CHICAGO — Welcome to The Campaign Moment, your guide to the 2024 election, where Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention looked a little like a Friday night (with a high school football team and lots of pigskin talk) and even a Saturday night (with an SNL star).
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The big moment
Night 3 of 4 at the Democratic National Convention is in the books. Democrats used it to road-test some messages on some of their most problematic issues, while we got much-anticipated speeches from former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the man she helped create a job opening for: Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz.
Below is the third installment of my takeaways from the convention, which concludes Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepting the nomination for president.
1. Walz brings home the “freedom” theme
All week at their convention, Democrats have been trying to lay claim to the patriotism mantle after decades of largely ceding that territory to Republicans. The symbols and chants are everywhere. The anthem of the convention is Beyonce’s “Freedom,” a song about liberation.
In accepting the Democratic vice-presidential nomination Wednesday night, Walz sought to tie it all together.
The overriding theme of the Minnesota governor’s speech was the title of that song. He mentioned “free” or “freedom” a dozen times. He pitched Democrats as the protectors of it and Republicans as meddling in it.
“When Republicans use the word — freedom — they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations free to pollute your air and water, and banks free to take advantage of customers,” Walz said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, freedom to make your own health-care decisions and, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
Walz painted Donald Trump and GOP vice-presidential nominee JD Vance as not just “weird,” but weird in a way that infringes upon people’s lives by taking away their economic and health-care freedom.
“We know if these guys get back in the White House, they’ll start jacking up the costs on the middle class,” Walz said. “They’ll repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’ll gut Social Security and Medicare, and they will ban abortion across this country with or without Congress.”
Walz pitched Harris as the antidote.
“Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes,” he promised. “If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices. Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable.”
(Separately, one of the moments sure to have people talking was when Walz’s son, Gus, who has a nonverbal learning disorder, tearfully stood up and exclaimed, “That’s my dad.”)
It was a specific version of freedom — a populist one — delivered by a candidate brought to the ticket for that kind of appeal. But he wasn’t the only one to play it up.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) spoke about “real freedom” that comes from investment in schools, infrastructure and communities. Oprah Winfrey intoned, “Freedom isn’t free,” and that “it takes hard work and heart work.” Many speakers have cast reproductive rights — a major issue in Democrats’ favor right now — in terms of freedom. And the Harris campaign debuted an ad, “We believe in freedom.”
At the end of it all, of course, Walz departed to Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
2. A muted moment for the highly consequential Pelosi
Perhaps nobody has quietly loomed over the convention this week like Pelosi. Her role in nudging aside President Joe Biden helped create the enthusiastic and optimistic spectacle we’ve witnessed, but it has been the source of some internal tensions. Pelosi has occasionally been terse when asked about the subject and has offered no apologies. And her relationship with Biden and his team appears strained.
Pelosi spoke only briefly, with little sign of any hard feelings from her or the crowd.
She took care to praise Biden’s presidency, calling it “one of the most successful presidencies of modern times.” But she notably prefaced that by tying it to “the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris” — playing up Harris’s role.
“Thank you, Joe,” Pelosi said after listing the administration’s accomplishments. “And I know that Vice President Harris is ready to take us to new heights.”
3. Democrats threaded the needle on Gaza
Democrats have spent much of the week treating the war in Gaza — perhaps their most divisive issue internally — gingerly. It had received only fleeting mentions over the first two days, as pro-Palestinian protests took place outside the convention, and the party has split between the Palestinian and the Israeli causes.
But Democrats leaned in Wednesday, seeking to thread the needle — and seemingly succeeding for the moment.
One of the night’s most poignant moments came when the parents of a hostage held by Hamas, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, spoke about their plight.
Jon Polin, the father, asserted that Biden and Harris were working hard to return the hostages and reach a cease-fire deal. He noted that the hostages spanned many nationalities and religions.
“In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza,” Polin said.
In a sign of how unifying the message was, Polin’s comment earned applause from one of the House’s most pro-Palestinian members, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The crowd ultimately chanted of the hostages, “Bring them home.”
Speakers have regularly mentioned freeing the hostages alongside a cease-fire — combining the priorities of the two sides of their split party. And thus far, the issue hasn’t boiled over in nearly the way Democrats had feared it might.
4. An attempt to flip the script on the “broken” border
Speaking of issues being massaged, Democrats also placed newfound emphasis on border security — an issue that has been one of Biden’s worst and has threatened to derail Democrats’ hopes. Republicans have sought to connect the issue to Harris, misleadingly calling her the “border czar.”
Democrats mostly played up Trump’s role in torpedoing a bipartisan border deal earlier this year. But they also sought to tie the nation’s proud immigrant past and pathways to citizenship — things they have long emphasized — to an increasing rhetorical emphasis on getting tough on illegal crossings.
More than a half-dozen speakers broached the issue.
“Let’s be clear: The border is broken,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) said before pitching Harris as a “joyful” warrior who would “work across party lines to secure our border, to treat people like human beings and to move our country forward.”
Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), who represents a border district, joined others in accusing Republicans of rejecting the deal and previous attempts at immigration reform for political purposes — in the most recent case, to keep the border chaotic ahead of the 2024 election.
Bexar County, Tex., Sheriff Javier Salazar’s recounting of the horrors of cross-border human-trafficking — “desperate, terrified, gasping for air” — would have sounded just as at home at a Republican convention.
Salazar (D) then added: “When Donald Trump comes down to Texas, stands next to officers in uniforms just like mine, he’s not there to help us. … Just like when he killed the border bill, he just made our jobs harder. Now, Kamala, on the other hand, has been fighting border crime for years.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) even promised Harris would bring the border bill back up and pass it.
“Kamala Harris has been tough as nails when it comes to securing our border,” Murphy said. “When she was a California prosecutor, she went after drug smugglers, human traffickers. She put 100 gang members away in a single sweep.”
Actually passing that bill, sponsored by a Republican, Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), will prove difficult after other Republicans turned against it en masse. But the border appears somewhat less salient of an issue right now than it once seemed, amid a four-year low in illegal border crossings.
5. There were plenty of choice lines
Bill Clinton: “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the I’s.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D): “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices at the United States Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand. And I’m retaining a lot of water, so good luck with that.”
“Saturday Night Live” star Kenan Thompson, while holding an oversize prop copy of Project 2025: “You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is.”
Former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan (R): “These days, our party acts more like a cult — a cult worshiping a felonous thug. … Let me be clear to my Republican friends at home: If you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, you’re not a Democrat; you’re a patriot.”
Take a moment to read:
“What happens if Kennedy endorses Trump?” (Washington Post)
“With six words, Michelle Obama rewires America’s conversation on race” (Washington Post)
“Pelosi makes no apologies at DNC for her role in Biden’s ouster” (Washington Post)
“Pro-Palestinian delegates will not get a speaking slot at convention” (Washington Post)
“Harris upended Trump’s electoral fortunes. Just look at North Carolina.” (Politico)
“Harris Fundraising Shows Huge Cash Increase After Biden Left Race” (Wall Street Journal)
“How Kamala Harris Is Trying to Claim the Mantle of Change” (New York Times)