Remarks at the 2024 Democratic National Convention – Aug. 19, 2024

Hello, Democrats. Hello, Chicago.

It's a great honor for me to be here this evening. You know, long before I was the governor of Rhode Island. I was a little girl growing up there in a middle class family. My dad found his American dream in a watch factory in Providence. And that job—that job gave him a way to provide for our family, a community for him to belong to, and so much pride. But like so many Americans in the 80s, after 25 years of his hard work, his job and the job of all of his friends was shipped overseas. You know, years later, my dad said to me, “Gina, this happened because our leaders let us down.”

And my father was right. The Republicans in power who pushed failed economic strategy. Let's just cut taxes for the wealthy and leave everybody else behind. Well, not only did my father lose his job, but frankly, manufacturing left my state, manufacturing withered in Rhode Island and all across this nation. In communities all across America, factories shuttered. Communities got hollowed out. And people were left without their job. Without hope. Without the dignity that comes with a decent job.

And you know, Republican economic policy failed Rhode Island. How do I know that? Because when I took office, first Democrat elected governor in a couple of decades, I inherited one of the worst economies in the country. It was a mess. But we got to work and we turned it around. We turned it around with a pro-business, pro-worker agenda.

Kamala Harris has that same agenda. She knows we need an economy where the costs are low and opportunities abound. An economy where people can show up to their jobs with dignity and pride. She has a new economic vision for America. You know how she knows that? She knows it because just like me, Kamala Harris grew up in a middle-class home. Her mom worked to cure breast cancer by day and feed her family at night. And as an adult, Kamala worked to lock up sex offenders and violent criminals by day and she took care of her sick mother at night.

Kamala Harris gets it. She gets that so, so many Americans work so hard every day and they're barely getting by. And that is not right. It is a fundamental economic principle—hard work oughta payoff. We believe in that.

And that's why the vice president is committed to building the opportunity economy. An economy that rewards ambition, an economy that rewards hard work. She believes in an America where everyone, regardless of who you are, what you have, where you started—you got a chance to get ahead in this country.

Kamala Harris will give more than 100 [million] middle class Americans a tax cut. She'll build 3 million new homes for the middle class. And she's gonna forge an economy with fair competition free from monopolies, monopolies that crush workers and small businesses and startups. Kamala Harris will make building up the middle class a defining goal of her presidency.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Donald Trump. He's going to double down on his worst economic ideas. The same ideas that shipped my dad's job overseas. Ideas that don't work. We know they don't work because they never have. He wants another huge tax cut for the wealthy. He wants to put his corrupt buddies in charge of the economy. And he wants a sales tax that's going to supercharge inflation. We cannot afford Donald Trump's failed economic ideas.

But here's the thing, the most important thing. Kamala Harris works for the people. Kamala Harris works for you. And Donald Trump is in it for himself.

As our president, Kamala Harris will build an economy where everyone—and she means everyone—can find and live their American dream. So let's put her in the Oval Office. Thank you.

PBS NewsHour. “WATCH: Secretary Gina Raimondo at 2024 Democratic National Convention | Night 1.” YouTube video, 7:24. Aug. 19, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrhhgOk6iE8