2024-08-23 07:09:55
Kamala Harris is set to deliver the most important speech of her political life on Thursday when she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination at her party’s convention in Chicago.
The 59-year-old US vice president will focus on the positive “vibes” that have accompanied her for a month, since President Joe Biden left the race and she took over.
In her speech to the Democratic convention, which will be broadcast live on television, Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, is expected to tell her personal story to the American people and contrast her optimism with the darker tone of Republican Donald Trump, her rival in November.
“One of the things they teach us in law school is how to make a case,” said New York delegate Edwina Martin, a 60-year-old lawyer. “That’s what she’s going to do,” she said, “and I have no doubt she’s going to win.”
She will have a night of glory at the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks, applauded by the nearly 5,000 delegates who voted for her on Tuesday to make her the party’s standard-bearer in the face of the tight electoral dispute.
Harris, who could become the first female president of the United States, has energized the Democratic base, which was beginning to resign itself to a scenario of defeat, when Trump was ahead in the polls against Biden.
But his entry into the race has caused excitement and has levelled the dispute again.
According to the Five Thirty Eight website, Harris leads the Republican candidate by 3.3 points.
– «Historical» –
After tonight’s speech, Harris will have 75 days to convince Americans to vote for her on November 5.
In Chicago, Harris has already won many hearts. “It’s going to be historic,” said Hawaii delegate Michael Golojuch, who came Thursday night to see Harris’ running mate Tim Walz accept the vice presidential nomination.
“It is the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States,” Walz said in a brief but effusive speech.
“When Republicans use the word freedom, what they mean is that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations should be free to pollute your air and water, and banks should be free to take advantage of their customers,” he said.
“But when Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to improve their lives and the lives of the people they love.”
– «A very clear choice» –
Harris arrives for her big night after heavyweights and emerging voices of the Democratic Party descended on the United Center to tell the country that she is the right choice.
On Tuesday, Barack and Michelle Obama electrified the tens of thousands of people in attendance with calls for hope and unity.
“Yes, she can!” exclaimed Barack Obama, to the crowd’s acclamation, an adaptation of the slogan that marked his rise to the US presidency in 2008.
On Wednesday night, former President Bill Clinton, a veteran of more than ten conventions, took the floor.
“In 2024, we have a very clear choice, I think: Kamala Harris – who is for the people – or the other guy who has proven (…) that he is only focused on himself,” Clinton said, referring, without mentioning, Trump.
“When she was a student, she worked at McDonald’s. There she greeted every person with that million-dollar smile and said, ‘How can I help you?’ Now at the top of her game, she still asks, ‘How can I help you?'” he added.
Trump will also be at a rally in Arizona on Thursday, on the border with Mexico, where he will try to attack Harris on the issue of illegal immigration.
© Agence France-Presse
