Harris to pitch ‘New Way Forward’ during DNC acceptance speech

CHICAGO — Vice President Kamala Harris‘s prime-time acceptance of the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination will be about her and former President Donald Trump.

Harris is expected to share her story as the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants who became San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, a U.S. senator, and President Joe Biden‘s vice president during the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, according to a Harris campaign source granted anonymity to discuss speech preparations.

With the economy poised to be the top issue this election, Harris will underscore on Thursday how she was raised by her Indian-Hindu mother Shyamala in a middle-class neighborhood in Oakland, California. Already this week at the United Center, Harris’ part-time job at McDonalds has been cited as evidence the vice president understands the challenges Americans are currently encountering after decades-high consumer prices.

After her prosecutorial record created political problems for her 2020 primary campaign, she is anticipated to amplify it, particularly her protection of sexual assault survivors and foreclosed homeowners.

“I was involved in her 2019 presidential campaign as one of the co-chairs for that campaign and when she was introducing herself, I could see people getting excited about who she was,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told reporters after his own remarks this week at the convention. “Then I think the prosecutor, you know, that had to kind of, I think, take a back seat when she was vice president, but now that she is front and center, she’s back to being, I think, who she’s always been, which is this really tough prosecutor, who is tough as hell, and I think that’s what the country’s reacting to because they want to see somebody prosecute the case against Donald Trump.”

To that end, Harris will also differentiate her vision for the country against that of Trump, including the Heritage Foundation‘s Project 2025 agenda, which the former president has sought to distance himself from. The source previewed her proposal as a “New Way Forward,” describing an optimistic agenda that provides economic opportunity and safeguards freedoms.

“So many people feel that they’ve been left out and left behind by the extremism that is Donald Trump,” Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) said after an appearance at the Democratic National Committee‘s Rural Council Meeting. “We can be a party that works with everyone, that believes that our job is to create a better life for every single American, not to spend our time on vengeance or retribution, but to spend time moving our country forward. When we put the right policies in place, everybody does better.”

“At the end of the day, people care most about how their family is doing, how their neighbors are doing, and yes, their neighbors may be of a different party, but you still care about your neighbor and you want them to do well,” he added.

Harris, who cleared her public schedule Wednesday, is poised to position herself as a patriot, as Democrats continue to adopt Republicanisms, such as “faith” and “freedom.”

Harris has already appeared multiple times at the convention, including virtually on Tuesday from a Milwaukee rally at the Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention was held last month, after the ceremonial roll call vote.

Harris officially had the delegates for the nomination on Aug. 2, fewer than two weeks after Biden suspended his own campaign after pressure from his own party. The online roll call vote concluded on Aug. 5.