CHICAGO — The wave of energy surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy hit a new peak with former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama’s raucous homecoming here Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention.
Greeted by chants of “Yes We Can,” a chant that invokes his 2008 victory speech, Barack Obama closed the second day of the party’s political pep rally by honoring President Joe Biden and arguing Kamala Harris is prepared for the top job.
“This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and want a champion,” he said.
But it will still be a close race, Barack Obama told the crowd of delegates, members of Congress and other officials, activists and all manner of other Democrats.
“Our job over the next 11 weeks is to convince as many people as possible to vote for that vision,” he said. “It won’t be easy. The other side knows it’s easier to play on people’s fears and cynicism.”
Michelle Obama, who preceded her husband in the speaking order, said that Democratic voters can’t let up the enthusiasm the party has felt in the last month since Harris moved to the top of the presidential ticket. She said Democrats shouldn’t “indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala,” and instead need to work to elect Harris to the White House.
The party — and the country — has evolved significantly since Michelle Obama’s 2016 memorable convention speech, in which she implored Democrats that “when they go low, we got high.”
This time, she asserted that “hope is making a comeback” with Harris at the top of the ticket.
“Let us keep moving our country forward and go higher — yes, higher — than we’ve ever gone before,” she said.
She also predicted an onslaught of attacks that are likely headed toward Harris by her opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this,” she said, alluding to years of Trump attacks. “His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly successful people who also happened to be Black.”
Throughout both Obamas’ speeches, the crowd waved “Vote” signs. At one point, during a reference to Trump, the crowd booed, and Barack Obama veered off script to extemporaneously quip: “Don’t boo. Vote!”
Delegates got a more personal view on the nominee from second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who was greeted by delegates holding red “Doug” signs with the Harris campaign slogan “Freedom” on the back.
Emhoff described quickly falling in love with Harris after getting set up by a client on a blind date. He said she has been a wonderful co-parent who has always been there for their children, Ella and Cole, both of whom he had with his ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff.
“She’ll lead from the belief that wherever we come from, whatever we look like, we’re strongest when we fight for what we believe in — not just against what we fear,” Emhoff said. “Kamala was exactly the right person for me at an important moment in my life. And at this moment in our nation’s history, she is exactly the right president.”
Earlier in the night, some of the party’s most notable members of Congress spoke to Harris’ time in the Senate, both as a member and her current role as the president of the Senate, the capacity in which she has cast the most tie-breaking votes of any vice president in history.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer spotlighted his members up for re-election and those looking to keep open seats Democratic in November. He projected optimism about Democrats’ chances to keep the Senate, even dancing towards the microphone as he took the stage.
To keep the majority, Democrats would have to outperform the presidential ballot in Montana and Ohio, states where Trump is expected to win, as well as win in several swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.
“We are going to hold the Senate again and are going to pick up seats,” Schumer, a New York Democrat, said. “A Democratic majority to create good-paying jobs and lower costs. To defend a woman’s right to choose. To deliver for communities back home,” he said.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, also took the stage. Instead of Senate races, he focused his remarks on workers, which has been a key focal point throughout the convention.
But speaking to reporters afterwards, Peters said that several Senate Democratic candidates will speak directly to the convention later.
Angela Alsobrooks, who is running to succeed retiring Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, was one candidate who got a plum speaking spot Tuesday. She first met Harris when she was running for state’s attorney in Prince George’s County. She said Harris helped her bring a California program that helped low-level offenders get job training to Maryland.
“Getting justice for others isn’t a power trip for her — it’s a sacred calling,” Alsobrooks, who is running against former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan for the open seat, said. “Kamala Harris knows how to keep criminals off the streets. And come November, with our help, she’ll help keep one out of the Oval Office.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and whose 2016 and 2020 presidential bids helped make him one of the most well-known progressives nationally, compared the country’s current political moment with three-and-a-half years ago when Biden was sworn into office.
Sanders, 82, is up for reelection in November and is expected to easily win a fourth term.
“When the political will is there, government can effectively deliver for the people of our country,” Sanders said. “We need to summon that will again because too many of our fellow Americans are struggling every day to just get by.”
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