Mayor Cherelle Parker Guest in Kamala Harris’ VIP Suite at Democratic Convention During Nomination Acceptance Speech

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, the first black woman to hold the office, said she felt inspired and energized when she saw Kamala Harris accept the Democratic nomination to accomplish the same feat and take the nation’s highest office.

“It was also very pragmatic,” Parker said after Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “It was connected — connected to real people and what they go through in their everyday lives.”

Parker praised Harris for being “candid” in his speech and talking about an “opportunity economy,” which Parker compared to her oft-repeated goal of creating “economic opportunity for all” Philadelphians.

“It’s not about giving anyone anything,” Parker said. “It’s about using government as a tool to create access to opportunity.”

Parker was invited to watch the speech from Harris’ VIP suite at the United Center, where she sat with celebrities including Don Cheadle and Spike Lee, members of Harris’ family, and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Parker’s special treatment during Harris’ historic speech was a poetic snapshot of a moment four years ago that helped catapult both to power. In 2020, when she was running as President Joe Biden’s vice presidential candidate, Harris made her first in-person campaign visit since the coronavirus pandemic began in Philadelphia, appearing at an event in the backyard of Parker’s Mount Airy home.

The trip was a political boon for Parker, who was then a City Council member planning her 2023 mayoral run, and it helped connect Parker with Sinceré Harris, who was serving in the Biden administration at the time and later left the White House to become Parker’s campaign manager. She is now deputy mayor.

Parker said that while watching Harris’ speech on Thursday, she thought about that day in 2020, which she said was “full of potential and pregnant with possibility.”