Clinton Rallies Democrats Behind Harris: ‘This Is When We Break Through’

The last time Hillary Clinton appeared in person before a Democratic National Convention, the year was 2016, the city was Philadelphia and Mrs. Clinton was accepting her party’s nomination to run for president in what her audience thought would be a shoo-in of a race against Donald J. Trump.

“Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come,” Mrs. Clinton, the first woman nominated for president by a major party, said that night.

Eight years later, Mrs. Clinton came out of semiretirement to return to a Democratic convention, this time in Chicago, to celebrate a woman — Kamala Harris — who is trying to do what Ms. Clinton was unable to do: win. It was a generational handoff at a convention that has become all about generational change, from a 76-year-old former first lady to the 59-year-old vice president.

But it was also a poignant reminder of how close Mrs. Clinton came to breaking the “highest and hardest glass ceiling,” as she had put it in her concession speech.

“Tonight,” she said on Monday night, “so close to breaking through once and for all, I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks, and why it matters for each and every one of us.”

“On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States,” Mrs. Clinton said, her words drowned out by the cheers of delegates rising to their feet.