Former president Obama, who was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed arena hosting the party’s nominating convention, said Vice President Harris would fight for Americans, and called her November poll rival Donald Trump “dangerous.”
“Yes she can,” Obama said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase, recalling Obama’s own “Yes we can” campaign slogan.
Before his stardust performance, his wife and former US first lady Michelle Obama told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air.”
His turn amped up the already buoyant mood in Chicago where President Joe Biden delivered his own emotional speech late Monday less than a month after ending his reelection bid.
In deeply personal remarks shifting the focus onto Harris’s qualities, her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, told the convention “she is ready.”
With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Trump.
The Republican nominee had seemed set to regain power in November’s election until Biden upended the race by dropping out and endorsing his vice president.
Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House.
Bullish delegates symbolically nominated Harris as their candidate in a boisterous roll call, following a paper exercise to confirm her as their standard bearer earlier this month.