USA TODAY International Edition
What comes next for Dems
Never has a presidential nominating convention been held like the one the Democrats wrapped up Thursday. No live crowds. No traditional roll call. No after- parties with delegates and fundraisers.
But the 2020 virtual gathering accomplished its main purpose: nominating Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic candidates for the Nov. 3 election to face President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
For many, the convention offered the first time they’d seen Biden live or heard from him directly since the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the nation in March and relegated the former vice president to his home base of Delaware.
For even more viewers, it was their first glimpse of Harris, the California senator who is making history as the first Black woman and the first Asian American person on a major party’s presidential ticket.
The Republicans will have their four days of fanfare starting Monday, when they begin the process of nominating Trump and he gives his acceptance speech Thursday. For now, Democratic Party activists hope to ride the momentum of the nomination to victory.
Here are some key takeaways from the four- day convention and what they could tell us about the 73 days leading up to Election Day:
Party coalescing behind Biden
Despite the concerns that nominating a 77- year- old moderate white male would turn off the progressives the party needs to win in November, Democrats seemed eager to rally around Biden.
Yes, there was that moment Tues
day when liberal firebrand Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez nominated Socialist Democrat Bernie Sanders. But that was more formality than message.
The New York congresswoman and the Vermont senator long ago endorsed the former vice president, and his campaign has taken pains to include some progressive ideas, such as expanded health care coverage, aggressive steps to combat climate change, and a higher minimum wage, in the campaign platform.
Sanders also was allowed to keep many of the primary election delegates he would have otherwise lost when he suspended his campaign due to an agreement with the Biden campaign, which was intended to show party unity.
“We need Joe Biden as our next president,” Sanders told to virtual convention Monday.
Excite voters, taking on Trump
Hillary Clinton struggled to motivate Black voters in 2016, a weakness that helped contribute to her whisker- thin losses in the three key states – Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – that propelled Trump to the White House.
By choosing Harris, Biden sent a message that he doesn’t want to a lack of enthusiasm among African Americans to be an impediment.
In her acceptance speech Wednesday, Harris talked about “structural racism” that’s become apparent in the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color and in the civil unrest sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others at the hands of police.
“There is no vaccine for racism,” she said. “We’ve got to do the work for George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor and for the lives of too many others to name.”
Harris, 55, is a former prosecutor who figures to go after Trump with a ferocious energy expected to surpass Biden’s more low- key demeanor.
“Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons,” Harris said in her speech Wednesday. “Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose.”
Contrast between Trump, Biden
Throughout the convention, Democrats portrayed Trump as self- interested, uncaring president and Biden as humble, empathetic public servant.
They made their case against Trump by criticizing his management of a pandemic he often said would disappear but has so far killed nearly 180,000 Americans. For Biden, it was highlighting his connection to everyday people, such as the conductor on the Amtrak train he often rode or the constituents he helped as a senator.
Biden’s wife, Jill, relayed a stirring personal tribute Tuesday on her husband’s ability to empathize with the nation’s woes by recounting how he rebounded from tragedy when his first wife and young daughter in a car crash decades ago, and then from his son Beau’s death from cancer in 2015.
“How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole,” she said. “With love and understanding – and with small acts of kindness. With bravery. With unwavering faith.”
But few were as powerful as Jacquelyn Brittany, a security guard at The New York Times who got to know Biden from his visits there an was asked to officially nominate Biden for president Tuesday.
“I take powerful people up on my elevator all the time. When they get off, they go to their important meetings. Me? I just head back to the lobby. But in the short time I spent with Joe Biden, I could tell he really saw me, that he actually cared, that my life meant something to him,” she said by video as she stood in front of the elevator. “And I knew, that even when he went into his important meeting, he’d take my story in there with him.”
Expect the “average Joe” theme to keep playing out during the final 10 weeks of the campaign.
Making sure every ballot counts
Baked into the convention’s recurring themes of diversity and leadership was a clear message that Americans need to make sure their votes matter.
That message has been underscored by a pandemic that has added to the confusion and complexity of voting in person and Trump’s efforts to undermine the U. S. Post Office as he charges, without evidence, that universal mailin ballots that several states are considering is racked with fraud.
And there’s evidence that Russia is once again trying to influence the election four years after the foreign adversary interfered on Trump’s behalf.
Democrats relentlessly reminded activists on each night of the convention not to take anything for granted this time.
“Remember: Joe and Kamala can win 3 million more votes and still lose. Take it from me,” Clinton said during remarks Wednesday, reminding viewers of her Electoral College loss in 2016. “We need numbers so overwhelming Trump can’t sneak or steal his way to victory.”
Rhetorical punches at Trump
If the DNC signaled anything, it’s that the attacks against Trump will intensify.
In a scathing rebuke Wednesday, former President Barack Obama blistered Trump not just for his policies but also for his aptitude.
“I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies,” Obama said. “I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously, that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”
Others, including former first lady Michelle Obama, joined the chorus in what likely will be repeated on the campaign trail even louder than it already has.