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Vice President Kamala Harris is getting ready for a Democratic National Convention like no other as she prepares to deliver an acceptance speech almost one month to the day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Managing that introduction to voters ahead of the post-Labor Day sprint to the final poll closing is a complicated affair. Democrats have to decide how to define her brand, tell her life story, and position her politically, not just in her speech but in the entire programming.
“I think she needs to be positioned the way that I know her to be, which is a pragmatic, practical leader who is going to fight for the everyday Americans’ concerns,” Ashley Etienne, a former communications director to the vice president, said. The convention, she said, should be “leaning into her being a prosecutor, but one who’s taken on corporate greed in the interest of the little guy.”
Compared to the more Trump-centric Republican convention, Democrats also have a long list of political heavyweights in their own right — the Obamas, the Clintons, and the Bidens — who will require significant stage time and draw more attention in the press. They all will have to stay on the same page to make sure they’re continuously elevating, and not overshadowing, Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.
“The convention gives people guidance on where they should focus,” Etienne said. “I think this is such a big, important moment, everyone’s going to be on message and on script. I do believe there’s too much to lose and too much momentum to squander, to have any silly mistakes, to let any egos ruin it.”
At the same time, convention planners will need to make space for a competing crush of rising stars, speakers targeted at more narrow constituencies, and some potentially big celebrity appearances.
“Yes, we’re going to hear from the Obamas and the Clintons, but I want to hear from Governor Gretchen Whitmer, I want to hear from Pete Buttigieg, I want to hear from Governor Shapiro,” Quentin James, founder and CEO of the Collective PAC, said. “President Biden was one of the last OGs of that demographic of Democrats and now Vice President Harris is going to usher in an entire generation of folks.”
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Harris will get some distance between herself and Joe Biden at next week’s convention, which will feature the sitting president on the first night of the gathering in Chicago.
That’s a departure from the tradition of having the incumbent president headline the night before the nominee, and a step toward one goal that Democrats believe is critical for the high-stakes convention: Establishing Harris’s independent identity. The timing gives Democrats a chance to pay tribute to Biden — Harris led a crowd in chants of “Thank you, Joe!” at their Maryland event on Thursday — before devoting attention full-time to the current ticket.
Then there are less well-known figures who might help with specific blocs of voters. Yusef Salaam, a New York City Councilman and member of the “Central Park Five” has been invited to speak, and could help counter Trump’s outreach to Black men if he accepts. One Democrat suggested featuring ordinary Americans who have benefitted from Harris’ record — like a homeowner who was part of the $20 billion settlement she secured with major banks over foreclosure abuses or a recipient of the administration’s student debt forgiveness programs. There are expectations the convention will include at least one “Never Trump” Republican who could speak to a narrow slice of conservative dissidents and Nikki Haley voters that might be persuadable.
“She needs to excite the base, but she has to make a pitch that there is room in our tent for the [roughly] 20% of Republicans who voted against Trump in the primary,” Democratic strategist and former Biden official Caitlin Legacki told Semafor.
As for Harris, she’s begun laying out a more specific economic platform ahead of the convention that emphasizes direct tax benefits for parents, workers, and homebuyers and a populist stance against “price gouging.” At the same time, she’s dropped some of her more left-leaning proposals from her prior presidential run and has been using her ads to pivot to a border security message and pitch herself as a tough-on-crime prosecutor.
Democrats so far have given Harris a wide berth to craft a brand that can win over swing voters and the convention will be her most-watched opportunity yet to dispel lingering concerns from moderates.
“Only a fool refuses to change,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, told Semafor.
Keeping progressives fired up may be easier this time than when she last ran for president in 2019. Some of the more crowd-pleasing items on the left tend to poll well — even relatively centrist groups like the Reid Hoffman-backed pollster Blueprint have been cheering on her rollout.
“I think, honestly, the country is really in a mainstream progressive place now, where I think she’s going to be able to come out and talk pretty aggressively about her history taking on big corporate greed,” Jesse Lee, a former senior Biden official, said. “It’s stuff that would have been perceived as to the left in the past, but it’s just really where people are.”
The View From The Convention Organizers
“We have spent the past year building a stage in Chicago for our nominees to tell their story to the country,” Matt Hill, Senior Director of Communications for Democratic National Convention Committee, told Semafor. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s historic record and wins for the American people will remain central to that story. We are excited to welcome delegates from every state and territory in the nation as they rally around the Harris-Walz ticket and their optimistic, bold vision for the future — standing in stark contrast to the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda that takes us backwards with extremism and chaos.”
The View From Republicans
“At the Republican National Convention, we told stories of everyday Americans that captured hearts,” Danielle Alvarez, campaign spokesperson for the Trump campaign told Semafor. “The celebrity was President Donald J. Trump, who had just survived an assassination attempt. The conversation at our convention focused on the policies and leadership of Donald J. Trump that everyone is ready to return to. This Democratic National Convention is going to ignore everyday Americans and focus on Hollywood elites in the hopes they draw attention to Kamala Harris and shield her miserable policies, proposals, and failures of the last four years.”
Notable
- One wild card that has Democrats nervous: Protestors. Semafor’s David Weigel reports on the latest from pro-Palestinian and anti-war organizers, who are expecting tens of thousands of marchers in Chicago.
- Politico talked to Democratic delegates who are over the moon about Harris’ nomination, but still worried about a tight election. “We can’t just get lazy and assume we’re going to have a big party and we’re going to get Democrats elected,” New York Assemblymember Grace Lee said.