Greetings America.
It’s really an honor to talk to you.
That I’m here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations to me. Women and men who so fervently believed in the promise of equality, freedom and justice for all.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. And we celebrate the women who fought for that right.
Yet so many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still far from being voted on, long after ratification.
But they were undeterred.
Without fanfare or recognition, witnesses organized, witnessed, counseled, marched and fought – not only for their voice, but for a seat at the table. These women and the generations that followed worked to create democracy and opportunity in the lives of all of us who followed.
They paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
And these women inspired us to pick up the torch, and fight.
Women like Mary Church Terrell and Mary McCleod Bethune. Fannie Lou Hamer and Diane Nash. Constance Baker Motley and Shirley Chisholm.
We are not often taught their stories. But as Americans, we all stand on our shoulders.
There is another woman, whose name is not known, whose story is not shared. Another woman whose shoulders I stand. And that’s my mother – Shyamala Gopalan Harris.
She came here from India at the age of 19 to pursue her dream of cancer. At the University of California, Berkeley, she met my father, Donald Harris – who came from Jamaica to study economics.
They fell in love in the most American way – while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a childish view of people entering what the great John Lewis called “good trouble.”
When I was 5, my parents split up and my mom grew us up mostly on her own. Like so many moms, she worked round the clock to work it out – packing lunches before we woke up – and paying bills after we went to bed. Help us with homework at the kitchen table – and send us to church for choir practice.
They made it easy to see, though I know it never was.
My mother instilled in my sister, Maya, and me the values that would map the course of our lives.
She raised us to be proud, strong Black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.
She taught us to put family first – the family you were born into and the family you choose.
Family, is my husband Doug, whom I met on a blind date set up by my best friend. Family is our wonderful children, Cole and Ella, who, as you just heard, call me Momala. Family is my sister. Family is my best friend, my uncles and my grandchildren. Family is my uncles, my aunts – my chitthis. Family is Mrs. Shelton – my second mother who lived two doors down and helped raise me. Family is my favorite Alpha Kappa Alpha … our Divine 9 … and my HBCU brothers and sisters. Family is the friends I turned to when my mother – the most important person in my life – died of cancer.
And even when she taught us to keep our family at the center of our world, she also pressured us to see a world outside of ourselves.
She taught us to be aware and to be compassionate about the struggles of all people. Incredible public service is a noble cause and the fight for justice is a shared responsibility.
That led me to become a lawyer, a district attorney, attorney general, and a U.S. senator.
And at every step of the way, I’m led by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom: Kamala Harris, For the People.
I have fought for children, and survivors of sexual assault. I have fought against transnational ties. I hired the biggest banks, and helped one of the biggest colleges profit.
I know a predator when I see one.
My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish they were here last night, but I know she’s looking down on me from above. I am thinking more and more of that 25-year-old Indian woman – all five feet tall – who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.
On that day, she could probably never have imagined that I would now stand before you to speak these words: I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America.
I do that, committed to the values she taught me. To the Word that teaches me to walk by faith, not by sight. And to a vision passed down through generations of Americans – one that Joe Biden shares. A vision of our nation as a Beloved Community – where everyone is welcome, no matter how we look, where we come from, or who we love.
A country in which we may not agree on every detail, but we are united by the fundamental belief that every human being is of infinite value, deserves compassion, dignity and respect.
A country where we look for each other, where we rise and fall as one, where we face our challenges and celebrate our triumphs – together.
Today … that country feels distant.
Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods.
If you’re a parent who’s having trouble learning at a distance from your child, or you’re a teacher who is struggling on the other side of that screen, you know that what we’re doing now is not working.
And we are a nation that mourns. Sadness of the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normality. And yes, the loss of certainty.
And while this virus affects us all, let’s be honest, it’s not an equal chancellor. Blacks, Latinos and Indians suffer and die disproportionately.
This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism.
From inequalities in education and technology, health care and housing, job security and transport.
The injustice in reproductive and maternal care. In the excessive use of force by police. And in our broader criminal justice system.
This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other – and how we treat each other.
And let’s be clear – there is no vaccine for racism. We have to do the work.
For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For the lives of too many others to name. For our children. For all of us.
We must do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. Because not one of us is free … until we are all free …
We are at an inflection point.
The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel scared. The clutter makes us feel alone.
It’s a lot.
And here’s the thing: we can do better and earn so much more.
We need to elect a president who will bring something different, something better, and do the important work. A president who will bring us all together – Black, White, Latino, Asian, Indian – to achieve the future we collectively want.
We have to choose Joe Biden.
I knew Joe as vice president. I knew Joe on the campaign trail. But I first learned Joe as my friend’s father.
Joe’s son, Beau, and I serve as Attorneys General of our states, Delaware and California. During the Great Recession, we talked on the phone almost every day, and we worked together to win back billions of dollars for homeowners of the big banks who foreclosed on people’s homes.
And Beau and I would talk about his family.
How, as a single father, Joe would spend 4 hours every day on the train from Wilmington to Washington and back. Beau and Hunter had to have breakfast with their father this morning. They went to sleep every night with the sound of his voice reading stories from the bed. And although they suffered an unspeakable loss, these two little boys always knew that they were deeply, unconditionally in love.
And what also strikes me about Joe is the work he did when he went back and forth. This is the leader who wrote the Violence Against Women Act – and introduced the ban on gun attacks. Who, as Vice President, implemented the Restoration Act, which brought our country back from The Great Recession. He was promoted to the Affordable Care Act, and protected millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. Whoever spent decades promoting American values and interests, stand with our allies and keep up with our opponents.
At the moment, we have a president who is turning our tragedies into political weapons.
Joe will be a president who meets our challenges.
Joe will bring us together to build an economy that leaves no one behind. Where a well-paying job is the floor, not the ceiling.
Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure we are ready for the next one.
Joe will bring us together to face and remove rational injustice in the square, to make the work of further
generations.
Joe and I believe we can build that Beloved Community, one that is strong and decent, fair and friendly. One in which we can all see ourselves.
That is the vision our parents and grandparents fought for. The vision that made my own life possible. The vision that makes the American promise – for all its complexities and imperfections – is a promise worth fighting for.
Make no mistake, the road ahead will not be easy. We will stumble. We may fall short. But I promise you that we will act boldly and treat our challenges honestly. We will speak truths. And we will trade with the same confidence in you that we ask you to place in us.
We believe that our country – we will all stand together for a better future. We already are.
We see it in the doctors, the nurses, the health care workers at home and the frontline workers who risk their lives to save people they have never met.
We see it in the teachers and truck drivers, the factory workers and farmers, the postal workers and the Poll workers, who are all putting their own safety on the line to help us get through this pandemic.
And we see it in so many of you who work, not just to get us through our current crisis, but to get somewhere better.
There’s something happening all over the country.
It’s not about Joe like me.
It’s about you.
It’s about us. People of all ages and colors and faiths who, yes, take to the streets, as well as convince our family members, gather our friends, organize our neighbors and cast their votes.
And we’ve shown that when we vote, we’re expanding access to health care, expanding access to the ballot box, and ensuring that more working families can earn a decent living.
I am inspired by a new generation of leadership. You push us to realize the ideals of our nation, by pushing us to live the values we share: decency and honesty, justice and love.
You are the patriots who remind us that the love of our country is to fight for the ideals of our country.
In this election we have an opportunity to change the course of history. We are all in this fight.
You, me and Joe – together.
What an amazing responsibility. What an amazing privilege.
So, let’s fight with conviction. Let’s fight with hope. Let us fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to one another. To America, we know it is possible. America, we love.
Years from now, this moment will be over. And our children and our grandchildren will look into our eyes and ask us: Where were you when the stakes were so high?
They will ask us, how was it?
And we’ll tell her. We will tell them, not just how we felt.
We’ll tell her what we did.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
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