Washington — Former first lady Michelle Obama celebrated Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy in a speech at the Democratic convention Tuesday, comparing her candidacy to that of her husband Barack Obama’s in 2008.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” she said, alluding to his iconic 2008 campaign on hope.
“Something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” she said, receiving huge applause on the second night of the convention. “We’re feeling it here in this arena, but it’s spreading all across this country we love. A familiar feeling that’s been buried too deep for too long. You know what I’m talking about? It’s the contagious power of hope!”
Michelle Obama has spoken at every convention since 2008, when her husband was first nominated. Eight years later, she delivered her memorable line, “When they go low, we go high.” In her 2020 speech, she said then-President Trump “is clearly in over his head” and “cannot meet this moment.”
Obama noted that she was last in Chicago for a memorial for her mother, Marian Robinson, who died in May. Her mother, she said, “set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my voice,” and she said months later, “I still feel her loss so profoundly — I wasn’t even sure I’d be steady enough to stand before you tonight.”
She added that she felt compelled to be at the convention to honor her memory and “that striving sense of hope” she lived “every day of her life.” And the values Obama drew from her mother, she sees in Harris.
“Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values,” Obama said.
Alyssa Pointer / REUTERS
The former first lady sought to contrast Harris and Trump throughout her speech, while only mentioning the former president by name once.
“Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others, she understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” Harris said.
She touted Harris “as more than ready for this moment,” calling her “one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency.”
“It couldn’t be more obvious of the two major candidates in this race, only Kamala Harris truly understands the unseen labor and unwavering commitment that has always made America great,” she said. “Now, unfortunately, we know what comes next.”
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard working and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.”
Then, she quipped, “who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
It was a reference to Trump, who in the June debate against President Biden claimed that immigrants were taking “Black jobs.”
During the speech, Obama also briefly mentioned IVF, which she used to conceive both her daughters. In a Trump presidency, “gutting our health care, taking away our freedom to control our bodies, the freedom to become a mother through IVF, like I did — those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers, and daughters,” she said. Obama first revealed her use of IVF in her book “Becoming.”
She called on Americans to “do something” to help elect Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“In some states, just a handful — listen to me — a handful of votes in every precinct could decide the winner. So we need to vote in numbers that erase any doubt. We need to overwhelm any effort to suppress us,” she said. “Let us work like our lives depend on it, and let us keep moving our country forward and go higher, yes, always higher than we’ve ever gone before.”
Given Obama’s popularity, Democrats and Republicans have speculated for years that she might run for the White House, though the former first lady has consistently expressed her distaste for politics.
After Mr. Biden’s rambling debate performance in late June, a Reuters/Ipsos poll of registered voters found that Obama was the only Democrat who defeated Trump in a hypothetical matchup. She had 50% support, compared to Trump’s 39%.
