During the final evening of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris paid tribute to her Indian mother Shyamala Gopalan and shared her personal story as the child of a single working mother.
In her speech, she highlighted that her parents met during the civil rights movement and instilled in her the values of social justice.”America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. My mother Shyamala Harris had one of her own. I miss her every day–especially now. And I know she’s looking down tonight, and smiling,” Kamala said.
“My mother was a brilliant, five foot tall, brown woman with an accent, and as the eldest child I saw how the world would treat her but she 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. My mother taught Maya and me to never complain about injustice, but do something about it. She also taught us to never do anything half-a**ed,” she added.
Harris, whose mother Shyamala Gopalan was Indian and father Donald Jasper Harris is Jamaican, shared an emotional tribute to her parents, who separated when she was young. She recounted the lessons she learned from both of them. “My mother would stay, stay close,” she said. “But my father would say as he smiled, ‘Run Kamala! Run! Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.'”
As the second woman to accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, Vice President Harris, who is of Indian and African heritage, has made history. She is the first woman of colour to be at the top of a major American political party’s presidential ticket and the first Indian-American to be nominated as a presidential candidate by either the Republican or Democratic party.
“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 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 the United States,” she said.
Outlining her career as a prosecutor, state attorney general, senator and now vice president, Harris said, “My entire career I’ve only had one client: the people.” Meanwhile, she said Trump has only ever acted in the interests of “the only client he has ever had: himself.”
The prosecutor in her surfaced as she referred to Trump’s actions, such as his intent to free those who assaulted law enforcement officers at the Capitol, jail political opponents, and use the military against American citizens.
Harris made a direct appeal to anti-Trump Republicans, promising to be a president for all Americans and to uphold the country’s constitutional principles, including the rule of law, fair elections, and the peaceful transfer of power.