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

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

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

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

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

Vice President Kamala Harris ended her speech on a patriotic note, saying “we are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

“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,” she said. “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.”

Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized again that she supports Israel’s right to defend itself and acknowledged Palestinian suffering, describing “desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again.”

She drew one of the largest applauses of the night.

Vice President Kamala Harris made abortion access a key tenet of her acceptance speech, claiming former President Donald Trump and his allies would enact a nationwide abortion ban.

Trump has said he would not sign such legislation, but some of his allies have advocated for a nationwide ban.

Vice President Kamala Harris promised to pass a “middle class tax cut” to benefit more than 100 million Americans, but did not identify which taxes would be cut or how.

Harris has previously said she would advocate for a expansion of the earned income tax credit.

Vice President Kamala Harris described a second Trump administration in somewhat dark terms Thursday, saying that while she considers him “an unserious man… the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”

Harris warned that Trump has promised to pardon those who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, describing them as “violent extremists.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vice President Kamala Harris began an historic acceptance speech after a lengthy ovation capping the Democratic National Convention Thursday as thousands of delegates chanted “U-S-A!”

“Thank you everyone, thank you,” she said multiple times. “Let’s get to business.”

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

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

U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, who represents parts of the Philadelphia suburbs including Chester County, stood on stage at the DNC Thursday alongside a group of elected veterans. The show of support was led by U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running for Senate in Arizona.

Houlahan is an Air Force veteran.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Philadelphia imam delivered the invocation on the final night of the Democratic National Convention just hours before Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to accept the presidential nomination.

Imam Muhammad Abdul-Aleem, of the Masjidullah mosque is West Oak Lane, gave the invocation alongside Everett Kelly, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the the Democratic presidential nomination tonight in a speech scheduled to take place around 10:45 p.m., according to a guidance from the White House.

Harris, the first woman of color to be nominated for president by a major political party, is scheduled to deliver the high-profile address in Chicago on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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