Democrats are heading to Chicago for their national convention, just weeks after Vice President Kamala Harris took over the top of the ticket.
Harris and running mate Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, are set to take center stage at the first convention in Chicago since 1996. They’ll also break away to campaign in nearby Milwaukee, where former President Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination a month ago — days after surviving an assassination attempt.
“As Americans we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart,” he said.
Days later President Joe Biden halted his faltering re-election campaign under pressure, and now polls and analysts say it’s a new race, one in which Trump quickly dropped his muted bipartisan messaging in favor of personal attacks on Harris' race and intelligence.
The Cook Political Report finds Harris leading Trump in all but one of seven key battleground states, reversing what had been Trump’s clear edge over Biden in May. Amy Walter is Cook’s publisher and Editor-in-Chief.
“There was some polling about Kamala Harris, both how people felt about her personally, and there were some matchups between she and Donald Trump, but those were all hypothetical until the end of July, when it became a reality. And what we've seen is she is in a very different place. She is unburdened in many ways by what has been. Her favorable ratings now look a lot stronger, not only than they've ever been for her, but a lot stronger than the president's,” Walter said.
Former Western Massachusetts State Representative Sherwood Guernsey is a delegate for Harris. He says he hopes to discuss issues confronting rural America including jobs and opportunity in Chicago.
“No question about it, there's still going to be a tight race. What we have going for us now is a ton of new energy. People are excited, and that's going to that's going to make for a higher turnout, and that's what really benefits us. And so whether it's the. Issue of saving democracy or abortion rights climate change. I mean, the Democrats are the only party that's going to promote those, and I think that's going to bring people around,” he said.
President Biden will speak at the convention as he takes a victory lap for what supporters call a historically strong term. In the days leading up to the convention, Democrats were celebrating the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy is a delegate from New York.
“You know, I was a delegate for President Biden. It switched gears. So it was hard to adjust but it was the right thing to do,” he said. “And our Vice President Kamala Harris is a great pick. I’m glad we’re uniting behind her and having a convention where this is more about a rally of our base of Democratic delegates and elected officials across this great country of ours and to get the other 50 states invested in this and really get out message out to the people.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was one of President Biden’s strongest defenders as the Democrat faced mounting calls to drop his re-election bid, meeting at the White House soon after Biden's shaky June debate performance. Hochul says she will speak at the DNC on Monday.
“I’ve been honored to accept the invitation to appear Monday night. I understand there’s another lineup, President Biden will be there and Hillary Clinton, and I’m really, really honored that they selected me to be on that night,” she said.
Walter with the Cook Political Report says the convention comes at a time when Harris can continue to build her own brand.
“She's definitely getting something of a benefit of the doubt. She's not carrying with her the baggage either of the Biden administration, or of perceptions that had been widely circulating around about how people perceived her abilities to do this job,” Walter said.
Special coverage of the convention will continue nightly at 9 on WAMC.
