All dressed up ...
Ohio’s Biden delegates make the most of watching convention from home
the rest of us, she’s going to be watching from home.
Even Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, aren’t traveling to Milwaukee. They plan to give their acceptance speeches from Biden’s home state of Delaware.
The fully virtual convention is now a series of nationally broadcast speeches, Zoom lunches and conference calls. The lack of confetti and balloons is a letdown, but it’s the rush from the roar of the crowd that first-time delegates like Lightbody and Caitlin Gerber say they’ll miss the most.
“I am devastated,” Gerber, a sixthgrade teacher in Cleveland Heights, said. “I also understand that it is not safe for us to gather in Milwaukee, but I’m so sad for everyone who wanted to be there.”
Even voting for Biden was anticlimatic. Delegates, who would have stood on the floor underneath their state’s sign to shout their support, voted by email during the past week.
“I had hoped that maybe by August things would be a little bit better,” Gerber said. “I just found out that I am going to be going back to school remotely for the first quarter.”
Ohio Democrats chose their delegates back in January when the coronavirus was just a news story from abroad that occasionally entered Gerber’s thoughts.
By March she knew life was changing. Gerber and her husband had tickets to be on stage at Biden’s Cleveland rally, but the former vice president canceled just hours before he was set to speak. She’d hoped for a handshake, but now Gerber thinks a recent video call in which Joe and Jill Biden joined is as close as she’s going to get.
“We have a private Facebook group for Biden delegates across the country, and a lot of people, we’re posting selfies they took with their computers,” Gerber said. “It’s kind of silly but that’s as close as we are going to get to seeing them speak.”
She plans to try again in 2024 because even though this DNC is “a part of history,” Gerber said she wants the experience of being in the room. Her dad was in Pennsylvania politics for 25 years. Greber, 36, grew up on stories about the excitement and celebration of watching the balloons drop.
A Dispatch survey of Ohio’s Democratic delegates found that 51% were firsttime delegates, compared to 11% who said they’ve already attended four or more.
Presidential conventions are a place for delegates like Lightbody to network with other elected Democrats from across their home state and country. Ohio’s organizers have put together daily virtual luncheons with local and national speakers, but Lightbody said she knows it won’t be the same as being there in person.
“Because I’m a science educator, I’ve been to hundreds of conventions,” she said. “I’m going to attend every session I can, but I totally understand what I am missing out on.”
Still, she said Biden has the potential to rally his supporters whether they are in person or not. She can still remember the chills she felt rush down her spine when then-sen. Barack Obama gave his debut national speech keynoting the 2004 Democratic convention.
“It was absolutely chilling,” she said. “I’m sure the same sort of reactions will be possible now.” astaver@dispatch.com @annastaver