Harris to deliver pivotal speech as she accepts Democratic nomination

KAMALA HARRIS is set to deliver the most critical speech of her political career on Thursday (22) as she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in Chicago, marking a historic moment in the 2024 White House race.

The 59-year-old US vice-president will focus on a message of optimism, following a remarkable surge in her campaign after president Joe Biden withdrew from the race.

Harris has invigorated her party in just one month, and she will use her address at the Democratic National Convention to share her personal journey with the American people, positioning her hopeful vision against the more somber tone of her Republican rival, Donald Trump.

"When Kamala gets on stage we're not going to stop. It's going to blow the roof off," said Amanda Taylor, a 47-year-old delegate from Missouri.

While Democrats are buoyed by Harris’s rise in the polls, they are aware that the path to victory remains challenging.

Despite the excitement surrounding her candidacy, senior Democrats like Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton have cautioned that Harris faces a tough battle against 78-year-old Trump.

The sheer speed of her astonishing rise to the top of the ticket also means Harris remains an unknown quantity to many US voters.

A trailblazer as the first woman, black and south Asian vice-president in US history – and now bidding to become its first woman president – her role has largely kept her in the background the last four years.

Harris against 'Trump's dark, conservative ideas for a second term in the Oval Office'

Harris will seek to remedy that in her speech. She will talk about how she was raised by a working mother and knows the challenges facing families hit by inflation, a campaign official said on condition of anonymity.

She will then contrast her optimistic vision for America's future against what her campaign calls Trump's dark, conservative ideas for a second term in the Oval Office, the official said.

Speaker after speaker has focused on the idea of freedom during the Democratic convention, as the party targets what it says are Republican plans to further limit abortion and clamp down on democratic institutions.

On Wednesday (21), Harris's energetic running mate Tim Walz formally accepted the party's nomination saying that "Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead."

But Harris has been short on policy announcements since taking over as Democratic standard-bearer, particularly when it comes to the economy, a key issue in the election.

Harris had to take advantage of her first major speech in a presidential setting as "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression," political analyst Larry Sabato told AFP.

'Voters already have the Kamala vibes'

"Voters already have the Kamala vibes. Now they need the Kamala agenda," said Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia. A lack of economic policy "can defeat her faster than the border," he added.

But when it comes to vibes, the Democrats were in full on celebration mode.

Under Harris, the Democrats are unrecognisable from the party that was steeped in despair after 81-year-old Biden's a catastrophic debate performance against Trump.

Former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle raised the roof in Chicago on Tuesday (20), with the ex-first lady declaring that under Harris "hope is making a comeback."

On Wednesday, former president Bill Clinton, television personality Oprah Winfrey and musicians Stevie Wonder and John Legend were the warm-up acts for Walz.

Biden's farewell address on Monday, when Harris made a surprise appearance on stage to give him a hug, already seems like a distant memory.

If the transition has been head-spinning for Biden and the Democrats, it has completely unsettled Trump.

In a rollercoaster summer he has survived an assassination attempt, and then seen what he thought was certain victory turned on its head by a new and far younger appearance.

Trump will be in Arizona on the Mexican border on Thursday to push Harris's weak spot on the issue of illegal immigration. (AFP)