Harris offers a compelling contrast to Trump’s record and rhetoric

Few moments have defined the differences between the two major party candidates for president of the United States as Kamala Harris’ speech on Thursday night accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination.

It was a speech in which she not only introduced herself to the American people but told her uniquely American story.

It is the story of her mother, an immigrant who traveled alone from India to California when she was just 19 years old with a dream of curing breast cancer. It is a story of her father, an immigrant from Jamaica who became a professor and filled her early childhood home with laughter, music and a sense of adventure.

It is the story of her parents’ divorce and her upbringing in a modest apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Oakland, Calif. She was raised by a single mother and an extended family of aunts and uncles who weren’t related by blood but loved Kamala nonetheless. They believed in her, told her and her sister that if they remained true to their values, stayed compassionate, faithful, committed to their community, and “never (did) anything half-assed,” then no goal or ambition would be out of reach. 

It is the story of injustices endured by people in her family and in her community and the responsibility of all Americans to play a role in realizing the promise of this great nation. It was those injustices and the responsibility instilled in her by her family that led her to become a lawyer and prosecutor who fights for the people against criminals who prey on hardworking Americans.

It is a story that could have been told by countless people in cities and towns across the country. A rags-to-riches story of hard work, hope and ambition overcoming deeply entrenched forces of unfairness and inequality.

It is the story of America itself — a nation of immigrant colonists rising up against one of the greatest empires the world has ever known and defying all outside expectations to become the most powerful and influential country in the world.

That is Kamala Harris’ story.

“And, so, on behalf of the people,” Harris said Thursday night, “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.”

With those words, and just one month and one day since current President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, Kamala Harris added yet another historic chapter to the story of America and became the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated for the office of President of the United States by a major political party. The crowd assembled in Chicago erupted in applause.

Six weeks ago, such a moment would have been unimaginable. Democrats were still reeling from a disastrous performance by Biden in the first presidential debate and Donald Trump appeared to be on an all but inevitable path to soiling the Oval Office once more.

That’s when Kamala Harris stepped up to the plate in defense of Biden. However, rather than speaking as the sometimes clumsy and awkward political version of her that many Americans had come to know in her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, Harris seemed to set aside any sense of political pretense and revealed her true self: a prosecutor and compassionate champion of the people.

While confidently and eloquently defending the record and accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration, she prosecuted the disastrous, criminal and morally bankrupt administration of Trump.

In Harris’ acceptance speech Thursday night, she continued that prosecution, reminding voters that Trump is a convicted felon who “tried to throw away (their) votes” while fighting tirelessly to overturn Roe v. Wade. “Because of Donald Trump,” Harris said, “women (are) miscarrying in a parking lot, getting sepsis and losing their ability to ever have children again” while “children who have survived sexual assault, (are) potentially forced to carry the pregnancy to term.”

It was that type of passion and pointed rhetoric that gave Biden confidence in Harris’ ability to defeat Trump and led Biden to withdraw from the election one month ago, sacrificing his own personal ambitions for the good of the nation.

Since then, Harris has inspired a diverse array of voters across the country to reengage in the 2024 election cycle and brought the race for the White House to a dead heat.

Unlike Trump, whose acceptance speech last month began with words of unity but concluded with fearmongering and self-idolatry, Harris is offering Americans hope for the future — an antidote to cynicism and a reason to not just vote against Trump but vote for her. Where Trump, who hates most Americans, mumbles about an imaginary hellscape, Harris points our eyes to a prosperous, united and just future.

She is a warrior who wants to fight for a better future for all Americans, and her accomplishments thus far inspire confidence that she can succeed. Yet she is humble enough to recognize that her accomplishments are not only the product of her hard work and determination but also of the hard work and determination of her parents, her community and her country.

In that regard, she is the living embodiment of what makes America great in the first place: the opportunity to work hard; act with kindness, humility and compassion toward your fellow Americans; and together, rise from humble beginnings to become the next president of the United States.

She is the opposite of Donald Trump in every way that matters, and we are excited to support her in her campaign for the White House.