At The DNC, Kamala Harris Needs to Reintroduce, Reassure, and Renew
There’s a lot to attack Trump on, but Harris’s acceptance speech needs to accomplish much more if she’s going to make an impact.
Acceptance speeches at your party’s national conventions, at their best, are part biography and part policy. They command large audiences at a time when many start paying attention to the campaign. The strongest acceptance speeches reach beyond the thousands in the convention hall to the millions watching at home. And they have tried to connect the candidate’s personal story to a larger narrative about America and where they’d like to take it in the next chapter.
In other words, these speeches have to accomplish a lot. Kamala Harris’ speech has to do even more. While her rise and momentum has been nothing short of extraordinary over the last month, many Americans are still getting to know her. So while this speech needs to answer a lot of lingering questions voters may have, Harris and her team should not try to pack in a boatload of various messages into this speech. Nor should she make her entire speech about Trump. Instead, Harris should try to accomplish three things:
Reintroduce Kamala Harris as a person and public figure. It should talk about who she is, what she is passionate about, who she fights for, and why she fights for them.
Reassure Americans that Kamala Harris is someone who is in the mainstream of American politics. In other words, she is not a radical leftie; she is a center-left Democrat who will fight for her values while keeping most Americans’ concerns in mind.
Renew hope for a better future. Let swing voters know that Harris is a fresh start. She’s future-oriented and people-focused in her approach. She can help us leave behind the funk we have been in since 2016 and in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Her speech can and should obviously include attacks on Trump. But the anti-Trump messaging should be framed in a way that provides a stark contrast with Trump on a policy or philosophy and then pivots back to what she is fighting for.
Reintroducing Herself to the Nation As a Fighter For Them
Kamala Harris’ primary goal from this speech is a biographical reintroduction to voters who want to know more about who she is. Harris needs to go somewhat deep into her upbringing and her early career as a prosecutor to show the value set she was taught and the reason she decided to become a public servant. Describing her upbringing in a middle-class home and her lineage as the descendant of immigrants, she can articulate that this sort of upward mobility is only achievable in America. She can reaffirm that America is a land of opportunity where anyone, with hard work and determination, can reach the highest office in the land. Her middle-class upbringing can be used to emphasize how she understands the needs of families struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. She also needs to mention how her mother’s battle with cancer while navigating a costly healthcare system taught her about how important it is to ensure everyone has access to affordable healthcare. She should emphasize that healthcare is a right for everyone, not just the privileged.
She should reiterate why she became a prosecutor after a dear friend had been sexually abused by her father. Seeing these sorts of injustices led her to a career where she could protect kids from abuse, protect the powerless from the powerful, and ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. She can draw a stark contrast with Trump by framing herself as an experienced prosecutor who went after criminals, transnational gangs, fraudsters, and predatory lenders. That juxtaposition with Trump’s convictions and pending trials is a strong talking point for her, but she should quickly move on to demonstrate how her efforts as a prosecutor made a difference in people’s lives. She should emphasize how their lives were touched by her pursuing justice for them.
Of course, she should discuss her vice presidency and touch on a few policies she has advocated for. Two policies that stand out are capping insulin costs at $35 a month for those on Medicare and her efforts to protect abortion access in the aftermath of the Dobbs case. These are popular policies among voters, and she can easily connect her personal story to her advocacy and future plans as a potential president. On abortion, she should talk about what her values are on the issue and tie it back to a “freedom” agenda I talked about here and here.
Reassuring the Nation That She is a Mainstream Leader Ready to Lead
To counter the Trump campaign’s criticisms of her as a radical left-winger, Harris must portray herself as the right person for this moment — as a candidate who is focused on pursuing practical and popular policy goals rather than extreme progressive ideals. She will need to highlight her plans to address immigration by prioritizing border security while working towards a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals, similar to the approach used by Democrats during the Obama era. Harris should also draw attention to her record as Attorney General of California, emphasizing her efforts to combat drug smugglers and transnational gangs. She should emphasize her collaboration with President Biden and conservative Republicans to address these issues. Additionally, she should underscore that her goal is to expand opportunities for everyone rather than just redistributing outcomes.
A potential attack that she may face is criticism of her more progressive positions taken while running for president in 2019-20. Harris has since changed some of those positions, moving more towards the center. She should defend these changes by emphasizing that her time as vice president taught her to listen to diverse viewpoints and recognize that the president is elected to serve the interests of all Americans. She should clarify that while she won't abandon her values, she is willing to compromise on policy when necessary.
By doing that, Harris can draw on her experience to demonstrate how it has prepared her for this moment. Like Barack Obama in 2008, her main challenge is to reassure the nation that she has the judgment and the experience to lead. She can emphasize that she has been in the room for important decisions and that her lifetime of experience has equipped her with the wisdom to lead as the next president.
Renew Hope in A Better Future — A Fresh Start for A Nation in A Funk
One of Harris' key themes is that she represents the future. This is understandably difficult for the current vice president to argue. However, when running against a candidate who was president and does not focus much on a vision for the future, Harris has found a compelling message. No individual has had as much impact on American politics and life in the last decade as Donald Trump. Harris' potential as the first woman president and first woman of color president, as well as her younger age compared to Trump and President Biden, also works in her favor.
But Harris should not lean into identity. Instead, she should emphasize a vision for the future and cast herself as the president that will drive us away from the funk we have been in as a nation since Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and since the COVID-19 pandemic. Harris should say she is running for a hopeful future that is unburdened by the petty grievances and outrage-stoking that have shackled our politics since Trump was elected. In doing so, Harris must cast her focus on bread and butter economics she has started to lean into - paid family leave, building more affordable housing, and expanding the child tax credit.
She should frame Trump as someone who had his chance to lead but failed to do so because he was focused on his own grievances and not on the needs of the American people. Harris should emphasize what can be done when leaders focus on people.
Harris should recast the value of freedom, a word often used by Republicans, as a value she and her party will defend —the freedom to choose, the freedom to build wealth, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, etc.
Kamala Harris has a real chance to build a lead in this race that can put Donald Trump more on the defensive. Her speech in Chicago this Thursday night should define her in a positive light, cast her as the candidate in the mainstream, and frame her as the candidate who is focused on the future by demonstrating that her opponent represents a past we need to leave behind once and for all.
I’ve also drafted some specific lines that I would write for Harris if I were her speechwriter, which I think would accomplish these goals. You can read it here later this week and leave a comment if you notice her leaning into any of these ideas.