DNC Day 4: Kamala Harris Accepts Nomination, Capping Four-Night Reintroduction to Voters
Vice President Kamala Harris strode onto the DNC stage at 10:30 p.m. on the convention’s closing night, just after her beloved sister laid a firm foundation for her reintroduction to America — something dozens of the most powerful people in the Democratic party also spent the past four nights doing. Harris presented herself to the party and U.S. electorate as the nominee to banish former President Donald Trump from politics for good in November.
“Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” Harris told her party in the speech, where the former senator and California attorney general formally accepted the party’s nomination. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
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In the first section of Harris’ roughly 45-minute speech, she shared some details with the 25,000 inside Chicago’s United Center and millions at home about her background. Harris explained how she was raised mostly by her mother following a divorce but also by a “family by love” in San Francisco’s East Bay. The vice president included a brief career origin story, revealing why she was determined to become a prosecutor — Wanda, her best friend, moved in with Harris’ family after she revealed that she was being abused by her stepfather.
“On behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of Americans like the people I grew up with, people who work, chase their dreams and look out for one another, on behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination,” she said to the party’s gathered members.
For the remainder of Harris’s speech, the VP neglected to mention the history being made even with her nomination, let alone a win. Instead, she spoke of her stance on issues — on the economy, abortion rights, border security and foreign policy — all of which are entirely in line with the Democratic party’s platform. A mention of the mass killings and carnage in Gaza was made — to a roar from the crowd — but not before a statement confirming unilateral support for Israel, which is unlikely to assuage any protesting against the Israel-Hamas war at events surrounding her candidacy.
And yes, Harris can attack. She spent a good amount of time going after her opponent, and Trump was handed the blame for the death of the bipartisan congressional border bill. She said that as president, she would sign it.
The notion of Harris as a former attorney general “prosecuting” Trump was felt in moments, as she spoke of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and used the legalese term, “his explicit intent,” to describe the GOP candidate’s actions that day. The GOP at large also did not escape her derision: “Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she told the stadium.
Themes that were repeated throughout all four nights of the 2024 DNC — “we’re not going back” and the notion that the Democrats are the forward-looking party for voters to choose this year — were embedded into Harris’ closing remarks as she ended her biggest pitch to Americans.
“Let us write the next great chapter in the greatest story ever told,” Harris said. The Chicago crowd returned with chants of, “USA! USA!”
A few hours into the final night, after maybe two dozen speeches from prominent Democrats like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Texas Rep. Colin Allred, who is campaigning to unseat GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, the United Center’s stage was commanded by celebrity host Kerry Washington, one of Hollywood’s more politically minded actor-producers (it’s not just a role she played on TV, after all).
“Look, I know that I am the one standing on this stage, but I am not the lead character in this story,” Washington said to growing applause. “I am here as a mother, as a daughter, as a proud union member. I am here as the granddaughter of immigrants, as a Black woman descended from enslaved people. I am here tonight because I am an American and because I am a voter, and because we the people are stronger when all our voices are heard.
“I am not the lead character in this story. You are, all of you. You are the messengers. You are the fixers. Dare I say, you are the Olivia Pope,” she added, referring to her Scandal political operative character.
Washington later led Harris’ great-nieces in a lesson for the crowd and those watching at home: Kamala is pronounced “comma,” then “lah.” Get it right, folks, it’s not hard! Afterward, Meena Harris, Ella Emhoff and Helena Hudlin — the VP’s niece, step-daughter and goddaughter, respectively, spoke of Harris’ influence on their lives over the years.
Gun control, a key issue for many Democrats, took center stage when Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath, whose son was killed by a gunman, was joined by the families of children slain in Uvalde, Texas; Newtown, Connecticut; Charleston, South Carolina; and Chicago. The words that came from the mothers discussing their grief were some of the most gutting moments of the convention.
Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2010 at an event in her district, took to the stage with her husband, former astronaut and current Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who was on the shortlist to join Harris on the ticket. He spoke a bit later on foreign policy issues and the multiple wars and geopolitical conflicts in which the U.S. is entangled.
“We all need a team. I’ve flown into space four times. I’ve flown into combat nearly 40 times. Not once did I do that by myself. It took a team to accomplish a mission,” Kelly said. “Vladimir Putin is testing whether we’re still strong — Iran, North Korea and especially China. Watch closely. Trump … invited Russia to do, and these are his words, not mine, ‘Whatever the hell they want.’”
He continued, “Vice President Harris has always championed America’s support for NATO, for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian people. She defends free, fair elections everywhere. You already know how Trump feels about those. Trump skipped his intelligence briefings. He was too busy sucking up to dictators and dreaming of being one himself.“
Before Kelly’s speech, enduring singer-songwriter Pink took the DNC stage following Giffords’ moment, singing “What About Us” from her seventh studio album, Beautiful Trauma. Alecia Beth Hart Moore, aka Pink, wrote the track as a protest song directed at the U.S. government, asking why it has failed so many people. Its accompanying music video, released in 2017, shows members of minority groups dancing and chased by searchlights helicopters above them. She performed the song on Thursday with her daughter, 13-year-old Willow, by her side harmonizing.
Democratic Party rising star and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — perhaps she’s risen to party star status at this point — hit on kitchen-table economic issues, angling on making herself and Harris relatable to the electorate on this front.
“I have known [Harris] more than a decade, and she comes from a family a lot like mine, and I’m sure a lot like yours,” Whitmer said. “We were both raised knowing that no one was going to hand us anything, especially as women.”
As night four of the Democratic National Convention opened, guests who had poured in to fill the 25,000 seats in the United Center found an unexpected object on the seats — a wristband light with the DNC 2024 logo on its face. With one wristband for everyone, minds ran wild about the ultimate purpose of the object.
Whispers began to be exchanged about a gap left in the programming toward the end of the night, and with Oprah Winfrey’s surprise appearance at the podium in the rearview, which woman would be worthy of such a slot? Many turned their focus to rumors that Beyoncé would perform, but the singer’s rep told The Hollywood Reporter that Queen Bey “was never scheduled,” and would not attend. And, indeed, Beyoncé didn’t make an appearance at the convention on Thursday night.
The women delegates present wore white to honor women’s suffrage on the night of Harris’ acceptance of the Democrats’ nomination. It was a triumphant group, and they danced to Chicago native DJ Metro several times throughout the evening’s breaks. The DJ also played Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” and Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” at times.
Celebrities peppered the roster, with Eva Longoria, D.L. Hughley and others taking the stage, but the first Hollywood celebrity to appear was Morgan Freeman, who joined actor Jeffrey Wright as a narrator of one of Harris’ new ads that have run this week. The 87-year-old Oscar winner, whose narration skills have been used in movies so frequently it’s almost a cliche, spoke over a montage of moments from Harris’ life that may look familiar to savvy viewers who watched the DNC broadcast last night.
“And then came a moment that changed Kamala Harris’ destiny and lit the fire within,” Freeman told viewers in his trademark air of omniscience.
The speakers at the United Center in the first hours included California Sen. Alex Padilla, who was appointed to Harris’ seat when she ascended to the vice presidency. Sharing her seat isn’t all Padilla has in common with Harris — they’re both the children of migrant families who rose to the top in their state’s political arena.
??“My question to you is this: This November, who is ready to defend the dream?” Padilla asked the crowd. “Tim Walz is ready to defend the dream. Kamala Harris is ready to defend the dream.”
Next, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin shared details of her upbringing that closely mirrored GOP VP candidate J.D. Vance. Like the junior senator from Ohio, Baldwin had a mother who struggled with addiction and was raised by her grandparents. Social Security and Medicare were means of survival for her childhood, and Baldwin pointed out that Trump has suggested both programs could be cut. “We won’t let that happen,” she said.
“We Democrats, we honor our elders and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share,” she added.
Al Sharpton then appeared on stage to introduce the Exonerated 5 — the new name of the five men who, as teenagers, were falsely accused in a New York rape case and then railroaded by the justice system. Donald Trump took it upon himself at the time to pay a reported $89,000 to take out full-page ads in four newspapers calling for the young men to be executed by the state. All five were exonerated via DNA evidence analysis; collectively, they served 41 years in prison.
Korey Wise, the only one of the five to serve all his time in the adult prison system, spoke to the crowd about his experience in 1989, saying, “as we walked into the courtroom every day, people screamed at us, threatened us because of Donald Trump. … We were innocent kids.”
Yusef Salaam, who now serves as a New York City Councilman representing a section of Harlem, spoke next about electing Harris to “finally say goodbye to that hateful man.
“That man thinks that hate is the animating force in America; it is not. We have the constitutional right to vote — in fact, it is a human right, so let us use it,” Salaam said. “I want you to walk with us. I want you to march with us. I want you to vote with us. And let me tell you, this is going to be so beautiful. And together on November 5, we will usher in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz into the White House.”
This story was first published on Aug. 22 at 5:32 p.m.
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