Here are the key moments from the evening.
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton repeatedly invoked her 2016 election loss as she urged Americans to vote - warning that only an "overwhelming" turnout at the polls could thwart President Donald Trump's attempts to "sneak or steal his way" to a second term in office.
"For four years, people have said to me, 'I didn't realize how dangerous he was.' 'I wish I could go back and do it over.' Or worst, 'I should have voted.' Well, this can't be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election," Clinton said.
"Don't forget," she added, "Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose. Take it from me. So we need numbers overwhelming, so Trump can't sneak or steal his way to victory."
The Democratic National Convention's third night of programming opened with a series of slick videos spotlighting the country's gun violence epidemic and featured remarks from Americans whose lives have been touched by mass shootings.
"We are at a crossroads," said former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, a prominent gun control advocate who was shot in the head by a would-be assassin in 2011.
"We can let the shooting continue, or we can act. We can protect our families. Our future. We can vote. We can be on the right side of history," she said. "We must elect Joe Biden. He was there for me. He'll be there for you, too."
Democrats have failed to push comprehensive gun reform legislation through Congress in recent years despite several mass shootings at schools and other public places, and the issue is an important component of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's agenda.
Biden helped author the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in the 1994 crime bill when he was serving as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has called for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and said he would institute a national buyback program for assault weapons as president.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham highlighted her state's approach to climate change, which includes a sweeping 2019 executive order that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in New Mexico by at least 45 percent by 2030. She's also encouraged state agencies to promote policies that push clean energy and reduce pollution.
"We know time is running out to save our planet," she said. "We have the chance this November to end two existential crises: The Trump presidency and the environmental annihilation he represents."
Meanwhile, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back nearly 100 environmental rules since 2017, many established during the Obama administration. Most recently, it cut back on methane emission regulations for the oil and gas industry on Thursday, and environmental groups have already vowed they will sue to stop the measure.
In a touching video, the daughter of a U.S. Marine's wife who was deported to Mexico by the Trump administration put a sympathetic face to the president's immigration policy.
In a letter to Trump, 11-year-old Estela Juarez recounted how her mother came to the United States illegally as a teenager more than two decades earlier, and married her father who served in South America, Africa and Iraq with the Marines.
"My dad thought you would protect military families so he voted for you in 2016, Mr. President. He says he won't vote for you again after what you did to our family," Juarez said, as news clips about her mother's deportation played. "Instead of protecting us, you tore our world apart."
The clip spliced in Trump's past comments about immigrants, including a vow to start "moving them out on Day One," and references to MS-13 gang members as "animals." It included footage of migrant children separated from their parents at the border, as Juarez asserts that some of the kids separated from their parents by the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy "are now orphans because of you."
"Mr. President, my mom is the wife of a proud American Marine and a mother of two American children. We are American families. We need a president who will bring people together not tear them apart. Sincerely, Estela," she concluded.
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