Vice President Kamala Harris officially becomes the Democratic nominee for president on Thursday. After a week of Democratic National Committee festivities in Chicago, voters will get the last option finalized, and the 2024 election will continue to pick up steam as we head to November.

Thursday’s DNC events come the morning after Minn. Gov. Tim Walz officially accepted his vice presidential nomination to join Harris and after a full week of campaigning by Republicans and Democrats alike.

There are 75 days to go until Election Day, and USA TODAY Opinion columnists have a lot to say about the shake-up on the Democratic ticket. We’ll bring you live commentary and analysis alongside on-the-ground coverage from the convention at the United Center.

Harris accepts the Democratic nomination while reminding voters Trump supported Jan. 6

Vice President Kamala Harris took the United Center stage Thursday night to accept the Democratic presidential nomination with a smile and an air of self-assurance that left no question: She is ready to meet this moment.

Like her running mate, the affable Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was fully herself – inescapably authentic – as she spoke about her upbringing and the prototypically American story that led her to be one election away from the highest office in the land.

“With this election, our nation has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” Harris said. “A chance to chart a new way forward.”

Switching into prosecutor mode, Harris began to make her case against GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, highlighting his actions on Jan. 6, 2021: “Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes, when he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. He fanned the flames.”

She rattled off the GOP’s focus on restricting reproductive rights and the changes that might come if Trump is reelected, saying: “Simply put, they are out of their minds.”

Pivoting to the middle class, Harris said: “This is personal for me, the middle class is where I come from. My mother kept a strict budget, we lived within our means, yet we wanted for little. And she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and be grateful for them.”

Harris and Walz have humble beginnings that stand in stark contrast to Trump’s life of wealth. And throughout the week at the DNC, that contrast and many others were strategically highlighted.

Republicans spoke at the DNC, showing how toxic Trump has made the GOP and making the Democratic Party seem like an open tent. Where Trump is all ego and cruelty, the DNC and Harris focused on humility and inclusion.

We are seeing – in the polls, in Trump’s smaller rally crowds and in the increasingly unhinged nature of his public and social media comments – a wave of Trump exhaustion.

Harris put it quite perfectly: “Everywhere I go and everyone I meet, I see a nation that is ready to move forward, ready for the next step.”

Amen to that.

Harris’ speech Thursday night, before a massive crowd enthralled, undoubtedly took us one step closer to that next step.

— Rex Huppke, USA TODAY

Harris’ DNC acceptance speech should worry Republicans

Vice President Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was the best I have ever heard from her.

I don’t agree with her policies and, as a woman, I’m not swayed by the fact that if elected, she would be the first female president. But I know a formidable, persuasive politician when I see one and Harris became that woman Thursday night.

Harris spoke passionately yet with a measured tone that Donald Trump would be lucky to find. From her childhood growing up with a single mom to becoming the attorney general of California and then a U.S. senator, Harris showed Americans a unique but familiar rags-to-riches story that feels warm and hopeful.

Harris’ policy agenda leaves much to be desired: She boasts tax cuts for the middle class and promises to fix the border – typical “I’m for the working class” mantras. But her delivery was so sound, it may not matter. Americans are oftentimes so easily persuaded by good ideas, they don’t even realize they never come to fruition.

If Harris was this serious about getting her to-do list done, she’d have done it the past four years while she was vice president. The Democratic Party’s amnesia is its greatest weakness.

Trump should magnify this as much as possible. But the Republican Party’s greatest weakness might be Harris’ ability to inspire audiences. The GOP ignores this at its peril.

Harris focuses on abortion in DNC speech. It’s still a main issue this election.

Earlier Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled against putting an abortion rights measure on the November ballot. Because of this, the state’s abortion ban will remain in effect, and thousands of people in the state will continue going without access.

So far, voters in eight states will decide whether abortion will be codified into state law. There are 14 states with total abortion bans and eight with partial bans.

More than 60% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

It can’t be understated: This has the potential to be the biggest issue of the election. I hope Kamala Harris stresses this urgency in her acceptance speech.

Harris accepts Democratic nomination for president, evoking prosecutor past

Everyone at the Democratic National Convention has been talking about Vice President Kamala Harris’ history as a prosecutor and her record of being tough on crime. That’s because Democratic leaders know Americans are worried about crime. And as a female candidate for president, she needs to show she’s just as tough as any man – as dumb as that is.

The storyline she has quickly perfected of the prosecutor vs. the criminal is a useful one. She does well to pit her experience prosecuting sex crimes cases against Donald Trump being found civilly liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll.

That wasn’t the case in the 2020 election, however. Harris’ background as a prosecutor hurt her with progressives in her first presidential run – especially her controversial approach to using state truancy laws to prosecute parents whose children regularly missed school.

But now, as Trump attempts to attack her as “pro-crime” and “inspired by progressive prosecutors,” Harris is facing the opposite problem she faced in 2020.

Violent crime is down around the country, but Americans still think it’s up. And they’re worried about it.

So instead of leaning into her image as a progressive, Harris would do well to continue to emphasize her “tough on crime” tenure as a prosecutor and attorney general, as she did Thursday night. Not only does she have to convince independents and undecided voters that Democrats aren’t soft on crime, but she also has to convince all those people who aren’t sure whether we’re ready for a woman president.

Kamala Harris finishes off a big night for Democrats

Thursday’s the big night: Vice President Kamala Harris is addressing the nation at the Democratic National Convention. It’s really important to Democrats that this goes well, as it’s the first time most voters will be hearing from her directly.

Harris − the first Black woman and the first Asian woman to lead a presidential ticket − is going to talk about how she got to this point, what it will take to beat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and some of the things she wants to accomplish if elected president. I hope to see a clear vision for her goals.

This is the time for Harris − who would be America’s first female president − to sell young voters on the future of the Democratic Party, and she can do that by talking about issues that we care about: affordable housing, gun violence prevention, abortion access and climate change.

I also hope to hear her advocate for a cease-fire in Gaza, especially considering that no Palestinian American has been given DNC stage time to talk about the impact of the Israel-Hamas war on their families. It’s still an important issue for young voters, and avoiding the topic is only going to work for so long.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s place in the DNC shows the South is in play this election

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper spoke right before Harris on Thursday night. He has had a relationship with Harris dating back to their days as the attorneys general of their respective states. He spoke about their experience taking on Wall Street banks after the 2008 financial crisis.

“Even if you don’t agree with her on everything, Kamala Harris will fight for you until the very end,” Cooper told the crowd.

North Carolina’s top Democrat was initially in the running for the VP position, but he withdrew himself from the process.

North Carolina is becoming more of a toss-up the closer we get to the election. The placement of Cooper right before the nominee signals that the Democratic Party knows the southern state is once again at play.

Former Republican lawmaker says Trump is a ‘weak man pretending to be strong’

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican and avowed critic of former President Donald Trump, called Wednesday night from the stage of the Democratic National Convention for voters from his party to support Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I never thought I’d be here,” Kinzinger said, drawing laughter, “but listen, you never thought you’d see me here, did you?”

He said he has learned that Democrats are as patriotic as Republicans, but also that his political party “is no longer conservative” because it has switched allegiance to Trump, who only cares about himself.

“Donald Trump is a weak man pretending to be strong,” Kinzinger said. “He is a small man pretending to be big. He’s a faithless man pretending to be righteous. He’s a perpetrator who can’t stop playing the victim.”

Kinzinger, one of only two Republicans who served on the House committee to investigate Jan. 6, 2021, blamed Trump’s “deceit and dishonor” for the U.S. Capitol riot.

“That day, I stood witness to a profound sorrow, the desecration of our sacred tradition of peaceful transition of power, tarnished by a man too fragile, too vain, and too weak to accept defeat,” Kinzinger said.

His prime-time speech on the convention’s biggest night served as a capstone for Democratic outreach from the podium from Republicans to voters in their party swayable for Harris.

The convention also heard Wednesday from former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican who spoke about Trump’s failed bid to overturn the 2020 election in that state, and on Tuesday from former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who said her former boss used to mock his loyal supporters as “basement dwellers.”

Kinzinger said Harris “shares my allegiance to the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy.” He called on Republican voters “who still pledge allegiance to those principles” to back Harris.