Can Kamala Activate the 'Divine Nine'?

1. History Is Made

When we look back, the most memorable part of Kamala Harris’ speech last night will be the fact that she gave it. The first Black woman and the first Indian American on a major presidential ticket began by invoking the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, and tied in the history of her immigrant parents who met marching for civil rights. Weaving the pandemic into protests of today brought a line that will resonate: “There is no vaccine for racism.”

Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of the nine famous historically Black sororities and fraternities. Her experience with them at Howard University was formative, and she made her sisters — “sorors” — a key part of her presidential campaign last year. “Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha, our Divine Nine and my HBCU brothers and sisters,” she said in last night’s nomination speech. Taking on tremendous risk, the founders of Delta Sigma Theta marched with suffragettes in 1913. If the Divine Nine heed the call again, their most important work may be to win back the 13 percent of Black men who backed Trump in 2016 — with some polls pegging the figure higher this time around — and have become a key part of the president’s reelection calculus.

3. And Will Harris Deliver For HBCUs?

With Harris becoming the first-ever HBCU candidate on a presidential ticket, donations and applications are likely to rise at the nation’s 100-plus historically Black colleges. That could help these institutions, which typically lack the hefty endowments of majority-white schools, survive amid the devastation of the economic crisis and the pandemic.

4. A Tricky Thread

The Dems’ conventio-mercial is trying to do two things at once: fire up their base and showcase Republicans brought into the Biden fold. The result? Ample grumbling from both sides. John Kasich (an anti-abortion former GOP governor) got more than double the speaking time as progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And the DNC may have missed an opportunity with AOC, by having her formally nominate Bernie Sanders rather than give her own progressive case for Biden. Plus, while her 90-second speech was aspirational, it painted an American-carnage-style view of U.S. history full of racial injustice, colonization and xenophobia, which, while accurate, might turn off the same folks the Dems were trying to woo with Colin Powell et al.

5. Reform From the Sidelines

While the main stage spotlighted crucial Democratic planks like universal health care and defeating racism, some unofficial side programming from Monday and Tuesday stands out — such as the powerful stories of Norris Henderson and Jimmie Gardner, who both spent 27 years wrongfully incarcerated and spoke at an event organized by the criminal justice reform policy group JustLeadershipUSA. A bonus was the appearance by actor and activist Michael K. Williams, who played the beloved Omar Little on The Wire.

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1. Randall Woodfin

The 39-year-old mayor of Birmingham may seem like an unlikely convention star given Alabama’s low status on the Democrats’ electoral pecking order. But what he did by getting elected in 2017 as a Working Families Party and Bernie Sanders–backed progressive candidate in the Deep South was nothing short of stunning. It’s worth watching whether Woodfin’s loyalty is rewarded going forward, after he became an early endorser in December because, in his words, Biden “would view [mayors] as partners in the White House.”

The poetry-loving congresswoman from Delaware began with a poignant line: “In some history class in the future, children are learning about this moment,” particularly about “a man named Joe Biden, about how he restored decency to our government and integrity to our democracy.” Given the task of officially seconding the nomination of Biden for president, she rose to the occasion … and is quickly rising among the U.S. House ranks, with the potential to join leadership soon.

The hip-hop-loving millennial Latina who backed Biden in Nevada, even when his chances weren’t looking so rosy, was part of Tuesday’s 17-person keynote address of Dem rising stars. The Nevada state senator will likely be a force for years to come, given her coziness with the powerful Culinary Union Local 226.

The Asian American state lawmaker made waves by referencing his history-making run as the first openly gay man in the Georgia Legislature and by calling out the state’s tepid COVID-19 restrictions that led to 260 employees in his Gwinnett County school district being sent home due to the virus shortly after classes began.

5. Gretchen Whitmer

The Michigan governor was one of the finalists in Biden’s veepstakes — and drew cheers on the left and extreme backlash on the right for her aggressive approach to coronavirus lockdowns — but it’s safe to say many rank-and-file voters hadn’t heard her speak in prime time until Monday. And while her speech earned praise, it was her hot-mic moment while joking about Shark Week that cemented “Big Gretch” as a woman of the people.

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1. Just How Big Is the Tent?

Laura Loomer was decidedly not at the DNC. However, the 27-year-old, self-declared “proud Islamophobe” — known for stunts including chaining herself to Twitter headquarters after being kicked off the platform — did win the GOP primary in the congressional district that covers Mar-a-Lago in South Florida, which prompted a shout-out from the president himself. In a Democratic-leaning district, this far-right agitator will most likely lose in the fall. Will she chain herself to the Capitol then?

2. Message Discipline

Speaking of Trump, the Republican nominee has spent much of the Democratic convention sounding like a pandemic-era used car salesman while tweeting about how prescription drug costs will come down “50, 60 and even 70 percent” and imploring followers not to buy “GOODYEAR TIRES” after the company reportedly announced a ban on MAGA hats. “Get better tires for far less!” he tweeted Wednesday. This before his all-caps rage-tweeting of the prime-time speeches and half-embrace of QAnon conspiracy theorists during a news conference because they “like me very much.” Today he was distancing himself from now-indicted former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Good times.

Trump’s focus on drug costs is worth noting, though, particularly because he has been promising discounts since the 2016 campaign … with some positive results. His decision to cite them during the Democratic convention, as many liberals promise similar savings, is part of a trend in which the president co-opts Democratic planks while hoping to neutralize their effectiveness against him.

In another world, Tammy Baldwin might have been a serious contender to be Biden’s VP. Heck, in a non-pandemic world, Baldwin would at least have been given a bigger role rallying her home state at a Milwaukee convention. Still, listen closely to the unapologetic progressive and friend to the working class: Her speech on Thursday will likely be a sneak peek at the pitch that Democrats will count on to win Wisconsin, which went for Trump by less than 1 percentage point … then, two years later, reelected Baldwin by 11.

2. Main Event

It’s hard to deliver a compelling speech without a crowd (and we’ve seen more than our share of dull this week), but the task is heightened for the famously unscripted and emotive Biden, as he accepts the nomination tonight. He’ll have to be concise and he won’t be able to read the crowd in the most important speech of his nearly five-decade political career.

3. Watch the Double-Haters

A good chunk of the convention so far has been about cementing the image of Biden as a good dude: the bit with Biden and the Amtrak workers, Jill Biden’s humanizing tales, being formally nominated by a New York Times elevator operator. This matters in part because a decent chunk of the country does not like either candidate. Last time, Trump won those voters by 17 percentage points. This time, Biden leads by 29 points. Can Joe be likable enough tonight to keep it that way?

4. Catch the Classics

Obama’s 2004 convention speech that jump-started his national profile gets all the love, but if you’re warming up for Biden’s big night, there are a couple of forgotten DNC gems worth a watch — for just how relevant they are today. Jesse Jackson’s 1988 speech had strikingly similar themes to Obama’s 16 years later. “Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival,” Jackson said. And Al Sharpton in ’04, talking about D.C. statehood, women’s rights, racial justice and GOP appeals to Black voters, could have been given today if you swap out the name George W. Bush.

1. Can the GOP Settle on an Attack Line?

Donald Trump has seen this matchup coming for long enough to try to get the Ukranians to help smear Biden way back in mid-2019. So why do Republicans seem so unprepared with how to attack the Biden ticket? They can’t decide whether Biden is a socialist, suffering from dementia and enabling the socialists or is a tough-on-crime racist. Harris is either a draconian prosecutor or a member of antifa, depending on the day — as Trevor Noah pointed out. Republicans will likely settle on the far-left extremism charge, but can they make it stick?

2. The Show Must Go On

During a devastating recession and pandemic in which more than 170,000 Americans have died, some incumbent presidents might opt to preside over a more sober affair. Not Trump, whose party has announced a fireworks show at the Washington Monument the night of his nomination, just hours before a civil rights march is set to start there the next morning. The explosive moment is key for the reality television president, and it’s worth watching what other sparks Republicans may manufacture to help dress up a faltering presidency.

3. Cards Up His Sleeve

There are few wild cards left for Trump, who already replaced his campaign manager in July à la 2016. He has already done everything he can to discredit the results of the election before it even takes place, with fearmongering about voter fraud from mail-in ballots intertwined with fears of cutbacks to the U.S. Postal Service. Still, there may be other surprises in store: If Trump truly wants to dump Mike Pence as his running mate, he’s got a showstopping opportunity to bring in Nikki Haley wielding a folding chair, pro-wrestling-style. And if he has any last-minute wild policy proposals to announce — say, suspending tax collection (as he has already done with the payroll tax), a full universal basic income through the pandemic, troop deployments in more cities — this is his biggest audience in a while.