Kamala Harris is set to deliver the biggest speech of her political life on Thursday as she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago after a historic turnaround in the 2024 White House race.
The 59-year-old US vice president will focus on joyful “vibes” after energising her party just a month after President Joe Biden lost the election.
Now Harris will tell her personal story to the American people, using her televised address at the Democratic National Convention to contrast her optimism with the negative tone of Republican Donald Trump.
“This would blow the roof off,” said Rep. Amanda Taylor, 47, from Missouri.
Harris and her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, also exchanged messages on X on Thursday, their 10th wedding anniversary.
“To the best partner I’ve ever had: Happy anniversary, Dougie,” the vice president wrote, while he added: “Forever. Happy anniversary @VP. I love you.”
Though Democrats’ hopes are rising and Harris is leading in the polls, she knows the battle is far from won.
Senior figures, from Barack and Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton, have warned all week that Harris will have to put up a tough fight to defeat the 78-year-old Trump.
The rapid pace of her surprising rise to the top of the ticket also means that Harris remains an unknown figure to many American voters.
A pioneer as the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history — and now seeking to become the first female president — her role has kept her largely in the background over the past four years.
– ‘fight for freedom’ –
Harris will try to address this problem in her speech. A campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said she will talk about how she was raised by a working mother and knows the challenges faced by families affected by inflation.
She will lay out her confident vision for America’s future, the official said, while her campaign reflects Trump’s dark, conservative motivation for a second term in the Oval Office.
Speaker after speaker during the Democratic convention focused on the idea of freedom as the party counters Republican plans to further restrict abortion and clamp down on Democratic institutions.
On Wednesday, Harris’s energetic running mate, Tim Walz, formally accepted the party’s nomination, saying: “Kamala Harris will stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life you want to live.”
But since taking over as the Democratic flagbearer, Harris has been slow to make policy pronouncements, particularly when it comes to the economy, a key issue in the election.
Political analyst Larry Sabato told AFP he must take advantage of his first major presidential speech because “you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.”
– ‘Kamala Vibes’ –
“Voters already have an image of Kamala. Now they need Kamala’s agenda,” said Sabato, the University of Virginia professor. He added that a lack of economic policy “could defeat her even faster than the border.”
But when it comes to the atmosphere, Democrats are in a celebratory mood, a far cry from the party that was plunged into despair after 81-year-old Biden’s disastrous performance in the debate against Trump.
The Obamas raised eyebrows in Chicago on Tuesday, when the former first lady declared that under Harris’ leadership “hope is returning.”
On Wednesday, Clinton, television talk show host Oprah Winfrey and musicians Stevie Wonder and John Legend performed a warm-up show for Minnesota Governor Walz.
Biden’s farewell speech on Monday, when Harris made a surprise appearance on stage to hug him, now seems like a distant memory.
If this change has been a galloping boost for Biden and the Democrats, it has completely destabilized Trump.
In a tumultuous summer he survived an assassination attempt, and then saw what seemed like a certain victory overturned by a new and much younger opponent.
Trump will be in Arizona on the Mexican border on Thursday to hammer home Harris’ weaknesses on the issue of illegal immigration.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
