One month and one day after launching a bid for the presidency, Vice President Harris will accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday night, capping off a whirlwind ride from a seemingly doomed campaign to one that may very well be on its way to the White House. 

Ms. Harris has pitched herself as a departure from both Presidents Biden and Trump. She and her running mate, Governor Walz, say Trump has worn down America over the last decade with hissy fits, divisive rhetoric, and personal grievances. “We’re not going back” has become a rallying cry for Democrats across the country. 

Ms. Harris’s speech Thursday night — the most important of her career thus far — is likely to focus on her biography as the daughter of two immigrants, from India and Jamaica, as well as her record as a California prosecutor. During videos played throughout the Democratic National Convention this week, family and friends have talked about the vice president’s tenacity and courage at every available opportunity.

One of Ms. Harris’s favorite lines is to say that “only in America” could she and Mr. Walz — the son of teachers from rural Nebraska — rise to the highest of highs in American politics. 

On her record as an attorney, Ms. Harris’s former colleagues have taken to the stage to speak about her sense of justice. A former colleague at the San Francisco district attorney’s office, Lateefah Simon — who is now running for Congress in the Bay area — talked about the vice president’s inability to rest unless she accomplishes the task in front of her. 

“When Kamala Harris was the district attorney … I was a teen mother running an organization working to end sex trafficking among beautiful young women and girls,” Ms. Simon said. “Kamala learned about the work that I was doing, and she asked me to join her team.”

“She saw my potential, my commitment, and the good work that we could do together, and I saw her. I saw Kamala Harris holding the hands of sexual assault survivors,” Ms. Simon added. “For those who know her, you know when she hears your story, she carries it with her. When she sees you, she truly sees you.”

The convention at Chicago has been a stunning success for Democrats, who just weeks ago were dreading the reality of a Biden\-Trump rematch. During the DNC they have spent three days hearing from younger leaders in the party, including Governor Moore, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Secretary Buttigieg. Celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, and James Taylor have also been in attendance. 

Ever since Ms. Harris joined the race, Democratic enthusiasm has skyrocketed. In June, before Mr. Biden dropped out, 46 percent of Democrats said they were “enthusiastic” about the 2024 race, according to a poll from Monmouth University. 

That same survey found that 85 percent of Democrats were enthusiastic come August, after Ms. Harris had become the presumptive nominee. During that same time period — which included Trump having his convention, naming a running mate, and surviving an apparent assassination attempt — Republican enthusiasm stayed level at 71 percent. 

The enthusiasm was on full display not only at the convention, where thousands of people gathered for Democrats up and down the ballot, but in Ms. Harris’s impressive campaign metrics like volunteer sign-ups and fundraising. 

In the four weeks since launching her candidacy, the Harris campaign has raised $500 million; and, in the days following her announcement, the campaign signed up more than 170,000 volunteers across the country. More than 5,000 signed up to volunteer just at her and Mr. Walz’s Las Vegas rally on August 10, according to NBC News. 

Not all Democrats are optimistic that the enthusiasm spike post-Biden dropout can continue on good vibes alone, however. On Wednesday, President Clinton warned that while Democrats may be feeling good now, there is no guarantee that it will translate into an electoral win. 

“We’re gonna walk out of here feeling pretty good, I think. We’ve got energy, we are happy, we feel like a load is off our shoulders, and we know we’re just being asked to fight the same fight that the forces of progress have had to fight for 250 years,” the former president said. He reminded Democrats, though, about the optimism at the 2016 convention, which later failed to translate into a win. 

While Ms. Harris has led in most national polls in recent weeks — and will likely get a bump in support after the convention — it is unclear how much the momentum can be sustained. She has so far failed to release a full policy platform and has refused to sit for an interview, though she has said her team would try to set one up by the end of August.