursday. “I think Hillary Clinton experienced losses because of such misogyny in 2016, but I think we’re growing out of that. Part of growing out of that is that demonstration of strong leadership that she [Harris] puts forth and her ability just to not take s—- from anybody.”
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who also serves as chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, said the country has learned a lot since 2016.
“As a teacher, you always say, you can’t be what you can’t see,” Preckwinkle said. “And I think it’s really important to, particularly young women in this country, to see women ascend to the highest office of the land.”
“What better way to show our girls and young women that they can and should be involved and run for office, than to see a smart, tough, thoughtful woman of color fighting for them in the White House?”
South Side state Rep. Theresa Mah said she and fellow Asian American delegates from across the country this week relished the possibility of electing the nation’s first Asian American president — a prospect she says will boost turnout in Chicago and beyond.
“People are getting up off their couches and going to the ballot box this November because there's something they can connect to,” said Mah, who became the first Asian American elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 2016.
“People want to feel empowered. They want to feel like they're agents of change. I think that's a really important thing that Kamala Harris brings to this election,” Mah said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said the significance of potentially electing the first Black woman president was captured in the look on his daughter’s face when he showed her a picture of his wife and him alongside Harris.
“I said, ‘Braedyn, this woman who's vice president is going to be president of the United States of America,” Johnson recalled.
"It's not just her. She's bringing a whole bunch of us with us. She's got us," Johnson said of Harris. “She's smart, she's tough, she's resilient, she's America."
