Good evening everyone… … … Thank you, thank you, please,
thank you, please, thank you so very much … Okay, let’s get to business, let’s
get to business … Let me start by thanking my most incredible husband Doug for
being an incredible partner to me, an incredible father to Cole and Ella … To
our President Joe Biden, when I think about the past that we have traveled
together, Joe, I am filled with gratitude. Your record is extraordinary, as
history will show, and your character is inspiring … And to Coach Tim Walz, you
are going to be an incredible Vice President. To the delegates and everyone who
has put your faith in our campaign, your support is humbling. So, America, the
path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected, but I’m no stranger
to unlikely journeys.
My mother … had one of her own, and I miss her every day,
and especially right now. And I know she’s looking down, smiling. I know that …
My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to
California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who
would cure breast cancer. When she finished school, she was supposed to return
home to a traditional arranged marriage, but as fate would have it, she met my
father, Donald Harris, a student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got
married, and that act of self-determination made my sister, Maya, and me.
My early memories of our parents together are very joyful
ones, a home filled with laughter and music … At the park, my mother would say,
“Stay close,” but my father would say, as he smiled, “Run, Kamala, run, don’t
be afraid, don’t let anything stop you.” From my earliest years, he taught me
to be fearless, but the harmony between my parents did not last. When I was in
elementary school, they split up, and it was mostly my mother who raised us …
she worked long hours, and like many working parents, she leaned on a trusted
circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became
a second mother, Uncle Sherman, Aunt Mary, Uncle Freddy, Auntie Chris, none of
them family by blood, and all of them family by love … Families who loved us,
believed in us, and told us we could be anything and do anything.
My mother was a brilliant, five-foot-tall, brown woman with
an accent … [and] I saw how the world would sometimes treat her. But my mother
never lost her cool. She was tough, courageous, a trailblazer in the fight for
women’s health, and she taught Maya and me … to never complain about injustice
but do something about it. Do something about it. That was my mother … I grew
up immersed in the ideals of the civil rights movement … So at a young age, I
decided I wanted to do that work. I wanted to be a lawyer … And every day in
the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge, and I said five words: “Kamala
Harris for the people.” And to be clear, and to be clear my entire career, I’ve
only had one client: the people.
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.
And with this election … [we have] a precious, fleeting
opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the
past, a chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or
faction, but as Americans … I promise to be a president for all Americans. You
can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred
America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law to free and fair
elections, to the peaceful transfer of power.
I will be a president who unites us around our highest
aspirations, a president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical,
and has common sense, and always fights for the American people. From the
courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.
…
Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most
important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our
nation. In many ways, [The Felon] is an unserious man. But the
consequences of putting [him] back in the White House are extremely serious.
Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the
gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. [He] tried to
throw away your votes … he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol,
where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own
party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. He
fanned the flames.
…
And we know, and we know what a second Trump term would look
like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisors, and
its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not
going back. We are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back
… to when [The Felon] tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We are not
going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act … We are not
going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our public
schools. We are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that
provide preschools and childcare for our children … we are charting a new way
forward, forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class, 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 … Friends,
I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless Americans are fully able to
make their own decisions about their own lives, especially on matters of heart
and home. But tonight in America, too many women are not able to make those
decisions. And let’s be clear about how we got here. [The Felon] handpicked
members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom.
And now he brags about it. In his words, “I did it and I’m proud to have done
it.” Well, I’ll tell you, over the past two years, I’ve traveled across our
country, and women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared
theirs. Stories of women miscarrying in a parking lot, developing sepsis,
losing the ability to ever again have children, all because doctors are afraid
they may go to jail for caring for their patients. Couples just trying to grow
their family, cut off in the middle of IVF treatments. Children who have
survived sexual assault, potentially being forced to carry a pregnancy to term.
This is what’s happening in our country because of [him].
…
In this election, many other fundamental freedoms are at
stake. The freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities,
and places of worship. The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride.
The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and live free from the
pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all the
others–the freedom to vote. With this election, we finally have the opportunity
to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote
Act. And let me be clear, and let me be clear, after decades in law
enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our
border. Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative
Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol
endorsed it. But [The Felon] believed a border deal would hurt his campaign. So
he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal … As President, I will bring
back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it
into law.
And America, we must also be steadfast in advancing our
security and values abroad. As Vice President, I have confronted threats to our
security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances, and
engaged with our brave troops overseas. As Commander-in-Chief, I will ensure
America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. And
I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families.
And I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice.
…
With respect to the war in Gaza … and let me be clear, and
let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.
And I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the
people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization
called Hamas caused on October 7th … At the same time, what has
happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives
lost, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The
scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end
this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering
in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity,
security, freedom, and self-determination.
…
So fellow Americans, fellow Americans, I love our country
with all my heart. Everywhere I go, everywhere I go and everyone I meet, I see
a nation that is ready to move forward, ready for the next step in the
incredible journey that is America. I see an America where we hold fast to the
fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world, that here, in
this country, anything is possible, that nothing is out of reach. An America
where we care for one another, look out for one another, and recognize that we
have so much more in common than what separates us, that none of us, none of us
has to fail for all of us to succeed. And that in unity there is strength … America,
let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: Freedom,
opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness, and endless possibility. We are the
heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.
And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all
those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy
of this moment. It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done,
guided by optimism and faith to fight for this country we love, to fight for
the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with
the greatest privilege on earth, the privilege and pride of being an American.
So let’s get out there. Let’s fight for it. Let’s get out
there. Let’s vote for it. And together, let us write the next great chapter in
the most extraordinary story ever told.”