The vice president will assume her candidacy for the White House in Chicago amid Republican criticism of her “coronation” and protests against Israel
The US Democratic Party begins a great national convention this Monday in Chicago amid an atmosphere of renewal in the figure of the one who will be practically “crowned” — they lament from the Republican Party — without any opposition as the candidate for the elections to the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, after the extraordinary turn that began less than a month ago with the withdrawal of the current president, Joe Biden, from the electoral race.
Although such prominent figures in the party as former President Barack Obama proposed that the Illinois convention represent a transparent exercise of primaries between several candidates, the truth is that Harris has managed to collect in record time, approximately two weeks after Biden’s withdrawal, the number of state delegates necessary for her candidacy to be practically a fait accompli.
Not only did Biden transfer his support to his vice president within minutes of announcing his withdrawal on July 21: the Clinton couple also sent their support to Harris before the day was over, while possible rivals such as the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, announced shortly after that they had no intention of facing the number two in the Administration.
The speed with which this process was carried out has relatively facilitated the double objective that Harris’ campaign initially set: to clearly identify the candidate’s proposals after three years in Biden’s shadow and to choose an appropriate companion for the vice-presidential nomination, which finally fell to the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz.
This clarity has translated into a rise in the polls against the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, who has lost in less than a month the three-point lead over Biden that the national average of polls collected by the RealClearPolitics website gave him, and is now 1.2 points behind Harris, according to the same compilation (a situation of approximate technical tie and everything to be decided, given the existing margin of error +/- 3 points).
The Republican Party has also wasted no time in denouncing the Chicago event. Trump’s vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, last month denounced the absence of opposition to Harris as “a threat to democracy” after recalling that the vice president was not supported by the Democratic primaries earlier this year (in which Biden was still a candidate).
“If you want to run for president, you have to defend your position to the electorate, as (former) President Trump did,” Vance said during a rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
BIDEN AND HARRIS, IN THE SHADOW OF GAZA AND ’68
The convention will continue until Thursday but this opening day, without going any further, will witness the appearance of the Biden couple, who will travel to Chicago that same day. In the evening, Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, will give speeches to declare their definitive and unwavering support for their candidate before the crowd gathered at the United Center in the city.
Chicago will host this event 56 years after the momentous 1968 convention, one of the high points of the American pacifist and countercultural movement, which, under the slogan “The world is watching,” denounced a wave of police repression during the event that resulted in one death, more than 500 injuries and the indictment of historic figures of the movement such as Abbie Hoffman and Lee Weiner in what became known as “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
This year, pro-Palestinian groups have announced their intention to follow in these footsteps by calling for mass demonstrations — some 20,000 people, the organizers expect — in Union Park, near the venue, to protest the US support for Israel during the Gaza war.
There will be three days of protests: this Monday, next August 21, when Governor Walz formally accepts the nomination, and finally on Thursday 22, the climax of the event, and the moment when Kamala Harris will be officially designated as the party’s candidate.
