CHICAGO (Reuters) – Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination for president, seeking to define herself for America as she and Republican candidate Donald Trump lock horns in the final 11 weeks of a razor-close campaign.
Here are some takeaways from the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Thursday.
SYMBOLS OF AMERICANA
Throughout the week, Democrats leaned into symbols of Americana, reclaiming the camouflage, cowboy hats, country music and flags that are usually associated with U.S. conservatism.
They sought to portray a party that embraces all Americans, no matter their political ideology, and even some Republicans who oppose Trump took to the stage to endorse Harris.
The convention featured fashion that would have looked appropriate in Republican-leaning states like Texas or Missouri.
Delegates from Washington state wore light-up wide-brimmed cowboy hats, while others donned caps with a camouflage pattern and the words “Harris, Walz” for Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
By choosing Walz, Harris is trying to court more moderate voters who see themselves in his folksy, Midwestern roots.
Chants of “USA” greeted many speakers, and John Mellencamp’s iconic ode to small-town America – “Small Town” – played more than a few times throughout the week.
“It means that the Republican Party has no copyright on the American flag, on patriotism, on camo, on faith … on fishing in the summer and shooting birds in the winter,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican turned Never-Trumper, who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “It means they don’t have a monopoly on the symbols and signifiers of Americana.”
WOMEN SPEAKERS, WHITE SUITS
Women speakers, notably women of color, dominated the convention stage this week and featured prominently in the viral online posts on social media feeds.
Michelle Obama’s speech spread through the internet after she tore into Trump on Tuesday, taunting him for his reference on the campaign trail to unspecified “Black jobs.”
Michelle Obama’s speech easily eclipsed Barack Obama’s on Reuters TikTok with more than half a million views within 24 hours, while Barack Obama’s stood at under 200,000.
Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said the lineup of speakers was “likely in response to one of the demands on the Democratic Party to be sure that they’re inclusive of voices that they need to come out and vote for them.”
In the United States, 12 governors are women – eight Democratic and four Republican – which is a record, according to the Rutgers center. The U.S. Congress has 150 women equal to 28% of the 535 seats and a majority are Democrats. Twenty-eight of those, all Democrats, identify as Black, 10 identify as Asian American/Pacific Islander and 19 identify as Latina.
Many women delegates (and some of the men, too) wore white to the convention on Thursday night – a nod to the women’s suffrage movement and the success of women in U.S. politics. The arena audience was a sea of white suits and dresses.
“We are going to be electing the first female president of the United States,” said Barb Crow, 65, a delegate from Minnesota. “We are celebrating women today, and that’s how we do it: We wear white.”
‘FIGHT THE POWER FRIDAY’
Despite the celebratory tone of the star-studded convention, politicians, civil rights leaders and grassroots advocates said the campaign ahead would be hard-fought.
Democrats have seen a surge in enthusiasm and donations since Harris became their presidential candidate a month ago, but leaders said the party still needs to mobilize its base of supporters, especially voters of color.
They also said Democrats needed to reach poor and low-income Americans, struggling to make ends meet, who might feel disconnected from the convention theme of joy.
Both Republicans and Democrats know that firing up the base and getting their supporters out to vote will be crucial, even as they seek to persuade that relatively small segment of voters who remain undecided.
Activist Rev. Al Sharpton told convention-goers that they owe it to the civil rights movement to get Harris elected. “We should not take for granted what we are witnessing this week … people shed blood and died so there would be a possibility (of a Harris presidency).”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also gave the Democratic faithful their marching orders.
“Strategize on Sunday, meet the moment on Monday, take it to them on Tuesday, work it out on Wednesday, thank the Lord on Thursday, fight the power on Friday, set if off on Saturday,” Jeffries said. “Get a few hours of sleep, wake up the next day and do it all over again until joy, joy, joy comes in the morning.”
MEANWHILE, IN CALIFORNIA
President Joe Biden, who abandoned his reelection bid last month, was hailed by delegates on Monday in a tearful farewell speech, then quickly became little more than an afterthought in the remaining three days of the program.
Many high-profile speakers such as Hillary Clinton briefly thanked him but others like Michelle Obama skipped him altogether. Even those who spoke about his lifetime of service and record quickly pivoted to Harris.
“History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger. I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend,” said former President Barack Obama. “Now the torch has been passed.”
Once he exited the stage, Biden, 81, was really off the stage, wheels up for California. Once there, he mostly stayed out of public view.
The president, his wife Jill and multiple family members were spending the week at the 8,000-acre ranch owned by a billionaire donor to the Democratic Party, Joe Kiani, in the heart of California wine country.
Aides say Biden is plotting a busy schedule for the remaining five months of his presidency with plenty of domestic and foreign travel including multiple stops in Pennsylvania, a state he hopes to help deliver for Harris.
SUPPORT IN CONGRESS
Many of the broad policy changes that Harris is proposing aren’t things a U.S. president can do alone, including a middle-class tax cut, restoring federal abortion rights, changes to immigration policy and reinforcing voting rights.
They all need to be passed through the U.S. Congress. For Harris and Democrats to make these changes, they’ll likely need to control both the House and the Senate.
Democrats are the underdogs in the 100-seat U.S. Senate, where members are reelected every six years, with most pollsters and strategists predicting that Republicans will seize a narrow majority. Democrats have more of a chance of taking a majority in the House of Representatives but it will be close-fought there too.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose, Heather Timmons, Bianca Flowers, Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Howard Goller)
