Good morning, Broadsheet readers! The National Women’s Soccer League got rid of the draft in a new union deal with players, the DEI backlash is hitting Black beauty founders, and Kamala Harris accepts the nomination for president. Have a restorative weekend!
– History in Chicago. Last night, Kamala Harris became the first woman of color to accept a major party’s nomination for U.S. president. On the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the vice president shared her life story and made her case to thousands of Democrats on-site and millions more voters watching at home.
The convention was historic, eight years after Democrats first chose a woman as their party’s nominee. Only a month into her campaign—a “no doubt unexpected” path, Harris acknowledged—the event gave Harris the chance to promote her record to Americans.
She spoke about growing up with her scientist-civil rights activist-immigrant mom, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, sharing lessons like her mother’s admonishment not to complain about injustice, but to do something about it. She recounted her career as a prosecutor, citing the sexual abuse of a childhood friend as the moment that inspired her to pursue that path with her law degree. She listed her victories as California’s attorney general, taking on banks and cartels. “Kamala Harris for the people” was how she described both the cases she filed then and her campaign today.
Kamala Harris speaks on the final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.David Paul Morris/Bloomberg—Getty ImagesThe speech also gave Harris the opportunity to tell voters what she’s been doing over the past four years as President Joe Biden’s VP. She outlined her economic agenda. In a boost to her foreign policy chops since she last ran for president in 2020, Harris said she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky five days before Vladimir Putin’s invasion to help prepare the country for Russian aggression. And she addressed some of the toughest issues facing both the current administration and the next president, especially the war in Gaza.
Harris spent a fair amount of time railing against her opponent, Donald Trump. The Harris campaign has framed the election as a choice between a “felon” and a “prosecutor.” Describing the Project 2025 plan to install a national “anti-abortion coordinator” and track women’s miscarriages and pregnancy terminations, Harris delivered a memorable moment: “Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she said of Republicans’ abortion policy. (Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social about the speech. “Is she talking about me?” he wrote.)
While many Democrats in the crowd wore white in honor of women’s suffrage, Harris opted for navy blue. All in all, it was a fairly typical convention speech—but one that had new significance because of the candidate delivering it.
It’s been a packed few weeks for the Harris campaign—and those of us covering what remains a neck-and-neck race. The next major moment is expected for Sept. 10, when Harris and Trump are scheduled to debate.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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