Democrats gathered Thursday night in Chicago to hear a bevy of speakers followed by Vice President Kamala Harris’ formal acceptance of their nomination for president to close out the party’s convention.
The weeklong coronation of Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as Democrats’ presidential nominee just one month ago, commenced with a party-like atmosphere that featured music and dancing at the United Center.
All week, organizers of the Democratic National Convention presented a show of unity despite underlying divisions in the party, most notably on the Israel-Hamas war. The same spirit filled the air Thursday night as delegates and other attendees awaited the most important speech of Harris’ political career.
Shortly after the opening ceremonies, Democrats offered the stage to two teachers union bosses, followed by members of Congress and the Rev. Al Sharpton, the controversial activist and commentator.
Here are some of the more notable highlights from the fourth and final night of the DNC, which finally managed to wrap up before midnight EDT.
1. The Main Event: Harris’ ‘Unlikely Journey’ to Democrat Nominee
“Let’s get to business,” Harris told the crowd in an attempt to quiet the raucous applause greeting her arrival onstage at United Center about 10:35 p.m. EDT.
Harris proceeded to acknowledge her husband, Doug Emhoff, whom she married exactly 10 years ago to the day. She then thanked Biden and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, who were not present.
Harris talked about the “unlikely journey” that led her to the party’s nomination, recalling stories about her parents and the lessons she learned as a child of a single mother after they split up.
“My mother was a brilliant, 5-foot-tall brown woman with an accent,” Harris said. “And 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 [Obama] mentioned the other night: She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it.”
Harris said her parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement inspired her to pursue a career in law. She recalled that an abusive relationship between her best friend and the friend’s stepfather convinced her to become a prosecutor.
“I believe everyone has a right to safety, dignity, and justice,” Harris said. “In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us.”
2. Harris Speaks Broadly About Policy Agenda, Skips Specifics
After sharing her personal biography, Harris pivoted to policy issues. She touted her record as California attorney general, U.S. senator, and vice president and argued that she would be a better choice than returning Trump as president.
“This election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation,” she said. “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
Harris took Trump to task for his leadership style as president and his behavior in the aftermath of the disputed 2020 election, then warned about his agenda should voters elect him again.
“We know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in ‘Project 2025,’ written by his closest advisers,” she warned.
Harris accused Trump of trying to cut Social Security and Medicare, seeking to repeal Obamacare, and wanting to eliminate the Department of Education.
“America, we are not going back,” she said to applause. “We are charting a new way 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.”
Citing her own upbringing in a middle-class family, Harris made a direct appeal to this voting bloc, who could swing the election to either candidate particularly in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Harris also devoted part of her speech to abortion, an issue where she and Democrats hold a sizable advantage over Trump and Republicans. She accused her opponent of wanting to limit access to birth control and enact a nationwide abortion ban—although Trump holds neither position.
“Simply put,” Harris said, “they are out of their minds. And one must ask: Why exactly is it that they don’t trust women? Well, 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.”
On border security, a problem that Harris failed to fix as the White House’s “border czar,” she promised to “reform our broken immigration system” and “create an earned pathway to citizenship.” Notably, she listed both before saying she would secure the border.
Harris devoted parts of her speech to two foreign wars that began on her watch as vice president, boasting that she warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about Russia’s invasion in 2022 and is working “around the clock” to bring an end to the fighting in Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war.
She surprised some by explicitly referring to Hamas, the elected government of the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organization. The war began after Hamas terrorists went on a rampage of torture, rape, and murder Oct. 7, leaving 1,200 dead and taking 250 hostages in southern Israel.
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said. “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.”
3. Leaders of Teachers Unions Rally Against Trump-Vance Ticket
Dressed in white blazers, the two teachers union leaders took the stage to warn delegates about the dangers posed by former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, his running mate on the GOP ticket.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten made partisan appeals in keeping with their unions’ one-sided political giving to Democrats.
“Donald Trump and JD Vance are not just wrong—they’re dangerous. It’s all right there in Project 2025. They will shut down the Department of Education,” said Pringle, who leads the larger of the two teachers unions. “We are coming together to say, ‘Not on our watch.’”
Launched by The Heritage Foundation two years ago, Project 2025 grew to a coalition of 110 conservative organizations that developed a transition plan for the next presidential administration. Unlike some of the misstatements and lies about it, Project 2025 does call for the Education Department’s elimination—an idea endorsed by Trump.
Weingarten, whose controversial statements during the COVID-19 pandemic drew the ire of conservatives and parents alike, pledged her allegiance to the Democrat ticket.
“One of the first lessons my students taught me was you got to walk the walk,” she said. “That means Donald Trump and JD Vance can’t claim they’re pro-child while gutting funding for public schools. That means that being pro-family means we support access to good union jobs, affordable housing, health care, and higher education. That’s what Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are fighting for—and we are all in.”
4. Wisconsin Senator Misrepresents Trump’s Position on Social Security
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., began her remarks by talking about the two grandparents who raised her as a child. It was her attempt at appealing to senior citizens—and casting doubt on Trump’s pledges to protect Social Security.
Dating to his first presidential run in 2016, Trump repeatedly has stated his opposition to cutting Social Security benefits.
“Donald Trump was asked what he would do about Social Security and Medicare and he said, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of cutting.’ He’s talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare while giving a huge new tax break to billionaires and corporations,” Baldwin said.
There’s just one problem—that’s not exactly what Trump said. In fact, he never mentioned Social Security or Medicare by name.
In a March 11 interview on CNBC, Trump said: “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.”
The term entitlements may reference any number of government programs; entitlements have grown in recent years to encompass an even greater share of the federal budget.
For his part, Trump clarified his position by stating: “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.”
5. Sharpton Targets Trump, Highlights Case of Central Park 5
Delivering a divisive speech filled with appeals to several identity groups, the Rev. Al Sharpton began his remarks by taking aim at Trump.
“Donald Trump was a fellow New Yorker I’ve known for 40 years,” Sharpton told the crowd. “Only once, once in that time, did he take a position on racial issues. He spent a small fortune on full-page ads calling for the execution of five innocent young teenagers.”
Sharpton was referring to the so-called Central Park Five, a group of black men convicted of beating and raping a woman in 1989. They were released in 2002 when another man confessed to the crime. Following his speech, Sharpton invited four of the convicted men to the stage to make brief remarks.
At the time of the 1989 incident, Trump purchased newspaper ads with this headline: “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!”
Recent polls show black men are gravitating toward Trump, potentially a deciding factor in the election’s outcome. Sharpton didn’t mince words.
“All Donald Trump has been consistent about is making himself richer and sowing division to get that done,” Sharpton said. “This man sat right here in Chicago a few weeks ago refusing to apologize for claims that migrants were taking black jobs. Well, in November we are going to show him when blacks do their job.”
Sharpton, at one point, mispronounced Harris’ first name, a mistake repeated by several other speakers at the Democratic National Convention despite partisans’ accusations that anyone who does that is making a “disrespectful” if not a “racist” remark.
6. Sen. Bob Casey Complains About Cost of Diapers
Democrats hold a one-seat advantage in the U.S. Senate and face a tough map to defend in November. Although three incumbents stayed home and kept their distance from Chicago, others ventured to the Windy City for high-profile speaking spots Thursday night.
One of them, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., began his remarks by complaining about inflation, specifically the cost of diapers.
“In just six months, a box of diapers went up $15,” Casey said. “The corporations say your prices are up only because their costs are up. They’re selling you a lie. It’s in the bag with the diapers. Prices are up because these corporations are scheming to drive them up.”
Reminiscent of Harris’ widely mocked economic speech last week—in which the vice president also noted rising prices since Biden became president—Casey blamed “faceless wholesalers.”
“They’re the ones who are extorting families at the checkout counter,” he said, without referencing the trillions of dollars in government spending that sparked inflation during the Biden-Harris administration.
Last week, Harris endorsed Casey’s bill, the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which would empower the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to combat what Democrats call “greedflation.”
7. Senate Hopefuls Make Their Pitch
Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives made their appeals to the party faithful for jobs in Congress’ upper chamber.
Two-term Rep. Colin Allred is attempting to unseat the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ted Cruz, in reliably red Texas. Rep. Elissa Slotkin is hoping to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow in Michigan.
Both lawmakers are in their 40s and considered rising stars in their party.
Allred, a former NFL player who beat a Republican incumbent in 2018, faces a tougher path in November with Trump on the ballot. That didn’t stop him from talking tough Thursday night.
“In the NFL, we had a term for guys like Donald Trump and my opponent, Ted Cruz: Me guys,” Allred said. “You know the type: talk a big game but only care about themselves. You don’t want to be stuck with them at a barbecue.”
Allred cited three issues in his campaign for Senate: restoring “reproductive freedom,” securing the border, and protecting Medicare and Social Security.
>>> Related: Allred vs. Cruz: 2 Opposing Visions for Texas’ Border With Mexico
Like Allred, Slotkin won election to Congress in 2018. She previously served as a CIA analyst and Defense Department official.
Slotkin focused her remarks on national security, claiming the presidential election was a choice between retreating or leading on the world stage.
“Trump wants to take us backwards,” she said. “He admires dictators a lot. He treats our friends as adversaries and our adversaries as friends. But our vision is based on our values—the values that took us to the shores of Normandy and helped us win the Cold War.”
8. Warren Contrasts Harris, Trump in Appeal to Working-Class Voters
Wiping tears from her eyes amid sustained applause, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., portrayed Harris as a champion for everyday Americans in contrast to Trump.
“You know what I love best about Kamala Harris?” Harris said. “Kamala Harris can’t be bought and she can’t be bossed around.”
Warren, who led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before her 2012 election to the U.S. Senate, spoke of her time working with Harris, then California’s attorney general, in the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
While they were “protecting families,” Warren said, Trump was “scamming students at Trump University and trying to make money off people losing their homes.”
Taking a page from Trump’s populist playbook, Warren argued that Harris would be a better president for lowering costs, taking on Wall Street and drug companies, and going after corporate monopolies.
Warren invoked Trump’s recent conviction in New York three times in the span of her five-minute speech, trying to make the case he couldn’t be trusted.
“Groceries, gas, housing, health care, taxes, abortion,” she said, listing some of the top issues of the 2024 presidential campaign. “Trust Donald Trump and JD Vance to look out for your family? Shoot, I wouldn’t trust them to move my couch.”
9. Stars Come Out on Kamala’s Big Night
The (Dixie) Chicks sang an interesting acapella rendition of the national anthem, comedian D.L. Hughley cracked jokes, and actresses Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria made appearances Thursday night in what has become a star-studded event in Chicago.
In another musical moment, pop singer Pink sang her 2017 hit “What About Us” with daughter Willow Sage.
It’s no secret that Hollywood favors Harris, a California native, but Democrats have done their part to showcase some household names during convention week.
Just one night after former President Bill Clinton repeatedly mispronounced Harris’ first name, Washington was joined on stage by the candidate’s two nieces to lead the crowd in a chant of “COMMA-LA.”
“It’s come to my attention there are some folks who struggle—or pretend to struggle—with the proper pronunciation of our future president’s name,” Washington said. “Confusion is understandable. Disrespect is not. Tonight, we are going to help everyone get it right.”
Later in the evening, former “Desperate Housewives” star Longoria predicted that women would be the deciding factor in the Nov. 5 election.
10. Democrats’ Favorite Republican: Adam Kinzinger
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who represented Illinois as a Republican, got a prime speaking slot to make the case for Harris.
“I was a Republican for 12 years in Congress, and I still hold onto the label,” Kinzinger said. “I never thought I’d be here. But listen, you never thought you’d see me here, did you?”
“I’ve learned something about the Democratic Party, and I want to let my fellow Republicans in on the secret: The Democrats are as patriotic as us.”
Kinzinger, who served on House Democrats’ committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, cited that fateful day in his remarks. He called Trump “too fragile, too vain, and too weak to accept defeat.”
Kinzinger’s remarks were among the most pointed—and personal—comments about Trump of all the DNC speakers Thursday night.
“Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big. He’s a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator playing the victim,” Kinzinger said.
The former Republican lawmaker didn’t mention Trump’s narrow escape from an assassin’s bullet July 13.
A passionate supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, Kinzinger also chided Trump for his past comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin and mocked Vance for his views on that war.
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report, which was updated throughout the night.
