It is truly an honor to be speaking with you tonight that I am here.

Tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me, women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all.

There's another woman whose name isn't known, whose story isn't shared.

Another woman whose shoulders I stand on.

And that's my mother, Shamila Gopalan Harris.

She came here from India at age 19 to pursue her dream of curing cancer at the University of California, Berkeley.

She met my father, Donald Harris, who had come from Jamaica to study economics.

They fell in love in that most American way while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 19 sixties, my mother instilled in my sister Maya and me the values that would chart the course of our lives.

She raised us to be proud, strong black women, and she raised us to know and be proud of our Indian heritage.

She taught us to put family first, the family you're born into and the family you choose family is my husband, Doug, who I met on a blind date set up by my best friend.

Family is our beautiful Children, Coal and Ella, who call me Mom.

Allah family is my sister.

Family is my best friend, my nieces and my God Children.

Family is my uncles, my aunts and my chickpeas family is the friends I turn to when my mother, the most important person in my life, passed away from cancer.

She taught us to be conscious and compassionate about the struggles of all people to believe public service is a noble cause.

And the fight for justice is a shared responsibility that led me to become a lawyer, a district attorney, attorney general and a United States senator.

And at every step of the way, I've been guided by the words I spoke from the first time I stood in a courtroom.

Kamala Harris for the people.

My mother taught me that service toe.

Others gives life purpose and meaning and, oh, how I wish she were here tonight.

But I know she's looking down on me from above.