Vice President Kamala Harris takes the stage at the final night of the DNC, and Sen. JD Vance goes on the offensive in Georgia.

Harris to reintroduce herself Thursday as she accepts Democratic nomination

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to reintroduce herself on the national stage Thursday night, as she formally accepts the Democratic Party’s nomination for the presidency on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

According to a source familiar with the campaign’s plans, Harris will share her story and background, explaining herself as a daughter to a middle-class working mother who began practicing law to protect and seek justice for victims. 

She’ll seek to contrast her vision for the future with the agenda set forth by Donald Trump and the far-right Project 2025 presidential transition plan, which the ex-president has disavowed.

Harris, meanwhile, is expected to introduce her "New Way Forward" agenda, which is called an "optimistic agenda" focused on economic opportunity and fundamental freedoms.

And her vision for the country is expected to build on that optimism and her "faith in the American people." Harris is expected to contrast Donald Trump’s vision for the country — often painting a dark specter of America's future under Democrats — with her belief "in the promise of America" and her sense of patriotism.

In Georgia, Vance hammers Harris over immigration

At a solo campaign event in rural Georgia, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance blamed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for “opening up the Southern border and letting all these drug cartels bring all the drugs and crime into our communities.”

Saying former President Donald Trump is the law-and-order candidate, Vance claimed Harris wants to defund the police and allow “soft-on-crime prosecutors” to go after law enforcement.

“We’ve got a screwed-up vice president calling the shots, and I think it’s time to fire Kamala Harris, not to give her a promotion,” Vance said at a lively event where he was flanked by law enforcement vehicles and personnel, and frequently drew cheers. “I happen to believe in a commonsense principle: Back the blue, and bring public safety back to Georgia and back to our country.”

While the number of illegal border crossings has surged in recent years, those totals have taken a steep drop in recent months in the wake of executive action from President Joe Biden in June to limit asylum claims when the U.S.-Mexico border gets overwhelmed. The number of illegal crossings fell to a four-year low last month; Border Patrol reported 56,408 encounters between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border in July, the lowest monthly total since September 2020. It also represents a 32% drop from the month prior.

Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Biden administration's actions at the border, charging that President Joe Biden made the vice president the "border czar" in charge of security at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

While Biden did charge Harris in March of 2021 with leading the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of what propels people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to attempt to migrate to the U.S., the White House has never used the term “border czar” to describe her role.

Vance's visit to Georgia was the latest in terms of Republican counterprogramming of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. Trump was set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Thursday as his campaign continues to attempt to tie Harris to immigration issues, while Democrats at the convention have blamed the Republican ex-president for killing a bipartisan-brokered Senate border deal earlier this year.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz speaks at DNC

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz spoke Wednesday at the DNC.

She used her time to criticize Gov. Ron DeSantis and the policies he has enacted in Florida.

“For the people of my state, Project 2025 isn’t just a threat. It’s a reality that we battle every day," she said during her speech. "From the classroom to the emergency room, Gov. DeSantis turned Florida into a testing ground for right’s most egregious, dangerous policies. I can tell you firsthand, it’s been devastating for families in my district and across the state."