All eyes are on Harris after Biden dropped out and passed her the torch

When Vice President Harris took the stage at the Essence Festival in New Orleans last month, she walked the audience through her life story: from growing up the child of Oakland, Calif., parents active in the civil rights movement, through some of the personal experiences that drove her to seek public office.

And she wrapped up her remarks with some lines she hasn’t used much since 2019, when they were a regular part of her stump speech as she sought the Democratic nomination.

“People in your life will tell you, “It's not your time. It's not your turn. Nobody like you has done it before.’ One of the things I love is they'll say, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be a lot of hard work,’” Harris said.

“Don't you ever listen to that. I like to say, I eat no for breakfast.”

The revival of this message came after calls in her party for Biden to step aside after he badly stumbled in his debate against former President Donald Trump.

After weeks of fiercely insisting he would stay in the race, Biden dropped out on Sunday, and threw his support behind Harris to take his place at the top of the ticket. Harris said she intends to "earn and win" the Democratic nomination during a truncated period ahead of the party's convention, which begins Aug. 19.

Some in the party want to see other young candidates compete in the race. But Harris, 59, will be a leading contender because she has a national — and international — profile that other Democrats on the bench lack. Elected Democrats were advocating for Harris even before Biden stepped aside, and in the immediate hours after she announced her own run, more than a dozen senators and more than 100 representatives quickly said they would back her.

Even before Biden dropped out, Trump and his campaign had