One of the most striking themes of the Democratic National Convention was the way the message flipped back and forth between grim warnings that democracy is under attack and playful invitations to engage in a politics of joy. Democrats at times seemed to be attempting a tricky tightrope act, akin to inviting people to dance their way out of a burning house.
For most of the convention, the message seemed to be: Join the fight to save democracy–and let’s have some fun while we do it. It’s an audacious strategy that President Biden could have never pulled off.
The address by ex-President Bill Clinton was a perfect example. “We’ve seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn’t happen, when people got distracted by phony issues or overconfident. This is a brutal, tough business,” he told the crowd, before concluding a few minutes later: “We need Kamala Harris, the president of joy, to lead us.”
Over and over, joy and happiness were the theme of cheerful celebrities and upbeat optimists who took the stage at the United Center in Chicago, including comedians Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Kennan Thompson and Mindy Kahling, poet Amanda Gorman and songsters John Legend, Stevie Wonder and Sheila E. But alongside the fun and funny artistic voices were plenty of speakers like Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who solemnly invoked the January 6 insurrection and the need to take seriously threats by Donald Trump to terminate the Constitution, be a dictator on Day One and pardon convicted January 6 rioters if elected.
“In this life, my father never cast a vote because of Jim Crow, so I dedicated my career to protecting the votes against violence and discrimination. You can imagine what I felt on Jan. 6 when I saw with my own eyes those insurrectionists trying to take that away,” Thompson told the crowd. “They did it to rob millions of Americans of their votes.”
“Trump tried to destroy our democracy by lying about the election and inciting a violent mob to attack the Capitol,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said from the podium, before shifting into a preacher’s cadence and drawing cheers: “In the Old Testament Book of Psalms, the scripture tells us that weeping may endure during the long night, but joy will come in the morning.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton quoted the same Biblical passage in his remarks. “We’ve endured lies and areas of darkness,” he said. “But if we stay together, Black, white, Latina, Asian, Indian American, if we stay together, joy, joy, joy, joy coming in the morning.”
And surprise guest Oprah Winfrey saluted podium speakers who’d told wrenching personal stories about rape, incest and medical trauma caused by restricted access to abortion before doing the pivot. “We won’t go back. We won’t be sent back, pushed back, bullied back, kicked back. We’re not going back, “ she said, before singing out the J-word: “So let us choose. Let us choose truth, let us choose honor, and let us choose joooooooy!”
So which is it? Are Democrats waging a desperate fight against a would-be dictator, or trying to have a good time? “It’s not a campaign theme,” Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Walz ticket, told columnist Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times about the j-word. “It’s just something that they’re doing, that they’re bringing to the table. I think if you try to manufacture something like joy, it can go wrong because it’s fake. I think the reason why it’s resonating with people is because it’s authentic.”
Harris notably did not utter the world “joy” even once in her prime-time address that concluded the convention. Instead, she listed Trump’s attacks on democracy. “Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election,” Harris said in the stern, persuasive tones of the courtroom prosecutor she once was. “Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite — he fanned the flames.”
Harris, it seems, is not going to downplay or ignore the reality that America in the age of Trump has been flirting with open attacks on democracy. But she should consider embracing the politics of joy—not only because her followers like it, but because expressions of love and happiness have a proven track record of dissolving the dark power of dictatorship.
I recently talked about the phenomenon with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University whose book Strongmen examines how authoritarian strongmen gain power — and how they lose it. While Trump is an uncomfortably good fit with the likes of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, India’s Narendra Modi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, says Ben-Ghiat, many of today’s strongmen are encountering a wave of popular resistance around the world.
“There’s a big movement of anti-authoritarianism building around the world, and we are in the middle of a renaissance of nonviolent protest around the world. And there are places that have had the biggest protests they’ve ever had, or in the last 40 years, like in Poland, in Chile, in Israel,” she told me. “You could name 10 other countries that have the biggest protests they’ve ever had, because there is something changing in the world. And so one of my maxims is to always have hope.”
In Turkey, says Ben-Ghiat, the politics of love was the most potent weapon available to push back against the creeping authoritarianism of that country’s strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. “One of my Democratic heroes is Ekrem İmamoğlu,” she said, referring to the Mayor of Istanbul. “He ran for office in 2019 on a platform of love. And instead of having rallies, he walked around and hugged people. The total opposite of Erdogan. And he won.”
It’s possible that the new politics of joy will continue the activism of the recent past – the women’s march in 2017, the Black Lives Matter demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, and this year’s elections – as part of a larger movement to invigorate democracy. “Never give up on the American people. There’s a lot of decency. There’s a lot of people we don’t hear,” Ben-Ghiat says. “A lot of it’s behind the scenes. There are a lot of people working to safeguard our democracy right now.”
Ezra Klein at the DNC on August 20th, 2024. Photo: Mark Peterson/Redux for New York Magazine
It was Tuesday afternoon at the United Center in Chicago, a few hours before back-to-back Obamas issued their impassioned calls-to-arms, and the famously sensible explanatory journalist Ezra Klein, who characteristically keeps his passions in check, didn’t have the right credentials to get into the arena. The Secret Service didn’t recognize the New York Times’ star Opinion writer and podcaster, who has had a bit of a glow-up lately with a salt-and-pepper beard and David Beckham–esque haircut, but eventually after we met up was able to figure out how to get in to where he belonged. This is, after all, as much his convention as any journalist this time around, since its high-energy optimism turned on the fact that President Joe Biden no longer was leading the ticket. And, starting early this year, Klein platformed that Establishment desire, leading the coup-drumbeat.
It worked so well that Klein, 40, who has been an influential journalist for over half his life, is ready to come out from behind his computer, step out of his podcast studio, and into the spotlight. He tells me this is actually the first convention he’s attended since the Obama years. After spending his 20s writing lengthy blog posts on economics, he’s now become a tattooed middle-aged Brooklyn dad in Bonobos and sand-colored Air Force Ones who goes to Burning Man, where he’s headed next week.
“The thing I got right this year wasn’t that Joe Biden was too old to run for reelection. Everyone knew that,” he told me in the back of a bar near his hotel in Downtown Chicago the night before. “The thing I got right this year was that the Democratic Party was an institution that still had decision-making capacity.” In February, Klein launched a series of podcasts and columns arguing that Biden should step aside. He also advocated for alternatives, like an open convention, and made the case for why Kamala Harris was underrated. Following his “prediction about the campaign” in February, as he later referred to it, Klein continued to take the pulse of the party. And while he didn’t get the open convention he was looking for, he did get what he called a “disorganized” mini primary in the veepstakes — and played a role in the unofficial auditioning process, too, having Gretchen Whitmer and then Tim Walz on his show in the days leading up to Harris’s eventual pick. (He also invited Josh Shapiro on, but the Pennsylvania governor turned him down. “And look what happened,” Klein says, seemingly joking.) He says he’s “very uncomfortable” with the amount of attention he’s received, though seems to be enjoying it just fine, even if Semafor was picking on him a bit for being too cozy with top-echelon Dems with a piece posted August 19 they titled “The New York Times’ Ezra Klein Problem.”
There is a historical tension between the newsroom and Opinion side at the Times, one that Klein doesn’t think is all that useful. “I think of my work as primarily reported,” he says. “My line for a very long time back when I was at the Washington Post,” he said, “was that the division between the news and opinion sides made it too hard for the news side to tell the truth and too easy for the opinion side to bullshit.” He adds: “I don’t really think my show’s lineage, so to speak, is actually inside that opinion-news divide.”
Still, the Times works hard to maintain its journalistic propriety. Following the debate, but prior to Biden dropping out, Klein wanted to have Times politics reporter and The Run-Up host Astead Herndon on his show to talk about Harris. But executive editor Joe Kahn shut it down. This was around the time the paper’s own editorial board had joined the chorus of calls for Biden to step aside, a moment when newsroom leaders felt the need to reinforce the division between the newsroom and Opinion side. “Newsroom people get resentful as he veers more into newsmaking,” one Times staffer noted. Said another: “I think he only becomes more powerful over time, since I’d argue the influence of the Times editorial board (and all ed boards, really) has waned over the course of the rise of the internet and social.”
But in general, Klein’s star status doesn’t seem to be a problem at all for the Gray Lady, which runs full-page advertisements for The Ezra Klein Show in the paper and is building out a video dimension to the podcast. He recently interviewed Nancy Pelosi in a room in the middle of Times HQ, footage of which prompted speculation — among media folk, Brooklyn mom group chats, etc. — about that glow-up. He dismisses speculation that he now has a stylist — he’s a man who respects the experts, after all — though notes that he’s been determined to spend “some time this year upgrading my wardrobe and my style, but it’s a thing that has not happened in my mind yet.”
Klein was not the first pundit to urge the president against running for reelection. Maureen Dowd said as much in the summer of 2022 (as did Mark Leibovich); Paul Krugman, too, in September 2023. But what made Klein more influential is “he is seen by many party elites as much more of a partisan figure, instead of just a columnist,” Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson told me. “It was someone pretty deeply steeped in the Democratic Party basically being the first one to break the taboo.” That The Ezra Klein Show is dominating the charts or has a cult following is not new; but the sense that he is plugged into the inner workings of the Democratic Party has imbued the podcast with greater importance.
“I mean, some things happened in public. It wasn’t all just behind-the-scenes reporting,” Klein says, between sips of a mezcal-soda at the hotel bar. “but I try to pay attention to who people pay attention to, and who’s earned that respect and credibility inside the caucus — or inside or among other donors, or among strategists. And you can feel those things.”
Every election cycle at the Times has a face, and Klein, despite being an Opinion writer, is this year’s. “I don’t think anyone notable’s behavior would change because of his podcast,” a Democratic strategist told me. But where he deserves credit, they said, is “helping to initiate that conversation a while ago” and keeping it in the media long after.
“This was not a fun process,” Klein says. “This was a really wrenching thing the party had to go through.” As for his role in it, heavy is the head. “Look, I recognize that in the rare moments when you want to say you’re right about something, you should agree and accept it, but it also feels like it always pins a target on your back,” he said. Klein seems broken up, though unsurprised, about the bridges he’s burnt. “When I did the February piece, I recognized it was going to fuck up a lot of my relationships in the Biden White House.” Still, he was “aghast” when I told him I’d heard that there was conspiratorial chatter among Biden officials after Klein’s piece, wondering who — someone in Obama’s camp? — had planted the idea with Klein. “I’m actually shocked to hear anybody would think that. That’s so dumb,” he said. “The only thing happening here was saying what everybody was seeing.”
It was through reporting, he said, that he came to that conclusion. “I talked to people and I understood that they could imagine that Joe Biden shouldn’t run, but they couldn’t imagine what would lead him to step aside and what to do if he did,” he says, noting he was frustrated by the “sense that this was going to be a stable situation — that people were not going to need alternatives.” He also felt he owed it to his listeners. “I don’t think people pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of nominating processes,” he says. “I was just trying to make people aware that this wasn’t done.”
Klein tells me he’s interested to see if this moment of collective action changes the Democratic Party going forward. “Institutions have muscles and the muscles atrophy when they’re not used and they strengthen when they are used, and the Democratic party did something collectively. It’s really unusual, functionally unknown about American politics.” The party proved itself “beyond the ambitions of any one person,” he says. “It’s not that I think the Democratic party is going to start knocking its candidates off or something, but it just learned it can act, in a way that I could tell you for a fact its members did not think they could.”
Talking to Klein can feel, at times, like listening to his show. He’ll casually go on a tangent about child-care policy or recall a cross-national study, and then he’ll become a normal person again, talking about the challenge of juggling his professional and personal life, married to Atlantic journalist Annie Lowrey, with two kids, living in Brooklyn.
“I think I’m an interesting person on my podcast. I often wonder why I’m not more interesting at home,” he said. “Sometimes I think, Does my family get the best version of me? And the answer is often no.” I asked him what he does for fun. “A mix of very quiet and very loud,” he said. “I spend a lot of time quietly reading. I have very deep friendships. I go to a lot of shows.” This will not be his first time going to Burning Man.
He has been covering politics since he was 18, cutting his teeth as a policy blogger. He moved the blog from Typepad to the American Prospect in 2007, when he was 23. Then he went to the Washington Post, where he ran the popular Wonkblog. After five years he left to co-found Vox, the website that became the namesake of the multi-brand digital-media company that today owns New York Magazine, until departing for the Times in 2020. His popular interview podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, followed him there.
He considered going another route: selling his podcast to Spotify, starting a Substack. “I sometimes feel like a dumbass who’s left a ton of money on the table,” he admits. But he likes being part of institutions and seems, in a vaguely messianic way, to see it as his duty to support them. “It’s true that I could make more money doing this independently, but if all the people who do what I do decide to go and capture all of their revenue themselves, then what happens to all the parts of the industry that are frankly more important than what I do, but are not self-sustaining in that way?” he says, citing investigative and foreign reporting among the beats that haven’t quite figured out the newsletter format. It seems to be a mutually beneficial relationship: “The Times is a unique power,” he says. “If I had done the same pieces from Substack, would it have mattered?”
Going to the Times meant he didn’t have to manage anymore — “it feels almost decadent to only really have to worry about my own work,” he says — and could focus on what he wanted to do, as opposed to the biggest stories that Vox needed its biggest voices to cover. “That allows me to follow my own interests with a lot more authenticity than I would be able to bring otherwise,” he says. What some people love about Klein and what some people hate about him is that he makes himself a mini expert on everything, dipping in and out of topics, from AI to wellness to the Russia-Ukraine war. He has a Zadie Smith interview coming up, and will soon welcome back Richard Powers to the show. “Those are things that bring me a huge amount of joy, and it is really hard to imagine what else I could do that would allow me to explore my own interests broadly.”
“He’s an influential voice, but also generationally unique,” said Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz, citing traditional media’s fight for attention and relevance in an ecosystem filled with tweets and clips and trolling. Klein, has “found a sweet spot that I don’t think anyone else has been able to replicate. It’s like what the Sunday shows used to be,” said Schultz. “Now they’re consumed by the blow-by-blow, and Ezra is having the thoughtful conversations.”
Klein, who grew up in Orange County, California, moved from San Francisco to Park Slope, then Gowanus, a year ago to be closer to his wife’s family. The redwoods are still close to his heart, literally, as he has a tattoo of them on his shoulder. He recently added a second tattoo, a typewriter-font “Is that so?” printed on his inner bicep. “A reminder to not believe what you think,” he says, when I ask him what it means to him. “Sometimes people see it and they think of it as outwardly focused, but it’s inwardly focused,” says Klein. “The easiest person to convince of anything is yourself. And it connects to small Zen stories that I like.” It took him a while, he says, to get over the belief that you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery if you have tattoos, which he claims is “a complete myth” and tells me that I can read all about it in a Timesarticle.
This post-glow up Klein might seem like he’s ready to mingle at the joy-filled late-night celeb-packed party-ready DNC. But he says he’s not really planning on hitting the town (and I didn’t see him out either.) His first night in town was spent at dinner with his editor and a member of congress and then in his hotel room, where he watched the speeches. On Tuesday he watched the speeches from the floor — where, according to his boss, Katie Kingsbury, with whom he was standing, an usher recognized him but not her — but didn’t hit any afters after. “I doubt I’ll go to anything,” he texted me, when I asked him his party plans for the rest of the convention. “Going to watch from the floor each night then I record fairly early in the morning. So no real social calendar really,” he said. “Work, work, work.”
Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate, delivered a heartfelt poem on the third night of the Democratic National Convention.
In her poem, Gorman spoke about the American dream, echoing some themes of Obama’s 2006 “The Audacity of Hope” autobiography.
“Tomorrow is not written by our odds of hardship but by the audacity of our hope, by the vitality of our vote,” Gorman recited. “Only now approaching this rare air are we aware that perhaps the American Dream is no dream at all, but instead a dare to dream together.”
Here is the text of Gorman’s poem, “This Sacred Scene”, in full:
We gather at this hollowed place because we believe in the American dream.
We face a race that tests if this country we cherish shall perish from the Earth, and if our earth shall perish from this country.
It falls to us to ensure that we do not fall for a people that cannot stand together, cannot stand at all.
We are one family, regardless of religion, class or color. For what defines a patriot is not just our love of liberty, but our love for one another.
This is loud in our country’s call, because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all.
Empathy emancipates, making us greater than hate or vanity. That is the American promise, powerful and pure. Divided, we cannot endure but united, we can endeavor to humanize our democracy and endear democracy to humanity.
And make no mistake, cohering is the hardest task history ever wrote, but tomorrow is not written by our odds of hardship, but by the audacity of our hope, by the vitality of our vote.
Only now, approaching this rare air, are we aware that perhaps the American Dream is no dream at all, but instead a dare to dream together.
Like a million roots tethered, branching up humbly, making one tree, this is our country. From many, one; from battles won; our freedoms sung; our kingdom come has just begun.
We redeem this sacred scene. Ready for our journey. From it together, we must birth this early republic and achieve an unearthly summit. Let us not just believe in the American dream. Let us be worthy of it.
“I’m really going to need this energy when they broadcast this live, right?” said Wisconsin Deputy Organizing Director-Milwaukee Jaliah Jefferson. “VP Harris will be beamed into TVs all across the country.”
“So when it’s our moment, we need to get loud and leave no doubt that Wisconsin is going to send Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House,” she added.
Harris, addressing both the crowd in Milwaukee and Chicago, appeared virtually above the convention floor on the jumbotron to thank the delegates for reaffirming her and Walz as the party’s nominees.
“The delegates at the Democratic National Convention just completed their roll call,” Harris said. “And they have nominated Coach Walz and me to be the next vice president and president of the United States of America.”
“And I thank everyone there in here for believing in what we can do together. We are so honored to be your nominees. This is a people powered campaign, and together we will chart a new way forward,” Harris added.
Harris reaffirmed that she will address the convention on Thursday.
In her remarks, Harris pointedly attacked her opponent, former President Donald Trump, saying voters will make certain he faces electoral “consequences” for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Just yesterday, when he was asked if he has any regrets about ending Roe v. Wade, Donald Trump– Donald Trump, without even a moment’s hesitation-you would think he would reflect on it for a second-said, ‘No. No regrets,” Harris continued. “And that’s because– I do believe– you know, bad behavior should result in a consequence.”
“Well, we will make sure he does face a consequence, and that will be at the ballot box in November,” she added. “In November- in November, and I promise you, when I am President of United States and Congress passes a bill to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, I proudly sign it into law.”
“The former President Trump hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention-with the intention-that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And as he intended, they did,” Harris said. “And then, in state after state, they proposed and passed laws to punish women, criminalize healthcare providers.”
While the real action got underway on Tuesday evening, the party was already getting started at Fiserv Forum on around 4 p.m., hours ahead of the scheduled appearance of Harris and Walz.
A Tim Walz and Kamala Harris Milwaukee rally will get underway at Fiserv Forum on Tuesday as the Democratic National Convention continues in Chicago.
A crowd formed outside early Tuesday afternoon. Corey Hagen shared why he wanted to be a part of it.
“It’s the feeling, it’s the energy, it’s the hope,” Hagen said.
The Harris-Walz campaign fit in the trip to Milwaukee as the DNC is underway in Chicago, a sign that Wisconsin will play a big role in the November elections.
“It’s been weird seeing that evolution, that uprise of us becoming a purple state or a battleground state,” said Harris-Walz supporter Caimen Masterson.
Richard Lauter made a road trip from Illinois. The Deerfield resident said he feels there is something special about this ticket.
“I think there’s a feeling in the country that VP Harris has tapped into which has created that vibe, the excitement,” Lauter said.
Mary Voronych said she is there because it is time for a change. She is a former Donald Trump supporter and voted for him in 2016.
“Nothing made sense. Politically, I don’t know what he was thinking. I think it was a big mistake for him to run,” Voronych said.
The music was pumping loudly at Fiserv Forum, and people were seen dancing and waving their light-up wristbands. The bass in the music is so loud the floor was vibrating, at one point.
While the atmosphere is festive, Timothy Counce said it is important to remember what is at stake.
“If you can’t beat a guy that’s convicted of 34 felonies, a sexual assault, an insurrection, lying consistently, then we shouldn’t even have a country,” Counce said.
The Democratic National Convention heads into its third day on Wednesday.
After receiving the blessing of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, the focus on the second to last day of the DNC shifts to Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The former school teacher and football coach is expected to accept the Democratic nomination as the party makes the case that Americans’ fundamental freedoms are at risk if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Former President Bill Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also expected to address the convention.
After a tumultuous few weeks, where Harris’ running mate went from little-known Midwest governor to top of the Democratic ticket, Walz is expected to get his own moment in the spotlight Wednesday when Democrats officially nominate the 60-year-old as their vice presidential candidate.
Walz wasn’t widely known outside of Minnesota before Harris chose him to join her on the Democratic presidential ticket. But they clicked when the vice president interviewed him, and she was impressed by his record as a governor and congressman — and the splash he made on TV.
He will get a chance to show the American public that in primetime on Wednesday.
‘A fight for our freedoms’
According to convention organizers, the theme for Wednesday’s events is “A fight for our freedoms,” a message that has become the centerpiece of Harris’ campaign as the Democrat has sought to paint a second Trump presidency as a threat to Americans’ ability to make choices about their own lives.
The focus, according to organizers, will be highlighting Walz as a “champion for America’s working families and a staunch defender of those same fundamental freedoms.” And on the other side, Democrats said they will focus on Trump’s efforts to “strip our rights away” when he was president and what he could do if he gets another four years.
Reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ issues and racial equity are expected to be some of the policy areas that Democrats are trying to distinguish themselves on with Republicans.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
The Democratic National Convention heads into its third day on Wednesday.
After receiving the blessing of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, the focus on the second to last day of the DNC shifts to Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The former school teacher and football coach is expected to accept the Democratic nomination as the party makes the case that Americans’ fundamental freedoms are at risk if Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Former President Bill Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also expected to address the convention.
After a tumultuous few weeks, where Harris’ running mate went from little-known Midwest governor to top of the Democratic ticket, Walz is expected to get his own moment in the spotlight Wednesday when Democrats officially nominate the 60-year-old as their vice presidential candidate.
Walz wasn’t widely known outside of Minnesota before Harris chose him to join her on the Democratic presidential ticket. But they clicked when the vice president interviewed him, and she was impressed by his record as a governor and congressman — and the splash he made on TV.
He will get a chance to show the American public that in primetime on Wednesday.
‘A fight for our freedoms’
According to convention organizers, the theme for Wednesday’s events is “A fight for our freedoms,” a message that has become the centerpiece of Harris’ campaign as the Democrat has sought to paint a second Trump presidency as a threat to Americans’ ability to make choices about their own lives.
The focus, according to organizers, will be highlighting Walz as a “champion for America’s working families and a staunch defender of those same fundamental freedoms.” And on the other side, Democrats said they will focus on Trump’s efforts to “strip our rights away” when he was president and what he could do if he gets another four years.
Reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ issues and racial equity are expected to be some of the policy areas that Democrats are trying to distinguish themselves on with Republicans.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage on the second night of the Democratic National Convention.
Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, greets delegates during the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago. Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images
The decision by Kamala Harris to choose Minnesota governor Tim Walz over Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro to be her running mate arrived like a political thunderbolt earlier this month. He seemed like a lock — the overwhelmingly popular governor of the most important swing state — so speculation swirled over why he was snubbed. Was it because he was Jewish and skipping him spared the outrage of anti-Israel activists on the left? Was it because he was too moderate on charter schools? Or was it simply because he just did not vibe with Harris the way Walz did?
Shapiro wasn’t dwelling on it in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention, but reporters were. On Tuesday morning, a gaggle of journalists surrounding him with television cameras and audio recorders asked yet again about why he wasn’t the vice presidential nominee. “Was his religion a factor in him not being chosen as vice president?” asked one. Shapiro quickly insisted he was “proud of his faith” and that this was untrue. Instead, he said it was “being injected into the conversation” by Donald Trump who is the real racist and the real anti-Semite.
Though this was a well-practiced answer on national cable TV news, it would now appear on local news in California whose delegation he addressed on the second day of the convention as he made the rounds to impress Democrats he may need for a future campaign.
For all of the attention on the United Center in prime time, there are sort of mini-conventions at hotels across the city hosting each state’s delegation every morning. After shaking off a hangover or short night’s sleep, attendees cram into a conference room to eat buffet-style scrambled eggs and bacon and listen to even more speeches. For the South Carolina delegation, that meant Shapiro followed Pete Buttigieg, and Cory Booker, both of whom had run for president in 2020 and campaigned extensively in the first-in-the-South primary.
Booker in particular was a tough act to follow. Halfway through his remarks, he abandoned the podium and delivered the rest of his speech on a chair in the middle of the conference room. He captivated the crowd so much that not a single forkful of honeydew was consumed as he talked about the emotional impact of watching Ketanji Brown Jackson become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.
Shapiro stepped up to the podium and, in his most Obamaesque cadence, joked that “my rabbi always tells me I spend more time in Baptist churches than I do in synagogue. He gets a little mad at me.” He followed with what has become a staple of his speeches: “Greetings from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state with a lot of letters in it but where I focus on three letters every day G-S-D, getting stuff done.” Afterwards, he took selfies with the inevitable crowd that lined up around him. One offered Shapiro condolences over losing out to be vice president. “I was rooting for you,” he said as his iPhone’s camera flashed. “It’s all good,” Shapiro responded, looking unphased. “Really good.”
He had given well received stump speeches to two different state delegations and hopefully a few potential voters in a future primary had been impressed. On Wednesday, Shapiro will address the entire convention in prime time. He won’t be in the feature slot dedicated to the vice presidential nominee, but there will still be plenty of potential future voters watching.
CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michele Obama and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff are all expected primetime speakers for the second day of the 2024 DNC in Chicago Tuesday.
With President Joe Biden having addressed delegates, the week’s full focus now turns to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, as the party and its leaders aim to argue why their new nominee is best suited to be in the White House over the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Programming will begin 30 minutes earlier than originally planned, at 5:30 p.m. CDT, after Monday’s program had a delayed start.
The second night of the DNC brings another slate of party stars onto the primetime stage.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will address the convention much as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did on Monday, welcoming the delegates to his home state and stumping for Harris. Pritzker was on the short list of possible vice presidential candidates, and has praised Harris’ choice of Walz as her running mate, calling him a “good friend.”
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham, Mesa, Ariz., Republican mayoral candidate John Giles, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will also take the stage.
The most high profile speeches will come from Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and the Obamas.
The Obamas are returning to the city they once called home to take the stage in support of Harris’ nomination.
The Obamas are expected to headline the convention’s second night, a day after the unofficial farewell for Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice president. Biden won’t be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, having departed Chicago after his own speech.
According to the Harris campaign, Michelle Obama is expected to argue how Harris’ experiences and values make her qualified to serve as president. Her husband, Harris campaign officials said, will focus on what Democrats need to do in order to defeat Trump in the general election.
In addition to the Obamas, Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is also scheduled to give his speech on Tuesday night. Emhoff, the nation’s first second gentleman, would also be the first man to be first gentleman if Harris is elected president.
‘A bold vision for America’s future’
According to convention organizers, the theme for Tuesday’s events is “A bold vision for America’s future,” a defined pivot toward a new generation for Democrats and their leadership. After a Monday night that flicked at Harris’ possibility but also lauded the legacy of Biden and his decades of accomplishment, convention organizers now appear ready to shift toward the next stage of their journey.
In laying out their plans for the week, convention organizers described Tuesday night as a way to contrast what they characterized as Harris’ forward-looking strategy with Trump’s less positive outlook on America’s future.
As they did on Monday, Democrats also plan to showcase “everyday Americans” and some performers during each night, in addition to the elected officials and party leaders.
A roll call is also expected.
More protests are planned near the DNC
More protests are planned near the site of the DNC, where on Monday, a few dozen who broke away from a larger group voicing their opposition to the war in Gaza tore down pieces of the security fence up in several areas near convention venues. Some protesters, dressed in black with their faces covered, dragged pieces of the fence back to a park near the United Center, where the convention is being held.
Several protesters who managed to get through the fence were detained and handcuffed by the police.
Thousands of activists have been expected to converge on Chicago, hoping to call attention to abortion rights, economic injustice and the war in Gaza. Demonstrations are expected every day of the convention and, while their agendas vary, many activists agree an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is the priority.
Trump’s counterprogramming continues
As he did on Monday, Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, are continuing on their separate trips across battleground states to keep Democrats from having the political spotlight all to themselves.
Trump heads to Howell, Michigan, for a crime and safety event, while Vance hosts something similar in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As they did Monday, Trump’s campaign and surrogates – including Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida – plan a media briefing on the sidelines of the DNC in Chicago, with the daily theme of “Make America Safe Again.”
On Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered the state’s delegate votes to Vice President Kamala Harris, officially making her the party’s presidential nominee.
Newsom was surrounded by members of the state’s delegation, which included House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Maxine Waters.
“Kamala Harris has always done the right thing,” Newsom said. “A champion for voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, the rights for women and girls. So, Democrats and Independents, it’s time for us to do the right thing and make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States of America.”
While Newsom was participating in the traditional roll call, DJ Cassidy at the convention stage was playing notable hip-hop songs representing the Golden State in the background.
California’s introduction to the roll call was introduced with the beginning of “The Next Episode” by rap legends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, before transitioning to the iconic West Coast anthem “California Love.”
Two songs from Compton native Kendrick Lamar (“Alright” and “Not Like Us” ) also made the cut in California showing love to the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
Watch the full California roll call at the DNC in the video player above.
Every four years, the Democratic Party hosts a multi-day convention for thousands of supporters to come together and nominate their candidate for their presidency in an emotive process and this year is no exception.
This year, the convention will be set in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic presidential nomination after securing the majority of the delegates earlier this month.
The convention theme will be “For the People, For Our Future,” a message inspired by Harris’ previous campaign motto as district attorney – “Kamala Harris, For the People.”
“A credential to get into the Chicago Democratic National Convention is a hotter ticket than a Taylor Swift concert,” Chris Korge, national finance chair for the Democratic National Committee, told NBC News. “We have to tell people there’s a limit to how many people we can get into the convention.”
When and Where Is the 2024 Democratic National Convention?
The convention will be held over four days starting Monday, Aug. 19, and ending Thursday, Aug. 22 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. It will host events from 7-11 p.m. ET.
The full schedule of events, however, can be found here.
A look at the DNC stage, screens inside United Center
With the Democratic National Convention just days away, NBC Chicago’s Lexi Sutter gives a first look inside the stage and screens at the United Center.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden are expected to take the stage on the first night of the convention. Other speakers include Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Biden’s aides said Biden will use his remarks to deliver the argument for why he believes Harris must replace him and defeat Trump, whom he says is a threat to democracy. Biden will also play up some of his popular accomplishments before he steps out of the spotlight for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to take center stage the rest of the week, the aides said.
Speakers at the convention are expected to make reference to Biden’s accomplishments, from helping lead the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic to winning passage of major infrastructure, climate and health care investments. Harris has used Biden’s policies as the foundation of her own policy plans.
Other notable speakers at the convention include Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, former Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and House Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
When will Harris and Walz deliver their acceptance speeches?
Walz will deliver his vice presidential acceptance speech on Wednesday. Harris will give her presidential acceptance speech on Thursday, according to the DNC.
How to watch the DNC convention live?
NBC News will air a special report on this NBC station from 10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET each night of the convention.
The convention will also be available on via streaming through Peacock.
The primetime DNC coverage will air live from the United Center on the following dates/times:
CHICAGO (WLS) — Some Chicago leaders had expressed concerns about a possible migrant influx just before the Democratic National Convention, which is happening next week.
There was worry that migrants would arrive by the busloads, creating more challenges for a city already with a lot on its plate. But so far, that is not the case.
The camp counselor keeps basketball drills moving at New Life Centers.
It is a camp for children who have recently arrived in Chicago with their families.
“There’s a big need for our new arrivals, especially for work, housing and building community. Five years ago, there was 7,000, 10,000 Venezuelans. Now, all of a sudden, you have 40,000-plus,” said New Life Center Senior Director of New Vecinos Andre Gordillo.
The senior director of New Vecinos, which means neighbors, says while they are still helping thousands of new arrivals, they have not seen a bus of new arrivals at the landing where they assist welcoming travelers for weeks.
“There’s been some time for agencies service providers to catch up, even though they are pretty backed up,” Gordillo said.
While the city still sees new arrivals daily, the numbers are lower.
“Now that the numbers are lower, the landing zone, in terms of the daily count of people coming, we are able to focus more on this long-term efforts like integration and inclusion into our city and into this region,” said Chicago Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights Beatriz Ponce de Leon.
If there is an influx next week, during the DNC, Ponce de Leon says there are ready.
“We have capacity in our shelter system to take people in very quickly. We’ve also planned, got just in time beds that would be available if we max out our shelter system,” Ponce de Leon said.
The reduced numbers of new arrivals are believed to be due to a federal order. While that order is being challenged in court, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports encounters at the southwest border ports of entry are down 29% from May to June.
