Three prominent Arizona citizens will take center stage before Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepts the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday evening.
The final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention will feature several speakers with stories to tell about gun violence, including former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.
Giffords was shot in the head at an event outside Tucson in January 2011. Six other people were killed and 12 others injured.
Also on stage will be U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), Giffords’ husband and a finalist for Harris’ nomination for vice president, and U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), who is running against Republican Kari Lake for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona.
Follow coverage from reporters at The Arizona Republic and USA TODAY.
In Kamala Harris’ life story, her mother steals the show.
The Vice President wouldn’t want it any other way.
“Mommy, you are the star of this book because you are the reason for everything,” Harris wrote in her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold.” “There is no title or honor on earth that I cherish more than being able to say that I am Shyamala Gopalan Harris’ daughter.”
Gopalan, a breast cancer researcher who died of colon cancer in 2009 at age 70, will not be there to see her daughter accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination on Thursday, but she will be a strong presence.
“I think about her all the time,” Harris wrote. “Sometimes I look up and talk to her.”
– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY
According to reports from USA TODAY and other media outlets such as NBC News and Scripps News, the following people are expected on stage Thursday evening:
- Vice President Kamala Harris
- Governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey
- Arizona Senator Mark Kelly
- US Representative Ruben Gallego
- Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
- Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper
- Former Republican U.S. Representative from Illinois, Adam Kinzinger
- Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin
- Senator Alex Padilla of California
- Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren
- Former Secretary of Defense and former CIA Director Leon Panetta and a number of veterans
- Former Representative Gabby Giffords
- Georgia, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath
- Tennessee state representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, known as the “Tennessee Three”
- Katherine Clark, US Representative from Massachusetts
- Colorado, US Representative Joe Neguse
- Florida, US Representative Maxwell Frost
- Secretary Deb Haaland
- Secretary Marcia L. Fudge
- Michigan, US Representative Elissa Slotkin
- Texas, US Representative Colin Allred
- Ted Lieu, California U.S. Representative and Vice Chairman of the Democratic Caucus
Headlining the day, Kamala Harris will deliver an acceptance speech. She is expected to appear alongside other Democrats in what will be the climax of the four-day convention that ends tonight. Other speakers include Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. Former Republican U.S. Representative from Illinois Adam Kinzinger is also scheduled to take the stage.
– Employees of the Republic
The convention will be broadcast live on the broadcaster’s website from the United Center in Chicago through Thursday between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Arizona time (7 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET).
USA TODAY will provide live stream coverage of the DNC every night Monday through Thursday on YouTube.
– Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY
