5 takeaways from Kamala Harris’ historic acceptance speech

History was made Thursday night when Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to do so.

Those historic firsts can be opportunities, and they can be challenges. Harris is not someone known for delivering big speeches, and the public’s views of her are still forming. She got the nomination, after all, without running in a primary, the first to do so in many decades.

“We must be worthy of this moment,” Harris said.

Was she? Here are five takeaways from her acceptance speech and Democrats’ convention:

1. Harris introduced herself to America.

This was, by far, the most important speech of Harris’ political career, and it was in front of the biggest audience she’s ever spoken to — not the crowd of thousands in person in the audience, but the crowd of millions watching at home and those taking it in in the coming days.

She had to connect with those who are either undecided about her or those on her side but not sold on voting. She tried to do that by inverting what former President Donald Trump does in othering certain groups of people. She tried to make her story — one of a child of immigrants from India and Jamaica — a typical and relatable American one. She’s the child of divorce, brought up working class, raised by a mother who dreamed big and taught her daughters to dream big, but also stressed critical all-American values — work hard, don’t complain and “do something,” a nice rhetorical coda to former first lady Michelle Obama’s speech two nights ago.

Overall, Harris sounded in control, shared her values, told the country where she comes from and where she wants to take it, while also contrasting herself with Trump.

2. She and Democrats inverted a