Please welcome the Democratic nominee for president, Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris. The only woman. Former Vice President Kamala Harris.
President of the United States. She'll make the case tonight. She'll reintroduce herself to the nation to why she believes.
States, you can see her family. Her stepchild's been second gentleman, Doug Emhoff. Of course, would make history right along with her, becoming the first gentleman if she's elected President of the United States.
Let's listen to the Vice President, Kamala Harris. Thank you, please, thank you so very much. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Thank you.
Okay, let's get to business. Let's get to business. Alright.
By thanking my most incredible husband, Doug, for being an incredible husband. Partner to me, an incredible father to Cole and Ella, and happy anniversary, Dougie. Thank you so very much. To our President Joe Biden. Think about the path that we have traveled together, Joe.
I am filled with gratitude. Your record is extraordinary, as history will show. And your character is inspiring.
And Doug and I love you and Jill and are forever thankful to you both. Tim Walls. To the delegates and everyone who has put your faith in our campaign, your support is humbling.
So, America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I'm no stranger to unlikely journeys. My mother, our mother, Shamala Harris, had one of her own. And I miss her every day, and especially right now. And I know she's looking down smiling.
I know that. So my mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, traveling from India to California with an unshakable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer. When she finished school, she was supposed to return home to a traditional arranged marriage.
But as fate would have it, she met my father, Donald Harris, a student from Jamaica. They fell in love and got married, and that act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me. Growing up we moved a lot. I will always remember that big Mayflower truck packed with all our belongings ready to go to Illinois, to Wisconsin. Wherever our parents'jobs took us, my early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones.
A home filled with laughter and music, Aretha, Coltrane, and Miles. At the park, my mother would say, stay close. But my father would say, as he smiled, run Kamala, run, don't be afraid, don't let anything stop you.
From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless. But the harmony between my parents did not last. When I was in elementary school, they split up.
And it was mostly my mother who raised us. Before she could finally afford to buy a home, she rented a small apartment in the East Bay. In the Bay, you either live in the hills or the flatlands.
We lived in the flats. A beautiful, working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses, and construction workers. All who tended their lawns with pride. My mother, she worked long hours.
And like many working parents, she leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us. Mrs. Shelton, who ran the daycare below us and became a second mother. Uncle Sherman, Aunt Mary, Uncle Freddy, Auntie Chris. None of them family by blood.
And all of them, family by love. Family who taught us how to make gumbo, how to play chess, and sometimes even let us win. Family who loved us, believed in us, and told us we could be anything and do anything. They instilled in us the values they personified. Community, faith, and the importance of treating others as you would want to be treated.
With kindness, respect, and compassion. My mother was a brilliant, five foot tall, brown woman with an accent. And as the eldest child, as the eldest child, I saw how the world would sometimes treat her. But my mother never lost her cool.