CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Some party leaders are hoping Democrats will unify behind Vice President Kamala Harris and avoid another open convention in Chicago where the nominee is not a foregone conclusion.
Chicago’s 1968 Democratic National Convention was marred by protests over the Vietnam War and the late entry of nominee Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who won the nomination on the first ballot at the convention, defeating Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. Humphrey ended up losing in the general election to Richard Nixon.
While protests over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war are likely to take place in Chicago next month and could be reminiscent of 1968, establishing Harris as the Democrats’ pick to face former President Donald Trump in November could remove the “total mayhem” that was likely to come had Biden chosen to remain in the race, Democratic strategist Melissa DeRosa told NewsNation.
“I think you’re going to end up seeing a convention with a unifying message and a unified body,” DeRosa, a former chief of staff and secretary to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said.
Can Democrats avoid history repeating itself?
DeRosa said Democrats hope to visit Chicago with a new sense of unity, taking some momentum away from the GOP while avoiding a chaotic scene.
The fact that Democrats were able to raise nearly $50 million in the hours after Biden’s announcement shows that the party is already coming together, DeRosa said. That tally has since increased to more than $81 million as of Monday afternoon.
The jump to support Harris comes a week after Republicans held their convention in Milwaukee that was largely based on unity following the assassination attempt on Trump. Now, Democrats have the same opportunity with nearly a month before their party gathers in Chicago, DeRosa said.
She said that Trump missed an opportunity to build on that theme during his 93-minute acceptance speech, which reverted to prior themes of rigged elections, illegal migrants and Biden’s time in the White House.
“(Democrats) have a situation where we can take that (unity) mantle back,” DeRosa said. “And we can be more unified than ever before, and I think that’s the direction we’re heading in right now.”
Harris is still required to lock in 1,969 of 3,936 Democratic delegates to secure her party’s nominee to face Trump in November. Early indicators show that the planning that took place before and around Biden’s announcement laid the groundwork to allow Harris’ campaign for president to pick up steam.
NewsNation senior political contributor George Will argued that an open convention in Chicago would have presented a much better option for Democrats.
Will said that rather than elevating some of the party’s existing political gubernatorial talent with an established track record of leadership, Democrats are going with Harris, “who was picked for identity policy politics reasons.”
He said Biden should have acknowledged he was bowing to political pressure to step aside and that the DNC would, for the first time in generations, involve a deliberative body of delegates rather than a ratifying body.
“(An open DNC) would be unpredictable, it would be messy, it would be untidy,” Will told NewsNation, taking exception that an open convention could create chaos.
He added: “If the Democrats as a political party can’t organize a response and convention response to what Biden has done, that tells us something alarming and depressing about the Democratic Party. Uncertainty isn’t a bad thing. The future’s uncertain. Shape it.”
What Democrats do between now and the DNC
Although Harris has early momentum and support weeks away from the convention, what happens in the coming days could determine just how settled the convention will be.
NewsNation Political Editor Chris Stirewalt said the question remains whether enough delegates are up for grabs to tantalize another possible challenger into entering this race.
Stirewalt said with Biden stepping aside in favor of Harris or another Democrat, the party’s positioning — at least internally — has improved dramatically.
“What Biden was not able to offer was a suitable sanctuary for voters who were worried about Donald Trump being unstable, unsteady, and unreliable,” Stirewalt told NewsNation. “So now you have, in Kamala Harris, the chance to reset the race.”
Harris and the Democrats have a chance to seize the moment to create interest in a race many voters didn’t want with Biden and Trump as the main contenders, Stirewalt said.
“Being neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump has some real value,” Stirewalt said. “Now, the job of Republicans will be to say there is no difference between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. They’re the same.”
He added: “What Democrats have to do is use the uncertainty of the next three weeks going up to the convention and use the drama of the convention to hold the space and hold the story.”
