In the first official speech of her campaign for the presidency, Vice President Harris cut a stark contrast to former President Trump.Dominic Gwinn/ZUMA
Vice President Kamala Harris’ days as a courtroom prosecutor are long behind her.
But in her first official campaign speech as a presidential candidate in Milwaukee on Tuesday, she made it clear that it was that job, and those that followed—as District Attorney of San Francisco and Attorney General of California—that make her the best person to take on Trump.
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds,” Harris said near the beginning of an energetic 20-minute speech. “Predators who abused women; fraudsters who ripped off consumers; cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.”
“In this campaign,” she added, “I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week.”
Harris went on to do just that, pointing to her history of taking on a for-profit college that scammed students while she was California’s AG, which she compared to Trump running such a college; she also discussed her history prosecuting fraud and sexual abuse cases, compared to Trump’s recent conviction for 34 counts of fraud in his hush-money trial, and his being found liable for sexual abuse last year in the civil suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. Those examples were also among the ones included in a powerful ad for Harris’ failed 2020 presidential campaign.
“Lock him up!” someone in the crowd chanted as Harris recounted Trump’s litany of legal troubles.
Harris also noted her support for unions, affordable healthcare and childcare, paid family leave, and Social Security: “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency,” she said.
And while Harris didn’t point out this contrast in her speech, it has been well documented that Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), has dismissed universal childcare as “a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class,” and has signaled support for women staying home to raise children full-time rather than pursuing careers. Republicans are also trying to rebrand as a workers’ party by ostensibly encouraging support for unions, as my colleague Tim Murphy wrote from the Republican National Convention last week—but it’s not quite landing for everyone. And the more than 900-page “Mandate for Leadership” issued by Project 2025, an initiative led by dozens of conservative groups and spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, lays out a plan for a future Trump administration to roll back retirement and health care benefits.
Harris has repeatedly highlighted the threats posed by Project 2025 and did so again during her first campaign speech, joking, “Can you believe they put that thing in writing?” She also promised, if elected, to expand voting rights; take on gun violence through red flag laws, universal background checks, and a renewed assault weapons ban; and protect abortion rights by passing a federal law to codify Roe.
“We’ll stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans,” Harris said, to cheers. As I reported this weekend, abortion rights advocates believe that Harris is an ideal messenger on this winning issue for Democrats, given her direct and consistent support for abortion and other reproductive justice issues—particularly compared to President Joe Biden’s discomfort campaigning on the issue.
As of Tuesday morning, Harris had earned enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reported. And as she looks to the presidency, she is casting her campaign as one focused on the future—which seems to offer a deliberate contrast to both the concerns about Biden’s age that previously dogged the Democratic ticket and Trump’s backwards-looking dream of “making America great again.”
“Generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom,” Harris said Tuesday, “and now, Wisconsin, the baton is in our hands.”
If today’s speech—and the past 48 hours, including her record-breaking fundraising haul—are any indication, Democrats are far more energized about the prosecutor-turned-presidential-candidate than they were about Biden.
