Vice President Kamala Harris has formally accepted the Democratic nomination, the party’s energetic convention in Chicago is officially over and the general election is now underway in earnest.
In a passionate speech, Harris delivered a politically calculated message Thursday that tackled the criticisms that those on the right and left have lobbied at her and called on the country to move toward “joy” and away from former President Donald Trump.
“Let us write the next great chapter in the greatest story ever told,” the vice president said, as audience members broke into cheers of “USA” and waved thousands of American flags.
Harris was, by design, the biggest moment of the event, but here are some of the other big moments from the fourth and final night of the DNC:
The Almost-Veeps Show Up for Harris
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper all delivered remarks from the convention stage on Thursday.
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Each of them were considered possible VP picks for Harris and in their own right, each of them represent a beacon of hope for Democrats in swing states.
Kelly, a retired astronaut who helped the party pick up a crucial Senate seat in Arizona four years ago, called Harris “the leader we need right now.”
Whitmer, who has overseen a Democratic surge in the critical battleground state of Michigan, declared the vice president a “badass” and urged America to “choose Kamala Harris.”
And Cooper—who has offered Democrats perhaps the biggest sign of hope, having won in North Carolina in 2016 and 2020 despite Trump’s victories in those same elections—insisted that no matter what kind of American you are, “Kamala will fight for you.”
“America, we got a lot of big fights ahead of us,” Cooper said. “And we’ve got one hell of a fighter ready to take them all.”
A Modern Family
Several members of Harris’ family showed up to the fourth night of the convention to endorse the vice president in a personal capacity, rivaling the show that the Trump family put on during the Republican National Convention last month.
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While Trump took on the role of the doting grandfather and paterfamilias of a sprawling, multi-generational family, Harris offered up her own unique familial situation this week, highlighting her blended, extended family that was made up of close bonds with her stepchildren and in-laws.
“None of them family by blood but family by love,” Harris said of her upbringing during her acceptance speech.
Throughout the DNC, the crowds were introduced to her husband Doug Emhoff, her stepchildren Cole and Ella Emhoff, her sister Maya Harris, her brother-in-law Tony West, her nieces Meena Harris and Arden Emhoff, her nephew Jasper Emhoff as well as her godchildren Alexander and Helena Hudlin.
On Thursday, Ella, Meena and Helena took the stage to describe the vice president as a “patient” stepmom, an “auntie” who not only guided them, but also their children and a godmother who offered a way to find “hope when the world doesn’t feel so hopeful.”
Before they spoke Harris’ grandnieces taught the crowd how to properly pronounce the Democratic nominee’s name, “Comma-la,” like “la, la, la, la, la”— coming of course after Trump has referred to his opponent as “ka-MALA” or “Camilla” and stated that he “couldn’t care less” about pronouncing it correctly.)
In a final moment before Harris took the stage, her sister said of her late mother Shyamala: “I so wish that mommy could be here tonight. I can just see her smiling, saying how proud she is of Kamala. And then, without missing a beat, she’d say, ‘that’s enough you got work to do.'”
Criminal Justice in Focus
Harris shored up support from both sides of the criminal justice system on Thursday, a calculated attempt to silent Republican critics who accuse her of being to soft on crime and, at the same time, progressive critics who have argued that her record as a prosecutor is out of line with where her party should be.
On Thursday, the convention heard from members of the Central Park Five and Genesee County, Michigan Sheriff Chris Swanson. The former told the audience that Harris has “worked to make things fairer,” contrasting her to Trump, who “wanted us unalive.” The latter disputed Trump’s public safety and testified “firsthand” that “crime is down and police funding is up.”
In 1989, Trump took out a full-page ads in New York newspapers calling for the death penalty against the five boys, aged 14 to 16, who were later convicted of raping and assaulting a young woman jogging in Central Park in what became a high-profile national case. Their convictions were overturned after a convinced murderer confessed to the crime, a confession supported by new DNA evidence. Trump has refused to apologize to the group.
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Swanson came to national prominence amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, after a video of him taking off his helmet and joining a group of demonstrators in a march went viral.
“As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California, I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them,” Harris said in her acceptance speech. “As attorney general of California, I took on the big banks, delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure and helped passed a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation.”
“I 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. I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and our communities,” she said. “And I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices.”
A Star-Studded Final Night
Thursday was also packed with A-list celebrities and musicians, who both brought extra eyeballs onto the convention, but also raised questions about where these figures fit into a party framing itself as fighting for middle-class Americans rather than coastal elites.
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Thursday’s lineup was particularly stacked with female pop powerhouses: The Chicks, formerly known as the Dixie Chicks, belted out the National Anthem while P!nk performed a heartfelt rendition of her 2017 song “What About Us” with her 13-year-old daughter Willow.
Meanwhile, “Scandal” co-stars Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn reunited on the convention stage in a viral moment, while actress Eva Longoria returned for the final day of the convention to tell Democrats “we’e going to decide the election” (Longoria has become increasingly tied to the party, speaking on behalf of Texas delegates during Tuesday’s roll call).
Those appearances were the cherry on top of a whole week of big names, including Oprah, Mindy Kaling, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Kenan Thompson and Maren Morris.
