Kamala Harris’ big speech seeks to redefine her for America By Reuters

By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt

CHICAGO (Reuters) -Vice President Kamala Harris will try to redefine herself for America and draw a sharp contrast with Republican Donald Trump on Thursday when she accepts the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

“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 will say, according to advance excerpts of the speech.

The four-day Democratic National Convention has drawn some of the biggest names in politics and music, including megastar Beyonce who will perform on Thursday, entertainment website TMZ reported, citing multiple sources.

Harris emerged as the Democratic candidate little more than a month ago when allies of President Joe Biden, 81, forced him to quit the race. If successful, she stands to make history as the first woman elected U.S. president.

Harris, 59, will talk about her life as the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother and lay out her plans to tackle rising costs and advance personal freedoms, including abortion rights, aides said.

Alluding to the divisive rhetoric Trump has used on the campaign trail, Harris promised to “be a president for all Americans.”

A former California attorney general, Harris’ presidential ambitions were apparent for years, but they had been undermined by her own shaky 2020 campaign and bumps along the way of her nearly four years as vice president.

“With this election, our nation 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 as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans,” she said.

Country band The Chicks was due to sing the national anthem, and Pink will perform in Chicago’s United Center, an arena that seats more than 20,000 people

The speakers list included members of the Central Park Five, Black men who were exonerated after being wrongly convicted of rape as teenagers and incarcerated for years. Victims of gun violence, including former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords, will also appear.

Former U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Trump, is one of several Republicans to speak at the convention for Harris and against Trump.

Over the last three days, Democrats have sought to define themselves as the voice of American values from small towns to overseas.

Her forceful stump speeches have been met by a surge in enthusiasm from voters ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Harris has raised a record-breaking $500 million in a month and has narrowed the gap or taken the lead against Trump in many opinion polls of battleground states that will decide the election.

UNRESOLVED GAZA ISSUES

Outside the convention center, thousands of Palestinian supporters gathered to protest U.S. support for Israel as it wages war in Gaza. The issue is one of the most divisive among Democrats and got little attention at the convention, which could hurt them at the polls.

Harris has yet to articulate much of her vision for the country, and Republicans say Democrats have spent more time attacking Trump than elaborating on how they would govern. 

Harris has spent weeks on the speech, making changes to drafts from lead speechwriter Adam Frankel, including during campaign trips on Air Force Two.

Aides say she will discuss her plans to cut taxes for most Americans, boost the housing supply and ban what she calls “price gouging” by grocers. Her campaign has also proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

The speech will include elements of foreign policy along with stories of women affected by abortion bans and other curbs on reproductive rights, aides and advisers said.  

Trump, campaigning this week in a handful of battleground states, accused Harris at an Arizona stop along the U.S.-Mexico border of not doing enough to prevent illegal immigration.