‘Hottest ticket in town’: CT delegates rally in Chicago for Harris

CHICAGO — A month ago, thousands of delegates from Connecticut and across the U.S. were prepared to nominate Joe Biden for a second term as concerns about the president’s age and mental acuity grew and allies openly questioned his fitness to serve.

But since Vice President Kamala Harris became the new nominee, the mood has dramatically shifted from somber to celebratory. And Democrats are hoping to carry that momentum into their convention in Chicago over the next four days.

“When I ran to be a delegate, there was not a lot of excitement about it,” said Tina Duryea, a member of the Norwalk Democratic Town Committee. She supported Biden while he was still in the race but saw the convention as more of a chance for her to connect with peers than as a way to excite the base.

“Now it’s the hottest ticket in town,” she said. “It’s done a complete shift in the past month.”

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Duryea is one of Connecticut’s 74 delegates, plus five alternates, who are attending the Democratic National Convention this week. That includes all of Connecticut’s federal lawmakers as well as the state’s constitutional officers, like Gov. Ned Lamont.

Conventions are a whirlwind of events, and attendees try to strike the delicate balance of work and play.

There are hundreds of meetings and parties to choose from each day, plus the primetime events every night that will culminate on Thursday with Harris’ acceptance speech. They are also a place to conduct business and network with political power brokers from across the country.

National conventions have also served as launchpads for little-known politicians. Former President Barack Obama was running to become a U.S. senator for Illinois when he scored a primetime speaking slot at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston. That speech instantly propelled Obama into the national spotlight.

But they also serve as a chance to try out campaign messaging and rally the base, with more voters paying attention to the televised pageantry. And in Harris’ case, the stakes are even higher, given that she jumped into the race with a little over 100 days before the November election.

While Democrats will be celebrating their new presidential nominee, thousands of protesters are expected to rally outside of the convention hall throughout the week. One of the biggest protests is planned for Monday, with about 200 groups calling on party leaders to rally in support of Gaza and end U.S. military aid to Israel. Similar protests will occur throughout the week, as well as demonstrations for other causes.

“There were concerns after the debate [about Biden], but I honestly wasn’t sure if people would rally around her as quickly as they did. And they did,” said Moriah Moriarty, a delegate from East Hartford, adding that the quick alignment behind Harris “took a weight off of everyone’s shoulders.”

Connecticut’s delegates will start each day with a breakfast meeting to conduct some business and hear from some prominent members of the party who may have national aspirations and are seeking political promotions, including some rising stars and some more familiar faces.

Gov. Wes Moore, who was elected in 2022 as the first Black governor of Maryland, was to headline Monday’s breakfast. Other notable speakers stopping by during the week include U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who was commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Education. Both Buttigieg and Shapiro were on Harris’ short list of potential running mates.

Delegates say they are interested in hearing from party figures who are part of a younger generation and could become future leaders for the Democratic Party.

“It’s exciting to see my peers really stepping up and filling those shoes,” Moriarty said.

Connecticut also has a lineup of daily events to keep delegates fed and occupied ahead of the nighttime programming. Comptroller Sean Scanlon and Treasurer Erick Russell will host a luncheon at a deep dish pizza joint, while Attorney General William Tong will do the same on another afternoon at a local dim sum restaurant.

And as Harris seeks to make history as the first woman to become president, Connecticut’s top female officials — Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas — will host a cookie and coffee event alongside Bysiewicz’s political action committee, Power of Women.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who is a superdelegate as an elected official, has a number of his own events lined up for the week. He will attend a gun safety event with the advocacy group Giffords as well as a few foreign policy events. In addition to the Connecticut breakfasts, Murphy also plans to visit with other states and speak at their morning meetings.

Murphy, who is seeking a third term in November, has had a close relationship with the Biden-Harris administration over the past couple of years. He led negotiations on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that Biden signed into law in 2022. Murphy also played a lead role in bipartisan border negotiations earlier this year, but the deal failed to get through Congress.

He made a primetime speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, four years after the Sandy Hook school shooting. At that time, he criticized the GOP-led Congress for blocking legislation on preventing gun violence.

This year’s convention is the first in-person one since 2016, when Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee of a major political party.

The Democrats’ convention was mostly virtual in 2020 because of the pandemic. Connecticut delegates gathered outdoors at Dunkin’ Donuts ballpark in Hartford on the final night to watch Biden’s acceptance speech.

Most conventions attract protests, but this year’s are expected to garner a lot of attention as demonstrators rally against the U.S. response to the Israel-Gaza war since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The “March on the DNC 2024” is expected to draw tens of thousands of protesters as the Biden administration continues to work out a deal for a ceasefire and hostage release.

There could also be protests and disruptions inside the convention hall during the evening and televised portion of the convention. “Uncommitted” delegates — those who represent voters who cast their ballot as uncommitted during the primaries — make up a small fraction of the overall delegates in attendance.

The protests come more than five decades after protests over the Vietnam War erupted at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which led to violent clashes with police.

Democrats will be looking to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans, who held their nominating convention in Milwaukee a month ago. The Republican National Convention happened days after the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

Harris could also use the convention to do more agenda-setting if she wins office. Her campaign speeches have so far relied more on introducing herself to voters and drawing a contrast with Trump as opposed to policy proposals. But she rolled out her first economic policy last week, which includes a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries as well as a $25,000 subsidy for first-time homebuyers.

“Everything is on this warp speed, and I expect her to keep unveiling” policies, Duryea said. “I’m also mindful she’s in uncharted territory.”

Biden will kick off the convention with a keynote speech on Monday night. He recently appeared with Harris at an event in Maryland touting the administration’s push to lower prescription drug costs. But the convention will be one of the first times Biden will make the case for Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.

Other primetime speakers during the week include Obama, Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. Walz will speak on Wednesday, and Harris will accept the nomination on Thursday.

While Harris has already secured the nomination through a virtual roll call vote a few weeks ago, Democrats will hold a ceremonial vote on Tuesday and will go one by one through each state as they pledge their delegates to Harris.

Monday night will be focused more squarely on Biden — his political legacy and tenure as a one-term president. But it will also be the official handoff to Harris as the head of the Democratic Party and the next generation of party leaders.

“I think that’s going to set the tone for the rest of the week,” Moriarty said.