The 2024 Democratic National Convention is now history. Here’s your scorecard as we head to November.
Most Americans know how they’re going to vote. So, it all comes down to the few who don’t know who they will support or aren’t sure they will vote. The target for coming television ads and rally speeches will be independents, undecided voters, people with a poor record of regularly voting and Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Donald Trump in the GOP primaries.
But first, Democrats had to energize their base, especially young minorities. Biden, by every measure was a good president in my mind. But young Democrats, minority Democrats, especially the far-left, wanted a Batman to confront the Joker — a hero to defeat the villain.
Biden once defeated Trump, but his poor performance in the now-infamous June debate drained Democrats’ confidence. Last week’s Democratic Convention proved to be the antidote.
This convention was the best convention I’ve attended in 40 years of attending both Democratic and Republican conventions. It’s not even close.
The Democratic roll call, set to music with a thumping beat set by a DJ on stage — and with a rapper coming down the aisle to introduce the Georgia delegation — stands as an instant classic of convention theatre.
The championship football team appearing on stage to celebrate their coach, Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, is another all-time convention moment.
Another bright moment was when Harris drew deafening applause by speaking to people who say the Biden-Harris administration hasn't done enough to rein in Israel’s military action in Gaza. She said she and Biden "are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends…”
Then there was the celebrity charge for the convention with Oprah Winfrey coming back to Chicago. Here was the trusted Oprah, saying she is looking to the future by standing with Harris against the division and chaos of Trump .
She told her huge following of women that she’s a registered independent who backs Harris.
That goes to the heart of what campaign strategists on both sides of this election are focused on post-convention and pre-Sept. 10 presidential debate.
Former President Obama hammered the same theme. He said his grandmother and his mother-in-law — one white from rural Kansas and one black from urban Chicago — were both good people who looked out for others and wanted no part of name-calling, grudges and feuds. He also emphasized the theme that Trump’s act of “bluster and bumbling and chaos” has grown stale.
Another definitive moment for this memorable convention was the presence of Republicans who made the same point.
Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona, made a powerful statement at the convention, saying, “I call on other Arizona Republicans to join me in choosing country over party this election and to vote against Donald Trump… I have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political middle: John McCain's Republican party is gone, and we don't owe a damn thing to what's been left behind.”
Another Republican who spoke at the convention, former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, even went on television to tell GOP voters that “just because you vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, doesn’t mean you’re Democrat....It just means you’re a patriot, you’re doing your duty as an American to step up to the plate and reclaim this country’s future.”
Duncan is part of “Republicans for Harris.” The group’s kick-off call last month attracted more than 70,000 people.
The most notable Republican speaking at the convention may have been Trump’s former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham. She said she was for the first time standing behind a podium on behalf of a Democrat and “that's because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people, and she has my vote.”
Shaun Fain, president of the United Autoworkers, stood on stage in a T-shirt that read “Trump is a Scab.” That image is an antidote to GOP charges that Harris is out of touch with Midwestern union workers and a dangerous left-winger.
High TV ratings for the convention speeches show it had potential impact on voters yet to make up their mind.
Frank Luntz, the longtime GOP pollster, has been highlighting Harris’s success in reaching people who have grown indifferent to politics because of the increased polarization.
“She’s bringing out people who are not interested in voting for either Trump or Biden," he sad. "So, the entire electoral pool has changed.”
Luntz said that’s good news for Democrats running for “not just the presidency but also the Senate and the House.”
On the issues, Harris is also on a winning streak. Abortion continues to activate women across political lines. The economy is holding steady as the best in the world. Illegal crossings at the border are the lowest they’ve been all year.
All the good vibes and momentum in addition to record fundraising are now with the Democrats. It’s still too early for anyone to be confident, but it is pretty obvious which way the wind is blowing as we come out of the Windy City.
Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.
