How Kamala Harris's historic firsts are inspiring Americans across the country

Chanelle Chandler
Kamala Harris speaks, as her grandnieces watch, at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday.
Kamala Harris speaks, as her grandnieces watch, at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. (Paul Sancya/AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Americans have increasingly drawn inspiration from Kamala Harris’s historic rise as the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to accept a major political party’s presidential nomination. After days of speeches this week at the Democratic National Convention built around the themes of hope, unity and inspiration, people are taking personal stock of how this moment has reflected their own aspirations.

Although Harris has not drawn attention to her growing list of firsts, even when formally accepting her barrier-breaking nomination for the Democratic Party on Thursday night, she has underlined the importance of her role to “be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations.”

“I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world,” Harris said in her acceptance speech. “That here in this country, anything is possible, that nothing is out of reach.”

Paul Sancya, a photographer for the Associated Press, captured an image of Harris’s grandnieces sitting just a few steps away as Harris addressed the convention. The picture represents the indelible personal mark that Harris has made on inspired Americans.

This image is a view into historic moments buoyed throughout the DNC by fellow barrier-breaking Americans who shared their inspirational stories and elevated the celebration of their commonalities to push for a better future for all Americans.

Michelle Obama, the U.S.’s first Black first lady, proclaimed that Harris’s story is the “embodiment” of the stories of many Americans who are “trying to build a better life.”

Hillary Clinton, the first woman to represent a major party in a U.S. presidential election, declared that the U.S. had met the moment to break through the glass ceiling, rousing the audience to affirm that “when a barrier falls for one of us, it clears the way for all of us."

Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett tearfully recalled how Harris had shown her “light,” as the vice president calmed the nerves of Crockett, who was an apprehensive new congresswoman when they first met in 2023.

Angela Alsobrooks, the Democratic Senate candidate in Maryland, also praised Harris as her mentor and role model.

Ashbey Beasley and her son Beau, 8, watch Kamala Harris speak during a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
Ashbey Beasley and her son Beau, 8, watch Kamala Harris speak during a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Testimonies of moments in Harris’s personal life as a daughter of immigrants, a former McDonald’s employee, a stepmother in a blended family and a Black woman who graduated from a historically Black university have impacted people across the country who have found her rise from humble beginnings an inspiration for a world “ready for change.”

Carly Pildis, a political organizer and a director for the Anti-Defamation League, wrote in an op-ed for the Forward published Thursday that her biracial family, including her 7-year-old Black Jewish daughter, felt connected to Harris and her family. Harris’s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is Jewish.

“My daughter is deeply inspired by the idea of a Black woman president — especially one with a Jewish husband who celebrates Jewish holidays like Passover and Rosh Hashanah,” Pildis wrote. “It has been a difficult decade for Black Americans, immigrant Americans and Jewish Americans. We share that. We fight the same fights and navigate the same waters. What could signal acceptance more fully than a family like ours in the White House?”

On Friday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson shared what it meant for him to have Harris, whose mother is from India and whose father is from Jamaica, as a leader.

“It means my daughter, Braedyn, who is 10 years old, she gets to see a reflection of her being, as well as the full expression of her values,” Johnson said after the DNC ended. “I had the opportunity to travel from state to state to state to state within the convention and I can tell you whether it was North Carolina or Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, people are excited around the country for Kamala Harris.

In July, Stormy Gage-Watts, a Black female commissioner in Shreveport, La., expressed the challenges of being in spaces dominated by men, and welcomes the change Harris could bring.

“We’re very creative, we think outside of the box, we’re mothers, you know we’re role models, we’re leaders by nature, and so I think it puts us in a great position — it put us in a great position because I think that the world is ready for change,” Gage-Watts told Louisiana’s KTAL News.

Mary Betterson, a junior at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., where Harris graduated from in 1986, told one news outlet: "For me, it's very empowering to walk the same grounds that she walked and see the heights that she's achieved and knowing that I can do that as well.”

Kevin Seldon, a stay-at-home dad and podcast host, shared the excitement of potentially having a president who hasn’t given birth to children of her own.

"There are a lot more people in the parenting space than just birthing moms, and birthing moms deserve to be celebrated, but they also need more support," Seldon told Spectrum News. "So the more support we can give to non-birthing parents like Ms. Harris, [the better]."

A delegate awaiting Harris’s moment to step on stage to accept her nomination at the DNC expressed renewed hope, drawing inspiration from Harris’s background.

“I relate to that, like I was on food stamps this year,” the unnamed delegate told New York Times podcast The Daily. “If she can do it with that background, it gives everybody hope.”

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