CHICAGO — Amid a cacophony of cheering Democrats and a canopy of red, white and blue balloons, Vice President Kamala Harris made history.
The first woman elected vice president of the United States officially became the first Black and South Asian woman named a major-party presidential nominee, lifting Democrats' hopes of defeating former President Donald Trump and keeping the White House for another four years.
"We are charting a new way forward, forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class," Harris said in her speech.
"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," she continued, calling it a "personal" thing for her, because "the middle class is where I come from."
"That's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy, 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," she said.
Harris spent the beginning of her speech laying out her biography, from her family's story to the early steps of her career. Speaking about her immigrant parents, Harris said she's "no stranger to unlikely journeys," describing her upbringing in the San Francisco Bay Area and her start as a prosecutor.
"Every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: 'Kamala Harris for the people.' My entire career, I only had one client: the people."
Harris then wove that story into the traditional applause line accepting her party's nomination.
"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," she said.
In her remarks, Harris spoke in broad outlines about her own agenda, saying she would restore reproductive freedoms, offer a tax cut to the middle class, end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare.
"They are out of their minds," she said of Republicans and what she called their attack on women's reproductive rights. "We trust women."
She repeatedly hammered away at Trump, calling him a threat to working Americans, saying he would cut taxes for only the wealthy. She also cited Project 2025, a conservative blueprint by the Heritage Foundation meant to be a road map for another Trump term. Trump rejected the document after the blowback around it.
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