Caribbean-American Vice President Kamala Harris Accepts Democratic Party’s Nomination

CHICAGO – Vice President Kamala Harris, the Caribbean-American national, Thursday night accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States, saying that she will be president for all Americans.

Before a highly-energetic, packed United Center in Chicago, Illinois, Harris, 59, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, accepted the nomination on the final night of the four-day Democratic Convention.

In her 35-minute, nation-wide, televised address, Harris thanked President Joe Biden for paving the way for her nomination, recalled her childhood growing up in the San Francisco, California, Bay Area, strongly denounced her Republican challenger, former US President Donald Trump; and, among other things, outlined her plans if elected president in the November 5 elections.

“So, let me start by thanking my most incredible husband, Doug, for being an incredible partner to me, an incredible father to Cole and Ella, and happy anniversary, Dougie. I love you so very much,” she said.

“To our president, Joe Biden, when I think about the path that we have traveled together, Joe, I am filled with gratitude. Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring.

“And to Coach Tim Walz, you are going to be an incredible vice president. And to the delegates and everyone who has put your faith in our campaign, your support is humbling.”

Harris described as “unexpected” the path that led her to the top of the Democratic Party ticket, but stated that she is “no stranger to unlikely journeys”.

She said her late mother, Shyamala Harris, 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 when her mother finished school, she was supposed to return home to a traditional arranged marriage.

“But as fate would have it, she met my father, Donald Harris, a student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got married, and that act of self-determination made my sister, Maya, and me,” Harris said, adding that her early memories of her parents together are “very joyful ones.

“A home filled with laughter and music: Aretha, Coltrane and Miles. At the park, my mother would say, ‘Stay close,’” but my father would say, as he smiled, ‘run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.’”

Harris said from her earliest years, her father, Dr. Donald Harris, 85, now a retired economist taught her to be “fearless.”

But she said the harmony between her parents did not last, as they split up when she was in elementary school, stating that it was mostly her mother who raised her and her younger sibling.

Harris said she grew up immersed in the ideals of the civil rights movement, disclosing that her parents had met at a civil rights gathering.

“And they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders, including the lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley, those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America.

“So, at a young age, I decided I wanted to do that work. I wanted to be a lawyer. And when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue, I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life,”  she said, adding that one of the reasons she became a prosecutor was to protect people like Wanda, her best friend in high school.

“She was sad at school, and there were times she didn’t want to go home. So, one day, I asked if everything was all right, and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather. And I immediately told her she had to come stay with us, and she did.”

She said she believes that everyone has “a right to safety, to dignity and to justice.

“As a prosecutor, when I had a case, I charged it not in the name of the victim, but in the name of the people, for a simple reason. In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. And I would often explain this to console survivors of crime, to remind them: No one should be made to fight alone. We are all in this together.

“And every day, in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people. And to be clear — and to be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people,” she stressed.

“And, so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender or the language your grandmother speaks. 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 hard, 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 to be president of the United States of America,” Harris declared.

“And with this election, and with this election, our nation, with this election, has 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,” she said.

“And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching….. And I want you to know, I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self. To hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power,” said the US Vice President to loud applause.

She said she wants to be a president “who unites us around our highest aspirations; a president who leads and listens; who is realistic, practical and has common sense; and always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work,” she said.

As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California, Harris said she stood up for women and children against predators who abused them.

As attorney general of California, she said took on the big banks, delivered US$20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation.

Harris said she also stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big, for-profit colleges; for workers who were being cheated out of their wages, the wages they were due; for seniors facing elder abuse; and fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities.

“And I will tell you, these fights were not easy, and neither were the elections that put me in those offices. We were underestimated at practically every turn. But we never gave up, Because the future is always worth fighting for. And that’s the fight we are in right now,  a fight for America’s future.”

Harris said the forthcoming election is “not only the most important of our lives; it is one of the most important in the life of our nation.

“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election.

“Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the US Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite, he fanned the flames.

“And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans, and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse. And consider, consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol; his explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy; his explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens.

“Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the US Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States – not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.”

Harris said a second Trump term is laid out in a 900-odd page document, called Project 2025, written by Trump’s closest advisers.

She said the sum total of Project 2025 is “to pull our country back to the past.

“But America, we are not going back, we are not going back, we are not going back. We are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions. We are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public schools.

“We are not going to let him end programmes like Head Start that provide preschool and child care for our children. America, we are not going back,” she said, as delegates and attendees repeated the refrain that has partially become Harris’s campaign theme.

“And we are charting a new way forward. Forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success, and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.

Stating that the middle class is where she came from, Harris said will create “an opportunity economy, where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed – whether you live in a rural area, small town, or big city.

“And as president, I will bring together labor and workers and small-business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs, to grow our economy, and to lower the cost of everyday needs like health care and housing and groceries.

“We will provide access to capital for small-business owners and entrepreneurs and founders, and we will end America’s housing shortage, and protect Social Security and Medicare.

“Now compare that to Donald Trump, because I think everyone here knows he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Not , he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class,” she added. “Instead, he fights for himself and his billionaire friends. And he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to five trillion US dollars to the national debt.

“And all the while, he intends to enact what, in effect, is a national sales tax, call it a Trump tax, that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost US$4,000 a year. Well, instead of a Trump tax hike, we will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans.”

She said that Trump plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.

“Simply put, they are out of their minds. And one must ask, why exactly is it that they don’t trust women? Well, we trust women. We trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.”

In this election, Harris said many other fundamental freedoms are at stake including”the  freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities and places of worship; the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride; the freedom to breathe clean air, and drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis; and the freedom that unlocks all the others: the freedom to vote.

“With this election, we finally have the opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act,”  Harris said, pledging that, as president, she would bring back the bipartisan border security bill that she said Trump “killed” by asking his Republic allies in Congress to vote against it, stating that she would sign it into law.

As commander in chief, Harris said she will ensure America always has “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world”; will make sure that America leads the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence; and will ensure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century and that America “strengthen, not abdicate, our global leadership.”

On the war in Gaza, Harris said she and President Biden are “working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done.

“President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” she said, receiving a standing ovation.

Harris also said that she will never hesitate to “take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” and “will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un, who are rooting for Trump, because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors.

“They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable, because he wants to be an autocrat himself,” she said. “And as president, I will never waver in defense of America’s security and ideals, because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs.

“It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on erth: the privilege and pride of being an American.

“So, let’s get out there, let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there, let’s vote for it; and, together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever tol,” Harris told the convention.