It's finally official. Hillary Clinton has become the first female nominee of a major political party for President of the United States of America. After an emotional introduction from her very proud daughter Chelsea Clinton, the former Secretary of State took the stage to accept the nomination in front of a raucous crowd eager to watch history in the making.
She's come a long way from her days growing up Park Ridge, Ill., and her journey to this moment was well-documented in a pre-speech video biography documenting the life of the former FLOTUS narrated by Morgan Freeman.
The speech itself was filled with much of the same rhetoric she has used throughout her campaign so far, but with a few added digs at her rival Donald Trump. Speaking more specifically about what she hopes to do in office if elected, Clinton said that she will create more jobs and better wages to enable the success of the middle class.
“My primary mission as President will be to create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States," Clinton said. "And here's what I believe. I believe America thrives when the middle class thrives. I believe that our economy isn't working the way it should because our democracy isn't working the way it should.”
While she is certainly not the first presidential candidate to promise the creation of more jobs, her determination to use her status to help the middle class is noticeable and she will probably continue to push this as the election goes on.
Another notable moment of the night was Clinton's mention of rival Bernie Sanders. The DNC was fairly unified across different factions of the party, but there were still Bernie-or-Bust protests throughout the entire four days of the convention, according to CBS News. Clinton wants their vote—which is why she reminded us all in her speech that her general election platform is a combination of plans from both Sanders and herself. She even mentioned Sanders’ well known plan that college tuition should be free for working class families, and said that Sanders will be working with her on that issue should she be elected to office.
“And to all of your (Bernie’s) supporters here and around the country: I want you to know, I've heard you," she said. "Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy, and passion. That's the only way we can turn our progressive platform into real change for America. We wrote it together – now let's go out there and make it happen together.”
Ultimately, Clinton knows she cannot take Donald Trump lightly, which is why she made sure to draw specific and clear contrasts to the Republican nominee in her acceptance speech. Noteworthy moments included digs at Trump’s positions on immigration in addition to his xenophobia, but the most compelling of all was when she talked about the claim the businessman made in his speech that he alone can fix all the problems that America is facing.
Clinton scoffed at this idea. She said the claim is not what America is about, and not how she sees politicians.
“Don't believe anyone who says: 'I alone can fix it,' Clinton said. “Those were actually Donald Trump's words in Cleveland. And they should set off alarm bells for all of us…Americans don't say: 'I alone can fix it.' We say: 'We'll fix it together.'"
For the full transcript of Hillary Clinton’s speech, you can find it at The Los Angeles Timeshere.