Kamala Harris launches first presidential campaign ad: ‘We choose freedom’

Kamala Harris has launched her first official campaign video as she vies to officially secure the Democratic presidential nomination and defeat Donald Trump – just days after Joe Biden announced he was abandoning his reelection bid.

The 59-year-old vice president’s campaign team released the clip across her social media channels on Thursday morning.

Harris’ new video bookends a positive first five days on the campaign trail after she secured a record-breaking $81m fundraising haul in the first 24 hours of her run and garnered enough delegates to clinch the presumptive presidential nomination.

In the clip, the vice president’s grinning face explodes onto the screen before a cutaway to a flutteringAmerican flag.

“In this election, we each face a question,” she says while Beyoncé’s 2016 hit Freedom – which the singer gave her blessing to be used as Harris’ official campaign anthem – plays in the background.

“What kind of country do we want to live in?”

I’m Kamala Harris, and I’m running for President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/6qAM32btjj

The video portays a utopian vision of how harmonious life could become for Americans under the prospective Harris administration. It remains upbeat throughout, carried by the pulsating beat of Beyoncé’s Grammy-nomiated song.

Since Sunday, Trump has switched his tact from attacking Biden to condemning Harris – with the pair already exchanging blows at rallies and on social media.

And within 11 seconds, the former president and his running mate become the target of the video.

“There are some people who think we should be a country of chaos. Of fear. Of hate,” she says, over clips of Trump and JD Vance filtered in a luminous red hue.

“But us, we choose something different,”