The last leg of the race to the Oval Office has begun as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have accepted their party nominations for president at their respective party conventions. Harris spoke for around thirty-five minutes, while Trump took just over ninety minutes to speak. Each candidate covered the controversial issues of the election and clarified their stances, forming more precise party platforms and rallying voters.

Democratic rhetoric at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee heavily emphasized the future, highlighting the need to move forward and start anew. Kamala Harris opened her speech by reflecting on her childhood experiences with her mother and how her tenacity as a presidential candidate carries over from her upbringing. She covered her years as a prosecutor in California, sharing, “And to be clear — and to be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.” The language focuses on how she has served and will continue serving the people. She moved on to Donald Trump’s errors, not just within his presidency but also in his personality and criminal convictions. The speech became firm, and her message was clear: Donald Trump is not fit to be president. Her speech emphasized the future of America and the things she and America have yet to accomplish, ending on a patriotic note to continue the work of previous presidents and to hold America to its highest standards of freedom, equality, and justice for all.

The Republican National Convention carried considerably different rhetoric. More emphasis was placed on the errors of the Biden-Harris Administration and the successes of his own previous presidency. Donald Trump’s acceptance speech began with a detailed retelling of his attempted assassination in Pennsylvania. His language throughout the speech varied from Harris’, as he integrated the failures of the democratic party throughout and diminished its prominent figures by painting them as crazy, dangerous, and harmful. He painted a timeline of the Biden-Harris Administration, placing it against his own policy agenda in stark contrast. He made sure to address taxes and inflation, citing interest rates that were lower during his presidency and taxes that were lowered during his presidency. He shares how Biden failed to address the war in Ukraine and what his administration would be able to do to fix the crisis. He covered his policy stances, avoiding abortion, Hamas, and Vladimir Putin, but made sure to consistently bring up the failures of the Biden-Harris Administration and how they are causing the imminent downfall of the United States. He ended by reflecting on his own past with the presidency to explain why he is the optimal choice to be the next President of the United States.