Kamala Harris accepts Democratic presidential nomination: 'It is now our turn,' promises middle class tax cut, protection of abortion rights

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, the first Black woman to hold her office, said she felt inspired and energized as she watched Kamala Harris accept the Democratic nomination to accomplish the same feat for the highest office in the nation.

“It was also very pragmatic,” Parker said after Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “It was connected -- connected to real people and what they are going through in their daily lives.”

Parker praised Harris for being a “straight shooter” in the speech and talking about the “opportunity economy,” a message Parker likened to her own oft-repeated goal of creating “economic opportunity for all” Philadelphians.

Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination for president, telling a packed-in crowd at the United Center that she would be a president for all Americans and fight for them as she did for years as a prosecutor.

“My entire career I’ve only had one client, the people,” she said.

“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 ... I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America.”

Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the presidential nomination Thursday, saying she did so on behalf of “every American, regardless of party, race gender or the language your grandmother speaks.”

She called for national unity and described the November election as a “fleeting opportunity” to move past Trump.

"With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward,” she said. “Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

The first few minutes of Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech were largely biographical. She said she was raised largely by her mother and grew up in a “beautiful working-class neighborhood” in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Harris said her mother taught her not to complain about injustice, but to “do something” about it.

“And she also taught us to never do anything half-assed,” Harris said.

In an historic acceptance address capping the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris began her speech thanking her husband, Doug Emhoff, and President Joe Biden, whom she thanked for “the path that we have traveled together.”

She started off by re-introducing herself to the American people and describing her “unlikely journey” to the presidential nomination.

Harris told the story of her mother, Shyamala Harris, who immigrated to the United States from India in 1958 at age 19.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will be watching Vice President Kamala Harris accept the Democratic nomination from Harris’ own suite, Parker aide Sinceré Harris said.

Parker was invited to sit with the VP’s VIPs in a box at the United Center on Thursday evening, said Sinceré Harris, a chief deputy mayor who is not related to the vice president.

Other guests include Spike Lee, Kamala Harris’ friends and family, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Doylestown native Pink brought her signature crackly pop-rock to the Democratic National Convention Thursday, belting out “What About Us” shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to accept the presidential nomination.

The rock star raised in Bucks County, whose name is Alecia Beth Moore, delivered a subdued performance alongside a few backup singers, a single acoustic guitar player, and her daughter, Willow.

Pink has been politically active for years, publicly supporting Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020.

The United Center was so packed around 7:45 p.m. that security officers weren’t permitting delegates who exited to reenter the arena, angering some who had just left to go to the restroom in the concourse.

The officers said it was by order of the fire marshal as delegates argued they had seats on the floor they wanted to return to.

Credentialed members of the press with seats were also being denied reentry initially and then were permitted in with instructions there would be no reentry after 8 p.m.

The packed United Center glows white when the lights go down with women in seats floor to ceiling wearing white, a color that has traditionally symbolized the suffragette movement for womens’ right to vote.

In Pennsylvania’s delegation, Lori Vargo Heffner wore a white dress with a "Voters for Harris," sash, echoing the suffragettes. Heffner, who is from Northampton County, a battleground region in the state, sat with her friends and fellow delegates ready to witness history.

“We are fired up and ready to go. Tonight is our night, ladies, It’s our night. And 75 days from now we’re gonna have another great night.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey vowed to fight corporate greed and institute harsher penalties for companies that artificially drive up the price of goods as a way to tackle inflation during a brief speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday.

“Prices are up because the corporations are scheming to drive them up,” Casey said. “Most companies are good companies. It’s the food conglomerates… they’re the ones who are extorting families at the checkout counter. This is greedflation.”

Casey said he’s been pushing for a federal ban on price gouging and promised that if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected president, she “will sign a bill to do just that.”

A video played at the Democratic National Convention promoting President Joe Biden’s administration’s loan forgiveness program for public-sector workers featured a Philadelphia woman.

Kelli Gray, a children’s social worker, said in a video that she obtained a secondary degree but was buried in student loan debt, dealing with bills that ballooned to $800 a month.

She said that after the Biden administration put its loan forgiveness program in place, she received a letter that notified her that her debt was erased.

Sen. Bob Casey called on Republicans to condemn former President Donald Trump over a verbal attack Trump unleashed on Gov. Josh Shapiro.

After Shapiro’s Wednesday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, Trump called him a “highly overrated Jewish Governor” in a post on his Truth Social network. Trump claimed the Democrat “has done nothing for Israel” and called his speech “really bad and poorly delivered.” The former president also claimed without merit that Vice President Kamala Harris “hates Israel” and that he’s done more for Israel “than any person.”

Casey, talking to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer a few hours before he’s slated to speak at the convention, called Trump’s remarks “the usual…from him and his party.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey will speak during the final evening of the Democratic National Convention, ahead of Kamala Harris’ keynote address.

Casey wrote on social media he would use his speech to highlight his fight against “price gouging and greedflation.”

Among the economic policies Harris announced last week was a plan to ban price gouging by grocery stores and food suppliers. Harris hasn’t released many specifics about how her plan would work, though she said her administration would target businesses not “playing by the rules.

When President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s platform had already been locked in for five days.

So, a 92-page document that mentioned Biden 287 times, touting his first-term accomplishments and articulating goals for his second, is now the agenda of a campaign being run by Harris — who is referenced only 32 times.

Will that make a difference?

Around 150 members of unions and local civic engagement organizations gathered in West Philadelphia’s Malcolm X Park Thursday morning for the launch of a door-knocking campaign to get out the vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Members of UNITE HERE, SEIU, One Pennsylvania, the Working Families Party and others formed a rainbow of red, purple, green and black shirts. They held yellow and blue Harris-Walz posters, and filled the park with political chants.

“We are leaving nothing to chance in this election because it’s up to us to put her in office,” said Sheila Silver, canvassing director for UniteHere. “We know our democracy is on the line so we aim to do whatever it takes.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has 36 field offices and more than 300 staffers in Pennsylvania, “our largest operation to date,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez said Thursday.

“We know that Pennsylvania is core to our pathway to victory as we look at getting to 270 which, of course, is our North Star,” Chávez Rodriguez told the Pennsylvania delegation at the Democratic National Convention. “We want to reach Democrats everywhere they are throughout the state.”

Chávez Rodriguez is granddaughter of legendary labor organizer and Latino civil rights leader César Chávez, whom she said gave her a “masterclass in organizing” that will help her get Harris across the finish line in Pennsylvania.

Rabbi Beth Janus, co-president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia, said former President Donald Trump’s late-night social media attack against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is a “calculated way for Trump to rile up antisemites.”

Trump posted on Truth Social late Wednesday night that Shapiro is a “highly overrated Jewish governor” who “has done nothing for Israel.”

Trump’s repeated mentions of Shapiro’s Judaism “is dangerous and frightening for the Jewish community and divisive for All Americans,” Janus said.

The Chicks will perform the national anthem for the Democratic National Convention's closing night. It marks a full circle — and significant — moment for the country music group, which has a contentious history with American politics.

As first reported by CNN, the Dallas-based band (originally known as the Dixie Chicks) will kick off the evening's programming Thursday ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris' speech.

More than a decade ago, the band's lead singer, Natalie Maines, said during a concert that the band did not endorse the 2003 invasion of Iraq and was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

The White House condemned antisemitism in a statement Thursday after former President Donald Trump described Josh Shapiro as a "highly overrated Jewish Governor" on Truth Social.

"It is Antisemitic, dangerous and hurtful to attack a fellow American by calling out their Jewish faith in a derogatory way, or perpetuating the centuries-old smear of ‘dual loyalty,’” White House spokesperson Herbie Ziskend said in a statement, without mentioning either Trump or Shapiro.

Shapiro condemned Trump for "continuing to spew hate and division" Thursday morning, telling reporters the former president's tendency to judge Jewish elected officials by their position on Israel promotes a “notion of a dual loyalty” that is “at its heart antisemitic.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday said Donald Trump was “obsessed” with him and promoted "antisemitic tropes” following the former president's late night social media attack on Shapiro.

Shapiro on Wednesday night delivered a prime-time address to the Democratic National Convention, a high-profile slot that bolstered the governor’s growing national profile. Trump then took to his social media platform Truth Social to post a lengthy message saying Shapiro was a “highly overrated Jewish Governor” who “has done nothing for Israel” and called the speech “really bad and poorly delivered.”

“It’s clear over the last few days Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics,” Shapiro told reporters Wednesday. “He’s someone who has routinely pedaled antisemitic tropes like this.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and confidant of President Joe Biden, on Wednesday offered some advice for Vice President Kamala Harris on how she can win Pennsylvania.

“Be clear about Pennsylvania’s strengths,” Coons told reporters after speaking to the Pennsylvania delegation to the Democratic National Convention. “It’s a union state. It’s an energy-producing state. It’s an agricultural state.”

Coons, whose wife is from Lancaster, also said Harris needs to “get across Pennsylvania, as she has been.”

During a long-winded interview on Fox News Thursday, President Donald Trump falsely claimed Vice President Kamala Harris met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the days leading up to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of other U.S. allies at the Munich Security Conference in the days before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to CNN. Putin did not attend the conference, and there's no evidence the Russian president and Harris have ever met.

It is a falsehood Trump has spread on the campaign trail as well, and one he repeated during a campaign event in North Carolina Wednesday.The false claim even invoked a rare correction from the hosts of Fox & Friends, who generally offer sympathetic coverage of the former president.

In a midnight post on his Truth Social network, former President Donald Trump attacked Josh Shapiro and appeared to mock his faith following the Pennsylvania governor’s speech at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday. 

Referring to him as a “highly overrated Jewish Governor,” Trump claimed Shapiro “has done nothing for Israel” and called his speech “really bad and poorly delivered.” Trump also claimed baselessly Harris “hates Israel” and that he’s done more for Israel “than any person.” 

Shapiro has said he’s “not going to be lectured” by Trump on antisemitism after the former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, suggested Shapiro wasn’t selected as Harris’ running mate because he’s Jewish. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. 

Vice President Kamala Harris will be in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, officially accepting the party’s presidential nomination one month after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

It will be the most important speech of Harris’ political career, an opportunity to tell her story to upward of 20 million people watching at home. Polling shows most voters remain unfamiliar with her political career and her vision for the country, thanks in part to her sudden ascent to the front of the Democratic ticket months ahead of the election.

Harris has announced a few policy proposals she’d work to enact as president, including increases to the child tax credit, $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, and a call for ending the federal income tax on tips, an idea that former President Donald Trump agrees with (though Harris wants rules to limit the tax break to service and hospitality workers, according to the Washington Post).

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro campaigned around the country this week without ever leaving the Windy City.

On Wednesday morning, he got a standing ovation from a group of bleary-eyed New Hampshire delegates, a crowd that’s familiar with vetting potential presidential candidates.

“I specifically wanted to be here in New Hampshire this morning … because when the power is in the hands of New Hampshire, you all know how to pick a president, and you know how to get the job done,” Shapiro told the 80 delegates gathered for breakfast in a room at the Westin overlooking Lake Michigan.

Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R., Ohio), will turn their attention to immigration policy Thursday. Trump will appear in Cochise County, Ariz., where he will visit the U.S. southern border late Thursday morning, his campaign said.

Vance will also speak about immigration and border security at his own campaign event in Valdosta, Ga.

Trump on Friday will then head to Las Vegas for a campaign event focused on not taxing workers’ tips. He is also scheduled to appear at a rally in Glendale, Ariz., later in the day.

» READ MORE: Kamala Harris will wrap up the DNC in Chicago, while Donald Trump’s campaign schedule focuses on the border

For years, Republicans have caricatured Democrats as coastal elites who have little in common with ordinary Americans.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' running mate, tried to use his biography as a hunter, teacher, football coach and national guardsman from the Midwest to disarm those attacks, which Republicans in the past have wielded with merciless efficiency.

His presence on the ticket offers a counterweight in a year when Republicans are trying to paint Harris as a California liberal with dangerous ideas.