Kamala Harris makes her case as unifying figurehead in 2024 DNC speech
Kamala Harris promised to chart a “new path forward” for the country as she accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday, the final night of a star-studded and amplified convention in Chicago. “With this election, our country has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move beyond the bitterness, the cynicism, and the divisive battles of the past,” the vice president told a packed crowd of enthusiastic supporters. “I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations. A president who leads and listens. Who is pragmatic, practical, and common sense. And who always fights for the American people.”
The standing-room-sized crowd erupted as Harris took the United Center stage. Even those spilling out into the hallways cheered wildly, with supporters waving KAMALA signs as they crowded around small televisions to watch the vice president deliver the biggest and most meaningful speech of her career. “The future is always worth fighting for,” she said. “We will not go back.”
Harris—who became the first Black and South Asian woman to lead a major party—touted her record as a prosecutor, U.S. senator and vice president. Joe Bidenwho dropped out of her candidacy just a month ago. She has put forward a policy agenda focused on “freedom” and “common sense.” And she has included Donald TrumpThe former president is running to return to power with a more extreme policy agenda. “They’re out of their minds,” she said of her Republican challengers.
It was a commanding, sweeping speech, touching on domestic issues from abortion protections to the Israel-Hamas war that has put pressure on her party. Harris notably received a standing ovation when she vowed to ensure “the suffering in Gaza ends,” even as she emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself.
The DNC is, in part, a celebration of its past, with passionate speeches by The Obama familythe The Clinton familyand of course BidenHer speech on the opening night of the convention was a swan song to a presidency and a decades-long career in public office. But it also marked the beginning of a new chapter for the Democrat: “I see a nation ready to move forward,” Harris said in her speech, “ready for the next step in this incredible American journey.”
Of course, the baton has not just been passed to Harris, but in many ways to a new generation of Democratic talent, from rising stars like Rep. Crockett Jasmine for those whose moment seemed to come this week in prime-time speeches, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezMinister of Transport Pete Buttigiegand Governor of Maryland Wes Moore“I think for too long, you’ve seen the same people talking about the same issues,” Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski “What we’re seeing today is a diverse group of Democratic leaders who are really talking about American values,” he told me Thursday afternoon, ahead of the vice president’s remarks.
“I have to explain to my colleagues that ‘coconut sheep’ and ‘brats’ are a good thing,” California Congresswoman Sara Jacobsthe youngest member of the House Democratic leadership, joked over coffee one morning here. “But I think people are really excited to focus on the future and think about the future,” she told me, “and really turn the page on this dark chapter in American history where Donald Trump has always existed.”
Indeed, the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month revealed a Republican Party united behind Trump, but still preoccupied with the “American carnage” of his 2016 campaign and the petty grievances he has complained about since 2020. Democrats — after Biden’s resignation — have focused on the future, focusing on young figures: “We have to remember that we are strong,” said Rep. Justin Pearsonone of the “Tennessee Ba,” he told the crowd at a youth voter engagement event at the Epiphany Center for the Arts on Chicago’s West Side. “You don’t have to have fancy suits and fancy titles. All you have to do is use your voice, use your vote, use your time,” he added, noting that young voters are poised to make an extraordinary impact this cycle. “Our issues matter, what we say matters, and what we want to see happen in this country matters.” (To say that the students in attendance gave the 29-year-old a standing ovation is an understatement; they jumped up and clapped as if they had been ejected from their seats.)
You could sense the generational shift beyond the formal program. At Tuesday night’s “Hotties for Harris” party, young Democrats chatted in front of a HALL OF HOTTIES (Harris, Biden, Walz, Stacey Abrams, Steve Kerr) and a HALL OF STRANGERS (Trump, JD Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy) and dances in front of flashing coconut trees. Like a creature inside a meme. “Politics should be accessible,” Jack Lobelthe 20-year-old national press secretary for Voters for Tomorrow, a youth advocacy organization, told me as the party dissolved. The work they do is “serious,” the Columbia University student told me, but it’s also supposed to be “uplifting.”
“This is a matter of love and solidarity,” Lobel told me.
Unity was hard for Democrats just a month ago, when Biden resisted calls from within his own party to withdraw his nomination. His decision to finally do so — just days after the RNC — turned the race in Democrats’ favor, and now, the party is suddenly pulling in the same direction. But can they keep it up?
That’s certainly what it looked like inside the convention hall. But one of the biggest issues dividing Democrats—and alienating young voters in particular—was playing out right outside. Not far from the United Center, thousands of protesters were calling for a ceasefire in Gaza—and, as Ta-Nehisi Coates reported Here, unpledged delegates pressured Harris and the Democrats to allow a Palestinian-American to speak on stage at the convention. In the end, they didn’t get one.
One thing is certain: The November election, as Arizona Senator Mark Kelly warned on the convention stage on Thursday, it will be close. And the stakes — for the rights that will be threatened by Project 2025 to the democratic system that Trump has sought to erode — are extremely high.
“Donald Trump is not a serious man,” Harris said in her keynote speech on Thursday. “But the consequences of returning Donald Trump to the White House are extremely serious.”
Democrats may have just 70-odd days to prevent that from happening, but they closed their convention with momentum behind them. “We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of our world,” Harris said. “Now it is our turn to do what generations before us have done: Led by optimism and faith, to fight for the country we love.”
