Kamala Harris made history on Wednesday after being officially nominated by the Democratic party as its nominee for vice-president. She is the first Indian American and Black woman — actually, the first woman of colour — to be fielded for the second highest political office in the US by a major political party.

Harris accepted the nomination as a tribute to her Indian-born mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, who came to the US to pursue her interest in breast cancer research, met and married Donald J Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica, during the civil rights movement, and raised her and her sister as a single mother.

“How I wish she were here tonight but I know she’s looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman—all of five feet tall—who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California,” Harris said in a semi-virtual speech, from a room with some reporters.

“On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words: I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,” she added.

“I do so, committed to the values she taught me.”

And, in an unmistakable acknowledgement of her Indian-ness at this highest point of public recognition in her life, Harris used a typical word from Tamil, her mother tongue, for aunts when talking about her expansive vision for the campaign: “Family is my uncles, my aunts—my chitthis,” she said.

Harris was introduced by her younger sister Maya Harris, who is a lawyer and a political operative; Maya’s daughter Meena Harris, also a lawyer by profession; and step daughter Ella Emhoff, who is a student at Parsons School of Design in New York City, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Harris was scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech before former President Barack Obama, who was to headline Night 3 of the Democratic convention, but was given the prime slot at the former president’s request, who wanted her be the star of the evening, in a symbolic passing-of-the-torch to the next generation of Democratic leaders.

Obama used his rescheduled speaking slot to launch an uncharacteristically pointed attack on his successor. “I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

“But he never did. For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for Democrats to go out and vote citing her own failed run because many people either did not vote or had not realized how “dangerous” Trump can be. “This can’t be another woulda-coulda-shoulda election,” she said. “If you’re voting by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back as soon as you can. If you vote in person, do it early.”

President Trump responded to the attacks in real time with a string of angry tweets in all-caps. “WHY DID HE REFUSE TO ENDORSE SLOW JOE UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER, AND EVEN THEN WAS VERY LATE? WHY DID HE TRY TO GET HIM NOT TO RUN?” he said in one of them.

Harris accepted the nomination in a speech steeped in her personal story of being raised, along with her younger sister, by a strong-willed mother to be “proud, strong Black women … (and to)… be proud of our Indian heritage”.

Harris invoked her mother again to frame her historic run as Joe Biden’s running mate. She said she accepted the nomination committed to the values taught to her by her mother. “To the word that teaches me to walk by faith, and not by sight. And to a vision passed on through generations of Americans—one that Joe Biden shares. A vision of our nation as a Beloved Community—where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.”

That nation “feels distant” today, she said, naming the president she and Biden are running to unseat for the first and only time in her 15-minute long speech, “Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” she said, attacking the administration’s handling of the Covid-19 epidemic.