CHICAGO — When the party pivoted to putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket last month, it forced hundreds of officials, production crews and event planners to change their strategy for the Democratic National Convention.
Behind the scenes, convention staff, campaign officials and outside observers granted anonymity to discuss fluid plans said they have refocused toward Harris from President Joe Biden while not disregarding the last four years of his administration. New speakers, many of them with connections to Harris, will get prime-time speaking slots, like her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff. And the previously scheduled speakers have been reworking their remarks to reflect the changes at the top of the ticket, aides say.
It’s a far cry from just a month ago, when the Democratic convention was going to need to defend Biden’s record, smooth over rancor about his decision to stay in the race and convince voters who said he was too old for the job to vote for him anyway.
But with Harris presenting herself as a fresh face for the party, the energy and content of the convention has to change too.
One senior convention official told POLITICO that they had to create “a delicate balance of introducing her to the world and making sure that this convention is infused with her beliefs, her thoughts, the future and where she believes this country is going, while not disregarding some of the accomplishments that they have made over the last three and a half years.”
Officially, convention planners are downplaying the pivot, saying these types of large events are planned far in advance and that work carries on until the opening gavel. Some have used the analogy of a plane: It’s the same one, there are just different pilots now.
“The Biden-Harris elements have always been a part of that and still are. There’s some more pages to write and fill in this story to further tell the story of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” said Matt Hill, the senior director of communications for the convention. “But that doesn’t mean the Biden chapters are completely going away. We can’t erase that. That’d be erasing their history.”
The shift is also an unpleasant reminder to some Democrats that it wasn’t the policies of the administration that were unpopular, it was Biden himself.
But not all of the Biden touches are gone — every delegate will still have a bag of coffee beans as a nod to a cup of “Joe,” for example — and Monday will be a celebration of the president, his legacy and his sacrifice of stepping down to make way for his vice president. The former nominee will make the closing speech on the first day, and Harris told her team to make sure she’s able to watch Biden from inside the arena, two aides confirmed to POLITICO.
“They obviously have to do a big thank you for Biden, too,” said Bill Daley, who ran Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000, when Bill Clinton was still president. The Monday homage to Biden is early in the week “so they can look forward during the rest of the convention. They don’t want to be running away from it,” Daley said of Biden’s term. “But it can’t dominate the four days.”
“It’s a sensitive thing,” said Daley, recalling the challenge of juggling the tributes to Clinton while wanting to focus on Gore “and what his vision was.”
For weeks, Harris and her team have been visiting the national offices of the Democratic National Committee and Howard University to shoot videos that will be shown at the convention. And she’s been working on her convention speech while juggling debate prep and getting to know her new running mate. Even the music might be getting a redo, with more contemporary songs as opposed to the Fleetwood Mac-era music favored by Biden.
Biden was a known quantity, but for Harris, this convention will be an opportunity for Democrats to reintroduce her to voters who may not have been paying attention to her vice presidency. For Harris’ allies and aides, who have seen her through ups and downs throughout the years, there’s an excitement to tell the fully fleshed out story of a person who has been one step back from the public eye.
“Voters have gotten a chance to see some of the warts, thanks to the press, but they haven’t had a chance to see people validate her before a world audience,” the senior convention official said.
Conventions are also about striking a contrast. Last month, Republicans made a show of unity at a moment when Democrats seemed hopelessly divided about Biden as the nominee. Democrats are now tasked with positioning themselves in opposition to former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. It’s unclear how explicit Democrats will make that contrast — whether they will say their names aloud or instead make the contrast more implicit. But one thing is clear: Harris embodies a contrast with both her predecessor and her opponent, especially when it comes to age.
“There is a different opportunity, I think a stronger opportunity — all due love to Joe Biden — to make the contrast between the past and the future, especially given what we’ve seen from Trump lately,” one veteran Democratic operative who is close to Harris said.
And then there are the vibes. For weeks, tens of thousands of people have sprinted to rallies with Harris and Gov. Tim Walz as a new excitement has taken over the party. That same energy is already being felt on the ground in Chicago.
Requests are flooding in from Hollywood and other parts of the country as they scramble to find hotel rooms, pop up parties at restaurants and snag coveted seats inside the United Center, where Harris will give her acceptance speech.
Donna Brazile, the veteran Democratic political consultant, had invited five people to attend as guests. Then Harris moved to the top of the ticket, and she now has 40 guests. Brazile says she’s heard from “CEOs, Cabinet secretaries and regular people” who now want to take part in the convention, leading organizers to ensure there’s room in the United Center’s suites for the additional requests to attend.
“Everybody wants to get on board,” said Brazile, who compared the moment to 2008, when Barack Obama made his acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver and to the 1992 convention, when a young Bill Clinton took center stage at Madison Square Garden.
Michael Sacks, president of the convention host committee, also said that credential requests have skyrocketed and “everyone wants to attend.”
Fundraising perked up, too, for the convention, which announced Wednesday that it has raised $94 million, a record for a Democratic convention.
As one Democrat put it: “All of a sudden, all these people want to speak and all these people want to come.”
Democratic convention reinvents itself for a new headliner
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