Harris doesn't take the bait
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CHICAGO — Vice President Harris tapped into her family's immigrant story and ties to civil rights during her acceptance speech — but didn't dwell on race, Axios' Russell Contreras and Delano Massey write.
- Why it matters: Harris, the first woman of color who's a major-party presidential nominee, hasn't taken the bait as former President Trump repeatedly questioned her intelligence and mispronounced her name.
Instead, she is reminding Americans that her family's immigration story — her father was born in Jamaica, her mother in India — is much like many of theirs.
- Trump's campaign has leaned into racially provocative messaging as it has sought to stem the momentum Harris has brought to Democrats.
- The campaign recently posted a message suggesting that a Harris presidency would turn white suburbia into places overrun by migrants from Africa.
So far, Harris has let other Democrats — and some Republicans — call out the former president for his remarks.
- Her speech at the Democratic convention was more aspirational than confrontational — touching on a biracial upbringing that celebrated the Civil Rights Movement and jazz by Black artists. She framed her "unexpected" candidacy as a chance for the nation to reset from old battles.
🔍 Between the lines: Harris' brush-off of Trump's racist attacks, while highlighting the Civil Rights Movement, is a way of emphasizing something most Americans agree on, Cynthia Duarte, director of the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice at California Lutheran University, tells Axios.
- "It was safe," Duarte said of Harris' speech. "It was real. It was true. She's not espousing radical politics."
Duarte said Harris used "signals" in her convention speech to communities of color, including referencing jazz legend Miles Davis and NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall.
- Harris twice used the word "self-determination" — to describe her parents' marriage as well as the plight of Palestinians.
💰 Breaking: The hour following Vice President Harris' convention speech was the campaign's best fundraising hour since launch day, Harris-Walz Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a memo this morning.
- The campaign has raised $540 million since Harris launched her candidacy 35 days ago, which the campaign says is "the most ever for any presidential campaign in this time span."
