By SOPHIA TAREEN, LEA SKENE, JAKE OFFENHARTZ and JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — As far as Chicago’s storied protests go, the numbers outside the Democratic National Convention were unremarkable. But organizers say they did something leaders inside didn’t: Make the war in Gaza part of the agenda.
The stakes were high for Chicago. Despite hosting more political conventions than any other American city, comparisons to the infamous 1968 convention, when police clashed with protesters on live television, were hard to shake. And one small unsanctioned protest that resulted in dozens of arrests and tense police standoffs didn’t help.
But organizers who won the right to protest near the United Center, and police, who spent more than a year preparing, say they were successful in broadcasting different narratives about the nation’s third-largest city.
“This is a very large contingent of people who are not willing to stand by quietly while people who are committing genocide are in our city,” said student organizer Liz Rathburn. “We showed the world that.”
Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Counter protesters arrive at Union Park before a march to the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
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Protesters march during a demonstration outside the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Expectations for massive protests in Chicago — which came a month after the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — were high. The largest protest in Milwaukee during the convention was roughly 1,000 people.
Chicago is known for its mass mobilizations, including in 2006 when nearly half a million people took to the streets to call for immigrant rights.
Organizers had predicted that as many as 20,000 would come to a march and rally on the convention’s opening day. While they conceded that the numbers didn’t end up that high, they disagreed with the city’s much lower estimate of about 3,500 participants.
Hatem Abudayyeh, a lead organizer and co-founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said he was pleased with the turnout and the message of the largely family-friendly demonstrations that drew on the Chicago area’s large Palestinian population.
While activists backing numerous progressive causes came to Chicago, they united on a pro-Palestinian, anti-war message.
“We were the show,” Abudayyeh said. “The excitement was happening out here in the streets.”
Most of the large protests were relatively peaceful, but there were dozens of arrests after one group broke part of the security fence around the United Center and following an unsanctioned demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, who was highly visible at all of the major protests, said law enforcement leadership and communication with protest organizers contributed to the calm around convention. While Chicago had out-of-town police agencies helping with convention security, Chicago’s force alone handled the protests.
During the largest marches, hundreds of Chicago officers on bicycles lined the streets and guided protesters through residential streets surrounding the United Center.
“What we learned here is that preparation is everything,” Snelling said Thursday. “Two things you need for success: opportunity and preparation. We had the opportunity to respond to the Democratic National Convention, and we were prepared for it.”
However, police also faced criticism for their tactics and what some called excessive officer presence. In Milwaukee, police were notably absent at the largest convention protests.
During one demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate in downtown Chicago — organized by a group that was not part of the main activist coalition — police far outnumbered the dozens of protesters.
Rows of officers in riot gear and with wooden clubs closed off a busy downtown street to block in protesters. At one point, police surrounded protesters at a plaza, which resulted in several minor injuries and dozens of arrests.
Snelling, who praised officers’ handling, denied that police had “kettled” protesters — when police corral demonstrators in a confined area, a tactic that is banned under a Chicago consent decree. He called the response “proportional.”
In total, there were 74 arrests Monday through Thursday and no major injuries of protesters or police, Snelling said.
Still, the images of Chicago police and protesters facing off brought back flashes of 1968.
DNC in Chicago: What happened as Democrats wrapped up final day of convention
The demonstration outside the consulate was promoted with the slogan “Make it great like 68.” Whenever police and protesters came close, activists would start chanting “The whole world is watching,” a phrase used in the 1968 protests.
Snelling and city leaders have repeatedly said Chicago has evolved in the more than 50 years since, including by hosting the 1996 Democratic National Convention that largely went off without a hitch.
“If the 1968 convention went down in history as the example of police brutality, then the 2024 convention will go down as the example of constitutional policing,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Friday.
Snelling put it more bluntly: “Can we stop talking about 1968? 2024, it’s a new standard.”
Activists also took credit for the largely peaceful protests, saying they had their own security and followed city protocols.
A small group of delegates who are part of the “uncommitted” movement expressed dissatisfaction that they couldn’t speak inside the convention and complained that mentions of Palestinians — who make up the the vast majority of the 40,000 killed killed in Gaza since October — were sparse. During Wednesday’s convention program, the parents of a 23-year-old American who was taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel spoke. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Still, activists acknowledged smaller crowds than anticipated.
Some protesters speculated that having Vice President Kamala Harris as the new Democratic nominee might have kept some people home. While signs and chants during the protests called her complicit in the war, many said they would wait for her to announce her plans for U.S. involvement in the war.
“I am excited to see what she does for healthcare. I am worried about her policy regarding Palestine and Gaza,” said pharmacist Fedaa Balouta, who is Palestinian. “Our vote matters.”
Bayan Ruyyashi, a 30-year-old biologist from the Chicago suburbs, said she had little hope that the protests, regardless of size, would have a meaningful impact on those inside the convention.
Rather, she said she attended a march on Wednesday so that her three children — ages 8, 5, and six months old — could witness the display of community and solidarity.
“I want them to feel that we have support. It’s not just what we’re hearing from Democrats,” said Ruyyashi, whose family is Palestinian and Jordanian. “I need them to know that we’re fighting for our homeland.”
CHICAGO (AP) — Over and over, from the massive stage in the electric convention hall, the Democrats this week predicted that Kamala Harris would defeat Donald Trump. They described her as a historic figure, the embodiment of hope, “the president of joy.”
But amid the extraordinary optimism, former first lady Michelle Obama offered a sober warning: “No matter how good we feel tonight or tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle.”
The word of caution was quickly drowned out by the excitement that overwhelmed the standing-room-only 17,000-person arena in downtown Chicago. But as activists, operatives and party leaders leave the Democratic National Convention and fan out across America, a stark reality exists: The real test for Harris has only just begun.
More than a month after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed her, Harris has barely started to outline detailed plans she would pursue as president to address the nation’s biggest challenges — immigration, crime and climate change, among them. She has yet to sit down for even one comprehensive media interview to face difficult questions about her flip-flops on policy in recent years, her leadership style and the focus on race and gender that looms over her historic candidacy.
“We can’t put our heads in the sand. She’s a Black woman. The bar is going to be higher for everything,” said John Anzalone, a pollster who has served the last three Democratic presidential nominees. “And guess what? That means, even mistakes. Mistakes are going to be magnified.”
At the same time, Harris’ allies acknowledge she remains largely undefined in the minds of many voters, having operated in Biden’s shadow for much the last four years. The relative anonymity offers both opportunity and risk.
“The bad thing about vice presidents is that nobody knows who you are. The good thing about vice presidents is nobody knows who you are,” said David Axelrod, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief strategist.
Harris now has just over two weeks to prepare for what could be her only presidential debate against Trump, a Sept. 10 showdown that could dramatically shift the direction of the race. The first presidential debate, of course, effectively forced Biden to drop out of the race.
DNC in Chicago: What happened as Democrats wrapped up final day of convention
For now, Harris’ team feels no urgency to roll out a comprehensive policy platform or sit for media interviews that might jeopardize the positive vibes that have defined her nascent campaign and produced a flood of campaign donations and a growing army of swing-state volunteers.
During a series of meetings throughout the convention week, her advisers cast her policy agenda as a continuation and expansion on Biden’s first term achievements, particularly on economic matters, even if it may look and sound different in some cases.
Harris has notably dropped her opposition to fracking and her support for Medicare for All, which were defining features of her 2019 presidential campaign. Her aides insist her values remain the same, but she’s embraced more centrist policies out of pragmatism.
Meanwhile, Harris’ allies believe it’s only a matter of time before Trump settles on an effective line of attack.
In recent days, the Republican former president has adopted a kitchen-sink approach against Harris that includes attacks about her racial identity, her laugh, her record as vice president and her history as a “San Francisco liberal.”
“He’ll figure out how to get a message and land a political punch,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who delivered a prime-time convention speech this week, said of Trump.
Polling reveals that voters’ views of Harris have shifted relatively rapidly in the month since Biden stepped aside and she became the de facto nominee.
In a June AP-NORC poll, just 39% of Americans said they had a favorable opinion of Harris and 12% said they didn’t know enough to say.
After Biden stepped aside, an August AP-NORC poll found that 48% of Americans had a favorable opinion of Harris with just 6% saying they didn’t know enough to have an opinion. The latest poll also showed that 27% of adults have a “very” favorable opinion of Harris, up from 14% in June.
The sharp shift raises the possibility that public opinion could change again as voters learn more.
It also raises the possibility that Harris’ momentum has less to do with her candidacy than a sense of relief among Democrats that Biden stepped aside. Shortly before he left the race, an AP-NORC poll found that nearly two-thirds of Democrats said they didn’t want Biden to run again, and about half said they’d be dissatisfied if he was the nominee.
Young Democrats of America president Quentin Wathum-Ocama said his enthusiasm is based on a combination of relief that Biden stepped aside and excitement about Harris. Given her relatively low profile over the last four years, he conceded that even he does not know much about her governing plans.
As a public school teacher, he said he’d like to hear more about her education policy, for example.
“Do people know her? People are aware of her,” Wathum-Ocama said. “I can be excited, but I still want more.”
AP writers Josh Boak in Chicago and Michelle L. Price in Asheboro, North Carolina, contributed.
We’ve made it, Chicago. The politicians and delegates are packing up, as are out-of-town protesters, journalists, and TV hosts. Road closures are opening back up and the United Center will soon be back to its regularly scheduled programming. Beyoncé fans hopeful about a surprise performance put their mirrored cowboy hats away.
Talk now turns to how the city performed, and possibly, whether the Democratic National Convention may return.
Pressure was on both demonstrators to deliver numbers and make their message go national and law enforcement to protect the city and not violate any protesters’ constitutional rights. The Tribune’s protest team checked in on both Thursday.
Gov. JB Pritzker, who has embraced his role as dutiful host and unabashed basher of former President Donald Trump, was “relentless” in pushing national Democrats to bring the DNC to Chicago. “I’m a competitor,” he told Politico’s Jonathan Martin on Tuesday. He seems ready to do it again.
Though back-to-back conventions are unusual in the modern era, Pritzker noted that there was precedent: the 1940 and 1944 conventions, where Franklin Roosevelt was nominated, both took place at the old Chicago Stadium (so was Roosevelt’s first nomination in 1932). The same happened in 1952 and 1956, when native son Adlai Stevenson won the nomination at the International Amphitheatre (formerly at 42nd and Halsted).
Madison Square Garden in New York City also hosted back to back conventions to nominate Jimmy Carter.
“I know there are local press here who are going to say, ‘Oh, we’re bidding on 2028 already.’ But I – it has happened,” he said. “It hasn’t happened in recent history, the back-to-back in one city hasn’t occurred, but it could. And as you all can see, Chicago’s a great city to have a convention in.”
Party officials will gather for a post-convention wrap-up meeting later this morning.
Here’s what happened yesterday
Kamala Harris formally accepted the nomination to become the Democrats’ presidential pick.
Unlike nominees before her, Harris did not run the primary gauntlet, starving many Americans of the chance to learn her story or the priorities that could shape her presidency. Her acceptance speech — and many of the interstitial videos that have played through the last four days inside the United Center — introduced her life story.
Balloons fall after Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris accepts the nomination at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center, Aug. 22, 2024. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
For Democrats, the good vibes of the week will fade and hard work will begin. “This is not going to be easy,” Pritzker told fellow Democrats earlier Thursday. “It’s a lot of fun over at the United Center, and we feel the momentum of it all, but it’s going to take a lot of work. Seventy-five days. Seventy-five days, not too many.”
Despite the support of Mayor Brandon Johnson and several Illinois legislators, at the conclusion of the night, a pressure campaign from uncommitted delegates to get a Palestinian American a speaking slot on Thursday was unsuccessful. During the portion of Harris’ speech about Gaza, a few attendees yelled “Free Palestine!”
Illinoisans got multiple speaking slots during the convention’s final night: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi addressed Trump’s foreign policy stance, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan joined several other prosecutors who worked with Harris to praise her efforts to protect homeowners during the foreclosure crisis. Former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a Republican and never-Trumper, defended Democrats as patriots and said Trump “suffocated the soul” of his party.
Other Tribune must reads from the convention
Zareen Syed and Shanzeh Ahmad spoke with young Black and Indian women about Harris’ nomination. For some, the presidential ticket is historic and emotional. Others are at a crossroads with what they say are Harris’ unclear intentions on a cease-fire in Gaza.
Chris Borrelli took a look behind the curtain of the first-ever “Creator” lounges set aside for social media influencers inside the United Center.
Sylvan LeBrun checked out the city’s designated free speech stage, where audiences — and speakers — were often absent this week.
Karina Atkins headed to a voter registration drive hosted by a brand new political action committee led by former contestants of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The kinetic energy powering Kamala Harris ’ whirlwind presidential campaign carries the hopeful aspirations of history and the almost quaint idea of electing the first woman to the White House. But inside it, too, is the urgent and determined refusal of many Democratic female voters to accept the alternative — again.
“Serious.” “Unapologetic.”
Listen to the women cheering “We’re not going back!” at the Harris campaign rallies. See them singing along during the dance party roll call at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Understand the mothers and daughters and sorority sisters and, yes, the men, brothers and boys who have watched and waited and winced as the country tried eight years ago to break the glass ceiling — and failed.
“Overdue.”
This time, this year, facing Donald Trump again, a certain and influential swath of the electorate is not messing around. “It’s our time,” said Denise Delegol, 60, a retired postal worker from West Bloomfield Township, Michigan.
Ashbey Beasley holds up her son Beau, 8, both of Highland Park, Ill., as he makes a heart with his hands, as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Fiserv Forum during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. They were caught in a mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park in 2022 and are now involved in gun violence prevention efforts. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Monique LaFonta, of Milwaukee, dances while watching the roll call of the DNC on a jumbotron at a campaign rally with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
People watch Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speak at Democratic National Convention on the big screen during a watch party at Soldier Field Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Mississippi delegate Kelly Jacobs wears a hat during the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
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Ashbey Beasley holds up her son Beau, 8, both of Highland Park, Ill., as he makes a heart with his hands, as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Fiserv Forum during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. They were caught in a mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park in 2022 and are now involved in gun violence prevention efforts. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The promise of a Harris presidency is shaking a sizable segment of the nation out of a political funk, reviving the idea of a milestone election and an alternative to repeating the Trump era. It’s putting the country on the cusp of what Michelle Obama, in her convention speech to Democrats, called a “brighter day.”
Once President Joe Biden bowed out of the race and embraced his vice president at the top of the ticket, some found hope where before they had felt mostly dread.
“Overnight it went from doom-scrolling to hope-scrolling,” said Lisa Hansen of Wisconsin, who led an early Trump resistance group in 2017 as her first foray into political activism.
Lori Goldman of Michigan, who founded Fems for Dems to elect Hillary Clinton two presidents ago, said, “I’m too old to not ever have seen a president that’s female in the United States.” She’s 65.
And Shannon Nash, an attorney from California and, like Harris, a fellow member of the historic Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., said from the convention hall Thursday night, “The joy is coming back to politics.”
Women have been here before, in 2016, when they donned matching pantsuits, poured champagne and settled in on election night, some with friends and daughters by their side, expecting Clinton to win the White House only to be shaken by Trump’s victory.
As one woman said at the time, she threw up the next morning.
FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at a campaign rally, Feb. 23, 2024, in Rock Hill, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
FILE – A supporter waits for the start of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Doral, Fla., July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
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FILE – Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at a campaign rally, Feb. 23, 2024, in Rock Hill, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
To be sure, some voters had a different first female president in mind. Nikki Haley lifted Republican hopes during the GOP primary, but her moment faded after rival Trump branded his former ambassador to the United Nations “birdbrain.”
Lisa Watts, a retired business owner from Hickory, North Carolina, who was attending her fifth Trump rally this week, had little interest in Harris. “I don’t think that her record proves that she is ready to run this country,” Watts said.
The thousands of women who pack Trump rallies, and tens of millions more who are expected to cast ballots for him in November, are participating on the other side of the potential history-making.
The former president, convicted in a hush-money case and still facing a pending federal indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, would become the first felon to win the White House.
Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump rejected as “insulting” the idea that Americans should vote for a woman for president because it would make history.
“If you ever give me a job because … of the fact that I’m a woman and not based on any merit or qualification, guess what? I’m turning that job down all day long,” the former president’s daughter-in-law said on her podcast in July.
Abortion, immigration and the war in Gaza
For those voting for Harris, this election feels more joyful, but also more necessary and urgent.
“We need to do this, be serious about it this time,” said Monique LaFonta, a mother of two twin girls, after attending a Harris rally in Milwaukee.
Female delegates at the DNC are wearing white to honor women’s suffrage on night of Harris’ speech
Trump’s creation of a conservative Supreme Court majority that overturned a woman’s right to abortion access produced outrage among many women who powered that year’s midterm election — and are a potentially influential force in this one.
“We are living in just such a wildly different situation,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of Emily’s List, which works to elect pro-choice women. She said Harris is “unapologetic” when it comes to reproductive rights.
Harris herself carries this potentially history-making moment not as a campaign feature but a matter-of-fact representation of who she is and has always been, much the way Barack Obama often left his race merely implied to voters. Rather than reminding voters that the nation’s 47th president could become the first in its more than two-century history to not be a man, Harris is running instead on what she would do in the job and how she would do it.
In her speech Thursday night accepting the nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Harris acknowledged that she’s “no stranger to unlikely journeys,” but she did not specifically mention the historic nature of her candidacy.
Many receive her style as a brand of American optimism rooted in the generations who came before her, a Black and South Asian woman, the daughter of immigrants — a Jamaican father and Indian mother — who dared to dream in this country. She is blaring Beyonce’s “Freedom” as her campaign theme song along the way.
And yet among demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war outside the Democrats’ convention in Chicago, pharmacist Fedaa Ballouta said that while having the first female president would mean a lot, she expects more. “I wish that that woman was pro-life when it matters regarding Palestinians.”
Clinton’s defeat paved the way for this moment
So much has changed in the American political landscape since Trump entered that scene almost a decade ago with his braggadocio and electoral momentum.
“Such a nasty woman,” he called his 2016 Democratic rival Clinton, a former U.S. senator and secretary of state. “Horseface,” he labeled a Republican primary rival, a woman. “Fat pig,” he bullied a famous female comedian. He once bragged that as a celebrity he could “grab” women by their private parts — and get away with it.
More than 1 million people in the United States and around the world filled city streets in protest the day after Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Many wore pink “pussy” hats. “The Resistance,” they called it.
Trump himself has stayed the course, deriding Harris as “Laffin’ Kamala,” mocking her laugh or mispronouncing her name, which means “lotus flower” in Sanskrit.
In many ways, Clinton’s defeat eight years ago set the stage for this moment. It was a crushing setback that dashed women’s hopes for bringing the U.S. into alignment with leading democracies around the world that have had a female in charge.
Angie Gialloreto of Pittsburgh was disappointed then. But the 95-year-old, attending her 13th presidential convention, is still at it, ready and waiting for the country to try again. “It’s time,” she said.
Carla Wicks the Rho Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority, Inc., wears an embroidered “Kamala for the people” sweater during a watch party for fellow AKA member Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Pleasanton, Calif. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada)
Sorors of the Rho Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority, Inc., Sharisse Kimbro, Tracy Fields, and Renee Thierry-Jones applaud during a watch party for fellow AKA member Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Pleasanton, Calif. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada)
Angie Gialloreto, 95, of Pittsburgh, Pa., right, who is attending her 13th convention since President Jimmy Carter, and other delegates applaud during the first day of Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Seen in the glow of stage lighting, Angie Gialloreto, 95, of Pittsburgh, left, who is attending her 13th convention since President Jimmy Carter, and Lisa Baldis, also of Pittsburgh, listen to speakers during the first day of the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. The women wore T-shirts that said “Joe’s Girls,” on front, and “Love Kamala,” on the back. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Carla Wicks the Rho Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority, Inc., wears an embroidered “Kamala for the people” sweater during a watch party for fellow AKA member Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Pleasanton, Calif. (AP Photo/Juliana Yamada)
Many of the women interviewed by The Associated Press this week are eager for what’s next. Listen to what they have to say.
MONIQUE LAFONTA, 41, Milwaukee, health care consultant and mother of twin daughters:
“Why can’t a woman be president? Why has it taken us so long to get to this point?” LaFonta wondered the day after a Harris rally in Milwaukee. “Are we going to make the same mistake again?” LaFonta remembers celebrating election night 2016 at a birthday party with friends when Clinton lost to Trump. “It was unintentionally the worst birthday party I ever went to — everyone was crying at the end of the night,” she said. As a mother now, she said what’s happened with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the threats posed by the Project 2025 agenda are “scary.” “I have two 6-year-old daughters who have less rights than I did,” she said.
Originally from Louisiana, she recalls her parents living through the Jim Crow era in the South. “I never even thought we would see a Black president in my lifetime,” she said. “To have another glass ceiling like that in my lifetime, it’s really so special.” At the Harris rally in Milwaukee this week, it was “so electric, so contagious,” she said. “Just joy.”
ASHBEY BEASLEY, 48, Highland Park, Illinois, stay-home mother
“We’re overdue,” Beasley said. She remembers watching one state after another fall to Trump on election night eight years ago. “I just started crying,” she said. “We turned the TV off.” The difference between then and now? “We’ve had a Trump presidency. We’ve seen the kind of chaos.” The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was a “turning point” she said. “The MAGA culture came out of the closet,” and a lot of people “were like, I’m not OK with this.”
Having survived a 2022 mass shooting in her city with her son, she has become a gun safety advocate and worries Trump is too close to gun rights groups. “What I want people to know whatever you see out in the world — whatever horrific terrible tragedy — that can be you,” she said from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “Just because you don’t need an abortion right now, doesn’t mean you won’t.”
LORI GOLDMAN, Michigan, founded Fems for Dems in 2016 to elect Hillary Clinton
At 65, she said, “I’m too old to not ever have seen a president that’s female in the United States.” On Election Day 2016, Goldman had about 30 people to her house and they canvassed until the afternoon, all the while thinking it unnecessary. She said she’s less naïve now.
For Goldman and chair of Fems for Dems Marcie Paul, the difference between organizing in 2016 and now is knowing the impacts of a Trump administration. Both are mothers, and they cited their daughters’ futures as a reason to vote Harris, both for her policy on reproductive rights and for her potential to be the first female president. Paul said it’s the most important election of a lifetime. “But really — this time it is.”
ANNE HATHAWAY, Indiana, the state’s Republican National Committeewoman
She dismissed the potential history-making milestone as been there, done that. “We had Hillary Clinton as a candidate in 2016 so this is not a new phenomenon,” said Hathaway, who was in charge of the arrangements committee at the Republican convention. She said she is focused on the candidates’ visions, not their genders. “This is a race between two presidential candidates who have very different opinions and views and where they think this country should go.”
HOLLY SARGENT, York, Maine
She had spent the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election campaigning for Hillary Clinton in her quiet Maine beach town, watching the rise of Trump “with horror.” But she said the despair she felt at that year’s election defeat was healed with Clinton’s speech to the Democratic convention this week. Sargent teared up as she sat with Maine delegates thinking of all that has transpired, and could yet. “We’re going to do it this time. And when we do it, we do it for Hillary and for Shirley Chisholm and for Geraldine Ferraro and for all of the extraordinary women who have gone before.”
JENNIFER RICHARDSON, 44, Albany, New York, attorney
She said as a Black woman, and an attorney, having Harris atop the party’s ticket resonates so much. “I see myself in her,” she said from the Democratic convention. “I see all my friends in her.” Added Richardson, “For her to win, it’s like we all won.”
DENISE DELEGOL, 60, West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, retired postal worker
Delegol was decked out in pearls, a purple Harris “When We Fight We Win” T-shirt and purple high-tops decorated with the word “WIN” on the toes outside the convention hall. “It’s a beautiful thing that she can lead a country that was predominantly led by old white men who think they know what’s best for all, all people, including women and our bodies,” she said. Harris, she said, “is going to change all that.”
She wants her fellow Americans to understand how important the election is, and that “this is just a time for all Americans to come together because we have more in common than not in common.” Her conversations with family and friends are all about what’s happening. “Now it’s our time,” she said. “And I don’t think nothing can stop us now, as far as women breaking the glass ceiling.”
FEDAA BALLOUTA, Chicago pharmacist, attending a demonstration against the Israel-Hamas war outside the Democratic convention
She said it means a lot to have a female nominee for president, and as a pharmacist who finds it heartbreaking to see people struggle to afford medication she is eager for what Harris could do to help lower the costs of prescription drugs. “I really want to support our candidate of the same gender category,” she said. But what she really wants to see from Harris is a cease-fire in the war. “Pro-Life doesn’t just refer to abortion and pregnancy,” she said. “What about the killing of innocent civilians? That’s also pro-life.”
She believes this election will be meaningful for the country. “I was just in New York City, and I’m looking at the Statue of Liberty, and I’m thinking, ‘Are we a nation that provides liberty or takes it away from others?’”
LIZ SHULER, president, AFL-CIO union
Schuler recalls breaking out the champagne and popcorn with friends on election night 2016, before “people left, of course, heartbroken.” This time around, she said, “we are protecting our hearts.”
“I think every woman you talked to probably feels the same way. But I think we, as union women, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and just keep up the fight.”
ANGIE GIALLORETO, 95, Pittsburgh, attending her 13th presidential nominating convention
Gialloreto said she was disappointed by Clinton’s loss eight years ago, but she’s excited with Harris in place to try again. “It’s time,” she said from the convention hall. Gialloreto has attended every Democratic convention since Jimmy Carter was nominated for president in 1976. She said it’s an exciting time, “not for me, I’ve lived my life — for the short time I have, I’m going to celebrate — but it’s the young ones.
“Reality is here.”
Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Michigan, Mike Householder and Farnoush Amiri in Chicago, Michelle Price in North Carolina, Ali Swenson and Aaron Morrison in New York, video journalists Martha Irvine, Serkan Gurbuz and Teresa Crawford in Chicago and photojournalist Jacquelyn Martin in Milwaukee and Chicago contributed to this report.
