Kamala Harris will deliver the most crucial speech of her political career on Thursday, when she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago following a remarkable turnaround in the 2024 presidential election.
The 59-year-old US vice president will focus on positive “vibes” after igniting her party in a single dizzying month after President Joe Biden pulled out of the race.
Now, Harris will relate her personal experience to the American people, using her televised speech to the Democratic National Convention to contrast her optimism with Republican Donald Trump’s darker tone.
“When Kamala goes on stage, we won’t stop. Amanda Taylor, a 47-year-old Missouri delegate, stated, “It will blow the roof off.”
Democrats’ hopes are high, and Harris is pulling ahead in the polls, but they realize the battle is far from over.
Senior voices ranging from Barack and Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton have advised Harris this week that she faces a difficult fight to defeat the 78-year-old Trump.
Harris’ stunning ascension to the top of the ticket has also made her an unknown quantity to many US voters.
As the first woman, Black, and South Asian vice president in US history, she is now vying to become the country’s first female president, but her role has mainly kept her in the background during the last four years.
‘Fight for freedom’
Harris will attempt to address this in her speech. She will discuss how she was raised by a working mother and understands the hardships that inflation-hit families face, according to a campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
She would then contrast her hopeful vision for America’s future with what her team describes as Trump’s dark, conservative proposals for a second term in the White House, according to the official.
During the Democratic convention, speaker after speaker has focused on the concept of freedom, as the party criticizes Republican intentions to ban abortion and restrict democratic institutions.
On Wednesday, Harris’s enthusiastic running mate Tim Walz formally accepted the party’s nomination, stating that “Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead.”
However, since becoming the Democratic standard-bearer, Harris has made few policy statements, notably on the economics, which is a critical topic in the election.
Harris had to make the most of her first major address as president because “you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” political analyst Larry Sabato told AFP.
‘Kamala vibes’
“Voters already have the Kamala vibes. Now they need the Kamala agenda,” said Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia. A lack of economic policy “can defeat her faster than the border,” he added.
But when it came to vibes, the Democrats were in full celebratory gear.
Under Harris, the Democrats are unrecognizable from the party that was devastated following 81-year-old Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump.
Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle raised the roof in Chicago on Tuesday, with the former first woman proclaiming that under Harris, “hope is making a comeback.”
Walz’s warm-up performances on Wednesday were former President Bill Clinton, television personality Oprah Winfrey, and artists Stevie Wonder and John Legend.
Biden’s parting statement on Monday, during which Harris made a surprise visit on stage to hug him, now feels like a distant memory.
If the changeover has been perplexing for Biden and the Democrats, it has absolutely rattled Trump.
In a rollercoaster summer, he survived an assassination attempt before seeing what he thought was definite success thrown on its head by a new and much younger appearance.
On Thursday, Trump will visit Arizona’s border with Mexico to press Harris’s weak position on illegal immigration.