Now we're getting started, she shouts as she steps out onto the stage.
The road that led me here was unexpected. It was also my mother's. At 19, she traveled from India to California to find a cure for breast cancer.
Kamala Harris introduces herself to her fellow citizens by telling stories about the joys of her childhood in the working-class neighborhoods of northern California, the non-complaining values her mother instilled, and the civil rights movement she witnessed. How she took home a school friend who was a victim of abuse, which motivated her to become a prosecutor. And she emphasizes the importance of Americans taking care of each other – regardless of background and ethnicity.
About this far into the speech come the words.
I accept your nomination!
The jubilation in the arena knows no bounds.
I promise to be a president for all Americans. I promise to stand for free, democratic elections and peaceful transfer of power.
The nomination itself makes her historic, as the first female presidential candidate with a minority background. If she is elected, she will also make history as the first female president of the USA.
Promises lower taxes
The first policy promise is economic. Harris wants to create an "opportunity economy" with support for small business owners and tax cuts for the middle class.
Donald Trump doesn't fight for the middle class, but for himself and his millionaire friends, she says about her opponent.
Other promises include tightened border security and reinstating national abortion rights.
America cannot flourish if women are not allowed to make decisions about their own bodies. Donald Trump handpicked judges to the Supreme Court to take away our reproductive freedom – and boasts about it.
No "coddling"
Harris oscillates between humor and sharpness. She attacks Republican Trump for the deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and for his foreign policy. Unlike him, she thinks she will stand up for Ukraine and NATO, defend USA's soldiers, and never "coddle dictators", she claims.
The Gaza War is, however, a problem for her in her role as vice president, as many voters are angry about the White House's support for Israel.
President Biden and I are working on this around the clock. We will reach a hostage deal and a ceasefire. The time is now, she says, emphasizing both Israel's right to defend itself and the Palestinians' right to self-determination.
The 59-year-old Kamala Harris has been Joe Biden's vice president since January 2021. The two have a close working relationship, and Biden has backed Harris as the Democrats' next presidential candidate.
Harris's father is from Jamaica, and her mother is from India, but she herself was born in Oakland, northern California. After living in Canada and studying at Howard University in Washington DC, she returned to her home state to work as a lawyer and prosecutor. In 2004, she became the district attorney in San Francisco.
In 2011, she was appointed California's highest legal office (attorney general), a post she held until she was elected to the US Senate in 2016. Then she became the second black woman in the chamber.
Harris ran her own presidential campaign in 2019, before she threw in the towel and backed Joe Biden.
Harris is married to lawyer Doug Emhoff. They have no children of their own, but Harris is a stepmother to Emhoff's daughter and son from a previous marriage.
