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Kamala Harris leaves Chicago today with energy and enthusiasm that reached a fever pitch on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, something that would have sounded too-good-to-be-true just over a month ago.
Her speech was biographical, centrist and patriotic, with delegates waving small and large flags on the floor of the United Center. That followed other displays of patriotism throughout the evening, including the appearance of members of Congress who are veterans and the occasional chants of “USA, USA.”
“It was the most Republican Democratic Convention we have ever seen,” Ryan Wiggins, the chief of staff of The Lincoln Project, the political action group founded by moderates and conservatives to counter Donald Trump. She compared the exuberance to the GOP convention in 1980 in Detroit, where Ronald Reagan was nominated.
Trump has spent the week calling Harris a leftist, radical, communist, but the convention’s final night featured a speaker to counter that: Former Representative Adam Kinzinger, the Republican never-Trumper, who said, “I’ve learned something about the Democratic party. The Democrats are as patriotic as us.”
Other aspects of the convention stood out:
Emotion: The final night saw the appearance of the Central Park Five, the testimonials of gun violence survivors and a speech by Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman who was seriously wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt. The night before, there was the display of joy of Tim Walz’s son.
As the first Black woman to accept a major party presidential nomination, Harris tied the historic moment to the experience of others, including her mother, who have “ever set out on their own unlikely journey.”
In the hallway outside the United Center, just after the speech, the atmosphere was jubilant. Jeanna Repass, the chair of the Kansas Democratic Party, fought back tears, saying, “As a Black woman, to hear her accept that nomination, it was amazing.”
Joining her was her aunt, Nola Jeanpierre, who also had been crying about the moment. “This is my mom’s sister. We just lost my mom. I got into politics — my mom told me that is what we were supposed to do, to love the country.”
“I am 75 years old and I never thought that I would see this day,” Jeanpierre said. “There are other words that we say — ‘amazing,’ ‘wonderful,’ ‘glorious,’ but it just gives me hope. That is the best word that I can think of is just hope.”
“She’s a gift,” she added, “and I now she is going to get it. I know she is going to get it. They are a beautiful duo, and America needs this right now.”
Production. On Thursday, rumors swirled that the final night of the convention would see some sort of secret special guest, topping even Oprah Winfrey’s surprise appearance the night before. Taylor Swift? Liz Cheney? George W. Bush? Mitt Romney even swatted down rumors on X. Right into the evening the speculation flew, with even some reports that Beyonce would appear.
She didn’t, and it by the end of Harris’ speech it was clear that a headline grabbing surprise moment would have distracted from the purpose of the convention: To introduce, or even re-introduce, Harris to a national audience. Producer Ricky Kirshner told Deadline as must earlier in the day. “If people are looking around to see something besides our candidate, we haven’t done our jobs well.”
Inside the arena, a DJ got delegates jamming in musical breaks between the many, many speeches — helping to ensure that the pictures viewing audiences saw were scenes of joy. The music acts also were strategically placed throughout the evenings, one of the highlights being Pink’s What About Us. The convention producers also raised the bar for the roll call vote, a tradition to any party gathering that has nevertheless lacked much suspense for almost 50 years. The roll call was pure entertainment, as party leaders showcased their state pride with a DJ’s soundtrack, or in the case of Georgia, the actual appearance of Lil Jon to give a rap performance.
Speechifying. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were some of the highlights, while Democrats showcased a gallery of its rising stars including Pete Buttigieg, Raphael Warnock and Josh Shapiro.
Conventions are still all about the speeches, no matter all the film shorts and music artistry that has been added over the years.
Speaking at a Politico event earlier in the day on Thursday, Buttigieg said, “They give you a few minutes, you have so many things you want to say, and every time you send a draft, they let you know how you can cut it in half, which is their job, to keep things moving.”
Yet just like the Oscars struggle to stay on time when winners go over the acceptance speech limit, so too did the producers when speakers packed in just a little more for their moment. The convention faced some criticism for going late on the first night in particular, when President Joe Biden started his speech after primetime on the East Coast, and the proceedings also went overtime on Tuesday and Wednesday. The convention met their mark on Thursday with Harris’ speech — which will likely draw the largest audience of the week — which for the Democrats may be the main thing that matters.
One notable person who was missing from the speaker podium lineup was California Governor Gavin Newsom. He did get a key moment, making remarks on the floor as he announced the final roll call vote for Harris. “It’s what I was asked to do, and I’m doing everything I’m being asked to do, and you’ll see me plenty on the campaign trail,” Newsom told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Thursday.
What also stood out were some things that didn’t happen:
Protest disruptions. Given the chaotic demonstrations on college campuses and interruptions at so many Democratic political events, there were fears that the week would devolve into stories of split screen moments of the proceedings inside United Center, surrounded by a series of security perimeters, and the Gaza demonstrations outside.
There were disruptions, including on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was based in downtown Chicago during the week. On the convention’s first night, demonstrators breached an outer security barrier, but the Chicago Police kept the protesters at bay.
As passionate as the protests were, though, they did not produce the kind “whole world is watching” tumult that would draw historic parallels to 1968 and even other conventions.
Policy debate. Reproductive rights and gun violence prevention were among the common themes throughout the week, but the convention focus was on unity and not on the areas of disagreement.
Harris addressed the situation in Gaza in her speech, but it was one of the few times that the Middle East that has divided wings of the party was mentioned from the stage.
On the floor on Wednesday night, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said that there “is just a lot of spirit, a lot of love, joy and optimism,” and he praised some of the speeches.
But he said that there was still something to be missed about conventions of the past.
“They’ve become more of an infomercial for four days,” he said. “I have been coming to conventions since 1976. This is my ninth, and there used to be some policy debates and there were involved in drawing up the platform. Republicans don’t even have a platform. They just have whatever cult leader Trump wants. But we need to have more policy debates and more issues.”
Harris did pledge a middle class tax cut, outlined aspects of her foreign policy vision and pledged to sign the bipartisan border bill that was sidelined earlier this year. After the highs of this week, though, she will face increasing pressure for specifics, certainly from Trump and his allies, but also from the news media. She has said that she would do a sit down interview by the end of the month, and Trump has tried to make an issue of her lack of a formal press conference. But the next big date for this election is September 10, the ABC News presidential debate in Philadelphia, which could change the dynamics of the race once again.
Moreover, Democrats have seen past nominees enjoy a big convention bounce, only to see a lead dissipate.
Gov. Josh Green (D-HI) said, “In 2016, everyone thought Hillary had it wrapped. She was up about five points in the final weeks, and people were already calculating what it would be like to have her as president. And then we got quite shocked, because things had changed with social media and kind of the fear trappings that President Trump had put out there. This year, we’re not falling for that. And that’s when when you hear Coach [Tim] Walz say, we stay on the offensive, getting all those metaphors out, that’s serious, that’s for real, and we will not make the same mistake twice.”
