The Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the presidential nomination, a month after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race following a disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump.
Harris’s entry into the campaign has quickly united the party and generated a huge surge of enthusiasm – instead of a candidate who the vast majority of voters considered too old for another term, the Democrats are going to the polls with a politician who is very young compared to Trump, who could become the first female president of the United States, and of African-American and Asian-American descent. Formally, the party’s delegates already voted for Harris virtually in early August, so the goal of the convention is to introduce her to the country as the Democratic candidate.
Details
Biden, as a candidate, was supposed to speak at the closing of the convention on Thursday, but now his speech has been moved to the first, least visible day (possibly to distance Harris from the unpopular president). However, delegates are greeted at the entrance by a quote from Biden’s speech about leaving the race, “History is in your hands”.
Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will also speak on Monday.
On Tuesday, Obama will speak, and not just the former president, but, according to media reports, his wife Michelle, one of the most popular figures in American politics (whom she has always avoided, which did not stop many from dreaming of her as president). The “second gentleman” of the United States, Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff, will also speak.
On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who were among the first to support Harris’s candidacy (the Obamas announced their support only a few days later), will speak at the convention. And on Wednesday, Tim Walz, whose appearance in big politics has caused great enthusiasm among Democrats, will accept the nomination as his vice presidential candidate.
On Thursday, Harris herself will accept the nomination. In four weeks, she has transformed the campaign, sharply rising in the polls and attracting, in particular, young people and non-white voters. Her tone, energetic and joyful, contrasts with the feeling of the Biden campaign, which was built on the fear of Trump’s return.
The Democratic convention with Harris and Walz is predicted to have a happy atmosphere, recalling the dancing to the Macarena at the 1996 Chicago convention before Bill Clinton’s reelection.
However, the Democrats may have to remember their convention in Chicago in 1968. Then, in the wake of mass protests against the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson refused to run for reelection, and the “open” convention, where different factions of the party confronted each other, took place amid anti-war demonstrations and riots in the city. Vice President Humphrey, who received the nomination, lost the election to Nixon.
Now, pro-Palestinian groups are planning protests in Chicago, unhappy with the Biden administration’s support for Israel and believing that Harris will continue this line. Among the nearly 5,000 delegates to the convention, there are several dozen who were elected in the primaries “for no one” – as part of the pro-Palestinian protests.
The Big Picture
Distancing herself from pro-Palestinian groups may be electorally sound for Harris: Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while trying to stop the war in Gaza is popular with American voters, including centrists, whose votes could be decisive in the election.
Harris, who has previously been fairly left-leaning, will have to balance supporting the “progressive” wing of the party with finding ways to reach swing voters in battleground states against Trump, whom Harris portrays as a dangerous socialist.
The main issue for centrists is the economy and high inflation. Harris, who has spent the first weeks of her campaign riding the enthusiasm of her supporters and avoiding talking about difficult issues in detail, finally released her economic plan last week.
One of its points, banning “price gouging” on food, has given Republicans an excuse to intensify their attacks on Harris as a supporter of socialist practices – and the Harris campaign has been forced to go on the defensive and explain. It may be the first sign of what the final two months of the campaign will look like.
Trump has been on the edge for weeks since switching opponents, launching personal attacks against Biden and Harris despite Republicans’ calls to talk about issues they can win on, like the economy and immigration. Trump hasn’t listened much, and continues to say, for example, that Harris looks better.
Harris’s polling numbers seem to have stabilized after her initial surge: She has a slight lead in national polls, and she’s tied with Trump in the Electoral College, with the swing states statistically very close.
What’s Next
The convention typically gives candidates a small, short-lived boost in the polls, before the country enters the peak of the campaign (informally, from Labor Day, which is September 2 this year, through the election on November 5). Harris and Trump will present competing visions of the future, both at the debates and beyond.
