DNC Convention 2024 LIVE | Kamala Harris DNC Chicago 2024 Speech LIVE | Kamala Vs Trump | N18G

to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into to the Future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done and let me be clear and let me be clear I I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always Ure 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate at with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go everywhere I go in 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 have has to fail for all of us to succeed and that in unity there is strength you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs 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 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha coold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the Flatlands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything Happ asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker mle those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge J and I said five words kamla 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 of Americans like the people I grew up with people who work 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were do for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separate found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 not going back we are not going back we are not going back we are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions we are not 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 that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not avail ailable to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to five trillion doar to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $44,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriage and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the de well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reformers our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co it up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in every 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 and 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 of us to succeed and that in unity there is strength you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are 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 ities we are the hirs 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 vote for it and together let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary Story Ever Told thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents leaned on a trusted Circle to help raise us Mrs Shelton who ran the daycare below us 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half ass and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words KLA 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 of Americans like the people I grew up with people who work hard chase their dream 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartel who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future fellow Americans this election is not only the most important of Our Lives it is one of of the most important in the life of our nation in many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever ever had himself and we know and we know what a second Trump term would look like it's all laid out in Project 20125 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the National Deb and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 t tonight in America too many women are not able to make those decisions and let's be clear about how we got here Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 other 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal will I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan bard of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 fames and I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attack attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you showed them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities 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 together let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary Story Ever Told thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to co and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path that 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 un likely Journeys so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flat a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla Harren 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness cynicism and divisive battles of the past past a chance to chart a new way forward not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who were being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy me his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had him self 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions we are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that funds our our Public Schools we are not going to let him end programs like Head Start that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and we are charting a new 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small bus business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote well I'll tell you over the past 2 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can't and create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 and 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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president president zalinsky to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the Massac of young people at a music festival 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 host hostages are released the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity security freedom and self-determination and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in everyone I meet I see a nation that is ready 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities we are the hirs 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha coold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run CA 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in US and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $0 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider consider not only the chaos and Calamity when he was was in office but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to act what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middleclass families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote well I'll tell you over the past two years I've traveled across our country 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 patience 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control B ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 espe 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal will I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 the their service and their sacrifice I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinsky to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 horor that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival at the same time what has happened in aaza 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat at himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 and 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities we are the hirs 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 at 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone traveling from India to California with an unshakeable 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music a coold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the Flatlands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be in anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant five foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosec uter in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deoy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Mis caring 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refus to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 tce I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not AB advicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival at the same time what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is 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 pal inian people can realize their right to dignity security freedom and self-determination and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran back terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are a man America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs 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 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my friend good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get into some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me and incredible father to Cole Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path that we have traveled together Joe I am filled with gratitude your record is extraord ordinary as history will show and your character is inspiring and Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris had one of her and I miss her every day and especially right now and I know she's looking down smiling I know that so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up in immersed in the ideal of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker mle those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her step father and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion from middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 is Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider consider not only the chaos and Calamity when he was in office but also the gravity of what has has happened since he lost the last election Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty milit AR against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself and we know 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 program programs like Head Start that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans friends I believe America can 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 the Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades the border patrol endorsed it but Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership ship Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinsky to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a global resp response over 5050 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs 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 old thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] cforia good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible able father to co Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris had one of her own and I miss her every every day and especially right now and I know she's looking down smiling I know that so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha coold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the Flatlands we lived in the flats a beautiful working class neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights mov movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I ADM immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words KLA 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 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 the greatest nation on Earth I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America and with this election and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider consider not only the chaos and Calamity when he was in office but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the the last election Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 advisers 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here your NOS he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise price on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 their 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or with without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival at the same time what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating so many Innocent Lies 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 and 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world and on behalf of our children and our grandchilden 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 Amer 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good even evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music AA cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 us before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half ass and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 Earth I accept your nomination to be president of the United States of America and with this election and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children of against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his EXP explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens cons consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 some 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and we are charting a new way forward forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class because we know a strong middle middle class has always been critical to America's success and building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans friends I believe America cannot truly be prosperous unless 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 board border bill in decades the border patrol endorsed it but Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-chief I will ensure a 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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of a America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the airs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris had one of her own and I miss her every day and especially right now and I know she's looking smiling I know that so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run KLA 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words comma 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 ever set out on their own unlikely Journey on behalf of 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 and and with this election our our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or fa action but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 PR itical 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middleclass tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Brea bre 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refus to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 and 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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 ham M caused on October 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival at the same time what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating so many innocent lives lost desperate hungry people 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world Who We Are are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and our forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and Music artha Co train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride mom mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was is my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half ass and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil Cil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con constant Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 own unlikely Journey on behalf of 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 and and with this election our nation our Nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremist who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back act to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going back [Applause] and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunity ities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 develop ing 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 happen happening in our country because of Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal will I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will and strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong on who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities 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 this country we love to fight for the ideals we cherish and to oppold 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all for you good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone one thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and to the delegates and everyone who has put your faith in our campaign your support is hum humbling so America the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected but I'm no stranger to unlikely Journeys so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so 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 har a student from Jamaica they they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and Music artha Co train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half ass and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words KLA 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 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 United States of America and with this election and and with this election our nation our nation with this election has as 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 not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 peace peace ful 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their way wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted the those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have espec especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going back [Applause] and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneur rurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he br about it in his words I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti antiabortion coordinator and forc states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into long I know I know so we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border and America we must also be steadfast in advance ing 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want five days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceas fire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran backed terrorists I will not Co up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 and inspired the world that here in this country anything is possible that nothing is Out Of Reach and 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for free Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities 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 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to co and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so 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 [Applause] they they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music AA cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma run Don't Be Afraid don't let 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the Flatlands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice some something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like One because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday American Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going back [Applause] and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big City and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we willay pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we Le the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want five days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 suffer 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you showed them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities we are the hirs 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 IDE deals 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to co and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play test and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child I saw how the world would sometimes treat her but my mother never lost her cool she was tough rageous a Trailblazer in the fight for Women's Health and she taught Maya and me a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con constant mle those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against anyone of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion from middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at prac practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious [Applause] consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national sec security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going back [Applause] and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I'm I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote well I'll tell you over the past 2 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 Dr 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force States to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he order ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartison border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we leave the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zelinsky to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual vience Ence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go everywhere I go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and Endless Possibilities 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to colon Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run CA 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you eat either lived in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful working class neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents leaned on a trusted Circle to help raise us miss 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and some times even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to who jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 it's some 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunities is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor at workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it and quote well I'll tell you over the past 2 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 at 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young young people at a music festival 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 work 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not Co it up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favor they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 country anything is possible that nothing is Out Of Reach and 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities we are the hirs 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary dougy I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha coold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run comma 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like th Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness cnic M and divisive battles of the past a chance to chart a new way forward not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know I promise to be a president pres 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered 20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a home homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future fellow Americans this election is not only the most important of Our Lives it is is one of the most important in the life of our nation in many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital where they assaulted Law Enforcement Officers when politician s in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help he did the opposite he fanned the flames and now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 start that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middleclass tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote well tell you over the past 2 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever ever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 POS 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities 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 respon 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my my most incredible husband [Music] Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and Me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very Joy ones a home filled with laughter and music artha cold train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla run Don't Be Afraid don't let anything stop you from my earliest years he 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the Flatlands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con constant Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 americ 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know I promise to be a president for All American 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital where they assaulted Law Enforcement Officers when politicians in his own part party begged him to call off the mob and send help he did the opposite he fanned the flames and now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions we are not going to let him eliminate the Department of Education that that funds our Public Schools we are not going to let him end programs like Head Start start that provide preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is person for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote well I'll tell you over the past last 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 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion B with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan border of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 for foreign leaders strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas as commanderin-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 I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in Gaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities we are the hirs 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good good evening thank you thank you thank good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband d [Music] for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to co and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be an incredible vice president and 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 [Applause] so my mother our mother shamba Harris 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 so my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the sign 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and Music artha Co train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents leaned on a trusted Circle to help raise us Mrs Shelton who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother uncle charman Aunt Mary uncle Freddy Auntie Chris none of them family by Blood and all of them family by love family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in US and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant five foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night tonight she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness cynicism and divisive battles of the past a change CH to chart a new way forward not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know I promise to be a president for all Americans you can always trust ask 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 unit 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 as a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffick in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 not going back we are not going back to when Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and we are charting a new way for 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to five trillion doll to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 are not able to make those decisions and let's be clear about how we got here Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law in this election many other fundamental freedoms are at stake the freedom to live safe from gun VI 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal will I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into law I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 commanderin-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 dispair marriage their service and their sacrifice I will make sure that we lead the world into the future on space and artificial intelligence that America not China wins the competition for the 21st century and that we strengthen not abdicate our Global Leadership Trump on the other hand threatened to abandon NATO he encouraged Putin to invade our allies said Russia could quote do whatever the hell they want 5 days before Russia attacked Ukraine I met with president zalinski to warn him about Russia's plan to invade I helped mobilize a Global Response over 50 countries to defend against Putin's aggression and as president I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies with respect to the war in G aaza President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done 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 for 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 7 including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival 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 and know this I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interest against Iran and iran-backed terrorists I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong-un who are rooting for Trump who are rooting for Trump because you know they know they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors they know Trump won't hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself and as president I will never waver in defense of America's security and ideals because in the enduring struggle between democracy and tyranny I know where I stand and I know where the United States belongs so fellow Americans fellow Americans I I love our country with all my heart Everywhere I Go Everywhere I Go in 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 you know our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America talking about how terrible everything is well my mother had another lesson she used to teach never let anyone tell you who you are you show them who you are America let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for Freedom opportunity compassion dignity fairness and endless possibilities we are the hirs 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 [Music] 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 thank you God bless you and may God bless the United States of America thank you all [Applause] California good evening everyone good evening good evening oh my goodness good evening everyone good evening good evening thank you thank you thank you good evening thank you thank you thank thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you thank you thank you thank you all thank you all okay we got to get to some business we got to get to some business okay thank you all okay thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you please thank you please thank you so very much thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you okay let's get to business let's get to business all right so let me start by thanking my most incredible husband Doug for being an incredible partner to me an incredible father to Cole and Ella and happy anniversary douge I love you so very much to our President Joe Biden when I think about the path 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 Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both and to coach Tim Walls you are going to be any incredible vice president and 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 so my mother our mother shamala Harris 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 so 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 they fell in love and got married and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me growing up we moved a lot I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois to Wisconsin and wherever our parents' jobs took us my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones a home filled with laughter and music artha Co train and miles at the park my mother would say stay close but my father would say as he smiled run kamla 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 before she could finally afford to buy a home she rented a small apartment in the East Bay in the bay in the bay you either live in the Hills or the flat lands we lived in the flats a beautiful workingclass neighbor neighborhood of firefighters nurses and construction workers all who tended their lawns with pride my mother she worked long hours and like many working parents 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 family who taught us how to make gumbo how to play chess and sometimes even let us win family Who Loved Us believed in us and told us we could be anything and do anything they instilled in us the values they personified Community faith and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated with kindness respect and compassion my mother was a brilliant 5 foot tall brown woman with an accent and as the eldest child as the eldest child 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 a lesson that Michelle mentioned the other night she taught us to never complain about Injustice but do something about it do something about it that was my mother and she taught us and she always she also taught us and she also taught us and never do anything half asked and that is a direct quote a direct quote I grew up immersed in the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement my parents had met at a civil rights Gathering and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders including the lawyers like thur Good Marshall and con Constance Baker Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America so at a young age I decided decided I wanted to do that work I wanted to be a lawyer and when it came time to choose the type of law I would pursue I reflected on a pivotal moment in my life you see when I was in high school I started to notice something about my best friend Wanda she was sad at school and there were times she didn't want to go home so one day I asked if everything was all right and she confided in me that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather and I immediately told her she had to come stay with us and she did this is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor to protect people like Wanda because I believe everyone has a right to safety to dignity and to Justice as a prosecutor when I had a case I charged it not in the name of the victim but in the name of the people for a simple reason in our system of justice a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us and I would often explain this to console survivors of crime to remind them no one should be made to fight alone we are all in this together and every day in the courtroom I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words kamla 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 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 one 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 and and with this election our nation our nation with this election 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 not not as members of any one party or faction but as Americans and let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know 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 as a young room prosecutor in Oakland California I stood up for women and children against predators who abuse them as Attorney General of California I took on the big Banks delivered $20 billion for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner Bill of Rights one of the first of its kind in the nation I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were do for seniors facing elder abuse I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities and I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices we were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for and that's the fight we are in right now a fight for America's future 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 Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious consider 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 Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States capital 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 now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse and consider consider what he intends to do if we give him power again consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the capital his explicit intent to jail journalists political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens consider consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from Criminal prosecution just imagine Donald Trump with no guard rails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life not to strengthen our national security but to serve the only client he has ever had himself 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 Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare we are not going back to when he tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions 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 preschool and child care for our children America we are not going [Applause] back and we are charting and 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 and I'll tell you this is personal for me the middle class is where I come from my mother kept a strict budget we lived within our means yet we wanted for little and she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them because as she taught us opportunity is not available to everyone that's why we will create what I call an opportunity economy an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed whether you live in a rural area small town or big city and as president I will bring together labor and workers and small business owners and entrepreneurs and American companies to create jobs to to grow our economy and to lower the cost of everyday needs like Health Care and housing and groceries we will provide access to capital for small business owners and entrepreneurs and Founders and we will end America's housing shortage and protect Social Security and Medicare now compare that to Donald Trump because I think everyone here knows he doesn't actually fight for the middle class not he doesn't actually fight for the middle class instead he fights for himself and his billionaire friends and he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt and all the while he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax call it a trump tax that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $44,000 a year well instead of a trump tax hike we will pass a middle class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans 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 decision decisions and let's be clear about how we got here Donald Trump handpicked members of the United States Supreme Court to take away reproductive freedom and now he brags about it in his words quote I did it and I'm proud to have done it end quote 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 treatment 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 Donald Trump and understand he is not done as a part of his agenda he and his allies would limit access to birth control ban medication abort abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress and get this get this he plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions simply put they are out of their minds and one must ask one must ask why exactly is it that they don't trust women well we trust women we trust women and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive Freedom as president of the United States I will proudly sign it into law 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 Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal well I refuse to play politics with our security and here is my pledge to you as president I will bring back the bipartisan Board of security bill that he killed and I will sign it into long I know I know we can live up to our proud Heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system we can create an earned Pathway to citizenship and secure our border 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 with our brave troops overseas as commanderin-chief I will ensure America always has the strongest most lethal fighting force in the world and