The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.
Conventions are about unifying parties and spurring rank-and-file voters to action for the remainder of the campaign. And they can also be opportunities to reach out to persuadable voters in swing states and introduce the ticket to a broad audience.
That’s what Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., who Vice President Harris chose as her running mate, did Wednesday night before not just the crowd of the faithful in the arena in Chicago, but also to voters watching at home.
Those audiences also heard, though, from President Biden, the Obamas, the Clintons, even Oprah Winfrey, as well as several other speakers before Harris herself takes the stage Thursday night.
Here are six takeaways from the convention so far:
1. “Coach Walz” gives Democrats a pep talk.
Democrats have had a problem with coming across as elitist, as being more head than heart. But Walz, as he did in his first speech when he was introduced as Harris’ pick, showed that he has a common touch. It’s notable that the ticket with the Ivy League degrees is Trump-Vance and not Harris-Walz. (Joe Biden, by the way, was the first president since Reagan not to have an Ivy League degree.)
Walz also doesn’t have roots in San Francisco, as Harris does, but is of the Midwest, from a small town in Nebraska, a former congressman from a once-red district in Minnesota, governor of that state and, of course, football coach. Democrats have really latched onto that last piece of his resume. And Walz leaned into that in his speech, telling the crowd that this is the fourth quarter of the election and that Democrats are down a field goal, but they’re on offense and driving down the field. To get across the line, he said, the crowd’s job and the job of those watching is to “get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling” in the election.
2. Democrats tried to make a broad appeal and show that their values are mainstream.
Whether it was Oprah – someone who Donald Trump once said in an ideal world, he would want to be his vice president – Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Walz, or the handful of Republicans who spoke, Wednesday arguably was about appealing to undecided voters and persuadable independents and Republican to give them a permission structure to vote for Harris.
Oprah noted that she’s a registered independent and called on “all you independents and undecideds” to vote for Harris. “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024,” she said, adding, “Common sense tells us that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect. … Let us choose common sense over nonsense.”
Walz, for his part, also made the case for Democratic ideas, not as radical as Republicans have tried to paint them, but as mainstream – things like making housing more affordable, cutting the price of prescription drugs, reducing medical debt, providing meals for children in schools and standing up for abortion rights.
“While other states were banning books from their schools,” Walz said, “we were banishing hunger from ours.”
3. It was also a night to showcase Democratic rising stars.
Conventions are always events that feature not just the ticket running in the current election cycle, but a chance for potential future candidates to shine, to stand out and make a name for themselves before a large audience.
They were certainly on display Wednesday night with speeches by not just Buttigieg, but also people like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore – three names the country is likely to hear again in Democratic presidential primaries in either four or eight years.
4. This is not Joe Biden’s convention.
See Jon, Lil. The Democratic National Convention has been a raucous and enthusiastic affair to this point. Part of the reason for this is that President Biden decided to step aside in favor of Harris. Democrats, who had been telling pollsters for more than a year that they did not like their choices, have been invigorated.
There seemed to be a double meaning in those chants of, “Thank you, Joe.” Thank you for what you did as president, but also, thank you for getting out of the race. Biden gave a stemwinder of a valedictory speech, but it also made clear why Democrats were nervous about his candidacy.
5. Michelle Obama gave the speech she could never give as first lady or potential first lady.
Michelle Obama’s husband said after her speech and right before his own that he may be the only person dumb enough to follow her. And that’s because she brought the house down. Her speech was a litany of things she was holding back saying for at least eight years. She delivered searing lines about the “affirmative action of generational wealth,” and that Trump tried to stoke fear about her and her husband because he was threatened by two highly educated and successful people, “who happened to be Black.”
That’s something political consultants would have strongly cautioned her against saying while on the campaign trail in 2007 and in the White House after that because she and her husband had to walk a fine line in trying to not offend white voters, who might have been cautious about voting for a Black man to be president. But Michelle Obama is now one of the most beloved Democrats in the country. She had the leverage to say what she did, and she clearly is liberated by no longer being actively involved in electoral politics.
6. Doug Emhoff boosted his wife, but also showed what a modern family looks like.
A lot has been made of the fact that Harris would be the first woman to be president, the first Black woman and first of South Asian descent to serve in the office. That would be a major historical feat. But it’s also unusual to see a man rounding the edges of his political candidate wife, who is running for president. It’s also very different from what Bill Clinton did for Hillary Clinton in 2016, the only other time this kind of speech was delivered. He was not only a well-known former president, but the Clintons had one adult child.
Emhoff, on the other hand, is someone far less known and his family’s story showed a lot of new things on a political stage. It highlighted an interracial marriage and the complexities of step parenting. And remember, a significant percentage of marriages end in divorce, so millions of Americans can identify with blended families.
And now the table is set for Harris. She will be making a speech in front of likely the largest audience she’s had yet. It’s an opportunity for her to continue the momentum that has been sparked by her candidacy. Can she deliver?
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