Vice President Kamala Harris is set to make history Thursday night by becoming the first Black woman and first Indian American to accept a major party's presidential nomination.
The moment will be fraught with symbolism, as many women attending the Democratic National Convention at Chicago’s United Center plan to wear white to commemorate the suffrage movement. But Harris has so far used this week’s convention to make arguments that go beyond history, emphasizing her personal biography, the party’s loosely defined “freedom” agenda and arguments against former President Trump returning to the White House.
“We came to Chicago with a three-part mission,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, told California delegates Thursday morning. “Celebrate Joe Biden, uplift Kamala Harris, gut MAGA extremism.”
According to pollsters, the race is largely up in the air at this point, but Harris' rise to the top of the ticket just over a month ago, after President Biden stepped aside, has given Democrats hope that they have a chance.
Harris, vice president for four years, has sought to portray herself as a tough prosecutor who locked up violent criminals when she was San Francisco district attorney and went after big banks when she was California attorney general.
Trump has sought to portray her as a San Francisco liberal and a failed “border czar,” a title Harris rejects because Biden tasked her with improving conditions for migrants in other countries and she had no direct control over the southern border.
But she has sought to defuse the issue by attacking Trump for scuttling a bipartisan border control deal this year and will likely do so again on Thursday.
She has also criticized Trump on abortion rights, drawing attention to his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who two years ago overturned Roe v. Wade. Harris has led Democratic policy efforts on the issue, helping the party perform better than expected in the 2022 midterm elections and is again a big motivator for the women voters who form the backbone of the party.
Harris is also expected to outline the party's economic agenda, which includes subsidies for first-time homebuyers, measures against food price gouging and expanded tax credits for children. While recent economic indicators have been positive, polls show the economy is voters' top concern, largely due to inflation.
