Kamala Harris says she will give the most important speech of her political life on Thursday as she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago after a historic turnaround in the 2024 White House race.
The 59-year-old U.S. vice president will focus on joyful “vibes” after electrifying her party in the space of a single heady month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the election.
Now Harris will tell her personal story to the American people, using her televised address to the Democratic National Convention to contrast her optimism with the darker tone of Republican Donald Trump.
“When Kamala gets on stage we’re not going to stop. It’s going to blow the roof off,” said Amanda Taylor, a 47-year-old delegate from Missouri.
Yet while Democrats’ hopes are soaring and as Harris edges ahead in the polls, they know the battle is far from won.
From Barack and Michelle Obama to Bill Clinton, senior figures have warned all week that Harris has a brutal fight on her hands hands to beat the 78-year-old Trump.
The sheer speed of her astonishing rise to the top of the ticket also means Harris remains an unknown quantity to many US voters.
A trailblazer as the first woman, Black and South Asian vice president in US history and now bidding to become its first woman president her role has largely kept her in the background the last four years.
