WASHINGTON—This year’s highly divisive election campaigns to run the nation’s government enter the home stretch this fall as Democrats recently staged a national convention in Chicago last week, officially giving resounding support to the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid to succeed President Joe Biden after national elections this fall.
Harris, a native of Oakland, Calif., spent last week campaigning with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school geography teacher, football coach, member of the national guard, and congressman.
Thousands of people have voted early, getting a head start on the anticipated crowds, said Davidson County election officials. As August neared its end, voting has already reached 68,000, according to Jeff Roberts, administrator of the Davidson County Elections Commission.
“We expect to have around 300,000 votes cast this fall, compared to roughly 200,000 in 2020,” Roberts said. “The commission is setting up for some 174 voting precincts to be staffed on Election Day by thousands of poll workers.”
In an appeal to millions, Harris and Walz presentations were backed by myriad pitches from a range of boosters including Nashvillian Oprah Winfrey, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to entertainers John Legend and Shelia E, and Prince Georges County, Md. Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is making her first bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
Missing from the lineup of podium speakers were three Tennessee lawmakers—known around the state as the “Tennessee Three,” based on their dispute with Republican legislative leaders over legislative decorum. Beyond the unexplained bounce, the program moved forward. “Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past; a chance to chart a new way forward,” Harris said in her 37-minute speech.
“You can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power,” she said to cheers and applause from convention delegates.
Harris promised to be “a president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical and has common sense and always fights for the American people.” She said Trump was “the antithesis of his unseriousness. “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she said, prompting agreeing nods among the audience. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious,” she added, as more in the audience responded in agreement.
Harris highlighted Trump’s “often-strange” comments about dictators and called him “easy to manipulate with flattery and favors.” She cited “his explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy” and “his explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens.”
With her speech winding into an echo of sorts, she repeated many of her now-familiar attacks on Trump, including the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, in which he would not order the attacks halted. She seized on Trump’s appointing three Supreme Court justices early in his first term, who quickly overturned the high court’s 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision upholding women’s right to make personal health choices.
She outlined the broad strokes of her policy agenda, which includes protecting voting rights and reproductive rights as well as middle-class tax cuts and standing by Ukraine. The audience heard pitch after pitch in support of Harris and Walz during their four days of sessions.
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who suffered a brain injury after being shot by a lone shooter at a community campaign appearance in Arizona in January 2011, rose to endorse Vice President Harris. U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, injured in November 2004, with the loss of both legs while serving in Iraq as an Army helicopter co-pilot, rose to the convention podium with her crutches and cane, calling for voters to support Harris. Gov. Tim Walz shared his family’s story of his wife’s challenge with childbirth.
“She (Harris) is there to renew our democracy,” said Melvin Black, former Nashville City Council member and retired history and social studies teacher at Pearl High School, echoing his voting peers around the city. “She is going to lead us to a new era of respect and gratitude.”
The next big step for both presidential candidates is their scheduled face-to-face meetup, set Sept. 10 on broadcasting stations across the nation. It would be the nation’s first opportunity to hear and see Vice President Harris and former President Trump debate.
As the week approaches, and as the candidates hit the campaign trail, there have reportedly been last-minute behind-the-scenes planning disagreements between Trump and Harris staffers over potential mini-stumbling blocks, such as whether microphones should be on or off at certain times and other mini items that could derail the widely anticipated debate.