At the DNC, joy over Harris – and an acute awareness of how quickly things can shift

CHICAGO — Kamala Harris arrived in Chicago still in a Democratic era of exuberance. But as the Democratic National Convention burst to life Monday, even Democrats here were preparing for a series of challenges ready to meet her on the other side of the balloon drop.

In fact, they were right in front of her: Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied and then marched in the shadow of the United Center, chanting “Genocide Joe” and “Killer Kamala.” She has yet to submit to expansive questioning from the media, which assembled in a tent outside the convention hall, about her shifting policy positions. And some Democrats appeared hesitant to back the price-gouging ban policy proposal she floated last week, one of the few new policies she has released.

Against the backdrop of a jubilant gathering of the party faithful, some Harris advisers and allies portrayed the week as a crucial test of Harris’ ability to reintroduce herself to a Democratic base that had considered — and discarded — her once before. Her 2020 presidential primary run similarly started on a high note, before her campaign devolved into a slog, exposing vulnerabilities in Harris’ see-sawing message, lack of crisp deliveries about her policy positions and overall uneven performances on the stump.

“No matter how jubilant we are now, the fact is, we got to have a good week, we got to leave here on a high note, and we got to keep it going,” said Rep. James Clyburn , the influential South Carolina Democrat who helped rescue President Joe Biden’s primary campaign four years ago. “Energy is one thing, but it’s not worth anything unless it’s harnessed and targeted.”

Democrats meeting here were overjoyed. And they have reason to be. In recent days, public polling, as well as dozens of internal polls across the country, have shown Harris inching past former President Donald Trump in key battleground states. It’s enabled congressional Democrats to widen their sights, too. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday predicted his party could actually expand their majority despite one of their most difficult maps in years.

“We’re going to keep the Senate and pick up a seat or two,” Schumer said in an interview at the CNN-POLITICO Grill.

House Democrats, meanwhile, unveiled a $27 million offensive ad blitz on the first day of the convention that includes major buys in Iowa and Nebraska.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told POLITICO, in between hugs to lawmakers at a downtown hotel lobby, that the party needs to “run through the finish line.”

“There’s a lot of excitement. We also understand that we have a mission in front of us and that’s to make sure Kamala Haris and Tim Walz are elected, to take back the House,” Jeffries said.

Still, Democrats’ own turn of fortune suggested how quickly the dynamics of a presidential race can shift. It was just weeks ago that Republicans gathering in Milwaukee — after Trump survived an assassination attempt and with Biden flailing — were as self-assured as Democrats are now.

It didn’t last, after Biden dropped off the ticket and Harris replaced him.

“I’m wanting to let myself go, just enjoy the moment, but I am so consumed with 78 days, how do we win?” said Holly Mitchell, a Los Angeles County supervisor. “I remember having the freedom in ’08 of just feeling the feels with [Barack] Obama. We had a longer runway.”

Sitting on the convention floor, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said, “We have to ensure that we don’t overcompensate and assume things are going to go easily because they’re not. There are a lot of people who support Donald Trump in our state.”

He said, “There’s a lot of euphoria here tonight and this week — but what are you going to do for people in Wisconsin?”

And Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair who is among a group of women Harris turns to for advice, said that the vice president has room for improvement among some key voter groups.

“One, clearly, is seniors — white seniors,” she said. “There’s still room to grow with union households.”

Harris’ campaign pointed to statements from the candidate and her aides stressing that Democrats consider themselves underdogs and are not taking the race for granted. A person familiar with the campaign’s plans and granted anonymity to speak freely said aides will hammer home that point at a news conference Tuesday, stressing that the convention itself is not a celebration but an effort to organize, inspire and lay out the stakes of the election.

Still, Harris has galvanized the Democratic base in ways that Biden failed to and is attracting voters the president struggled with, including young Americans and Black and Latino voters. But Republicans are only starting to unload on her on the airwaves , and she has yet to subject herself to meaningful questioning from the press, with her last formal sit-down interview coming in June .

That’s not to mention the high-wire act she faces on policy, as her team learns that the more she fills out policy proposals, the more she opens the door to criticism.

“Where there is room for deliberation — I wouldn’t even call it debate or conflict — is as she is navigating her various policy rollouts, I think that you saw like a little bit of a frothing last week about grocery stores,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic strategist and former Biden administration official. “The reality of this situation is that any sort of disagreement or like discussion has been extraordinarily tame.”

Harris remains particularly at odds with leaders of the pro-Palestinian “uncommitted” movement, absent a cease-fire in Gaza, which she supports, and an arms embargo against Israel, which she does not. Leaders of the movement, some of whom double as delegates at the convention, are using the party gathering as a high-profile way to keep applying pressure on Harris, whom they view as more “moveable” toward their goals in Gaza than Biden.

But they also delivered a warning: If Harris does not support these outcomes, she risks losing votes — and in places that could be particularly damaging to her electoral chances come November. More than 48,000 people voted “uninstructed” in Wisconsin’s Democratic presidential primary — more than double the slim margin Biden won the state by in 2020. More than 100,000 voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan, a state Biden won by 154,000 votes in 2020 and that has high populations of Arab American voters.

In Minnesota, which sent the largest contingent of uncommitted delegates to the convention, one of them, Asma Mohammed, described in an interview an “apathy” among voters that she worried would not abate unless Harris embraced the pro-Palestinian movement’s pleas.

“She is at risk of losing key swing states, especially in states like Michigan, where we have the largest concentration of Arab Americans and Muslim Americans — people who know firsthand the effects and the impact of American-funded bombing,” Layla Elabed, a leader of the “uncommitted” movement from Michigan, said in response to a POLITICO reporter’s question at the group’s Monday morning press conference. “What we need right now is a policy change.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), chair of the party’s Senate campaign arm, acknowledged Monday at the CNN-POLITICO grill that Harris needs to show distance from Biden on foreign policy.

“She has to start telling folks, this is where she comes from, what she believes in, and that’s gonna be natural,” Peters said. “So there’s gonna be things that she agrees. There’s gonna be things you don’t agree.”

But even one of the party’s sharpest internal critics was having a hard time finding reason to pout. On Monday, Rep. Dean Phillips , who challenged Biden and whose concerns about his age proved prescient, was the object of a strange new respect. He was followed around by a retinue of reporters and newly converted fans.

When Biden was still running, his decision to challenge him “resulted in a lot of pain and probably the end of my political career, all of which essentially has become true,” the Minnesota Democrat said. “What I didn’t anticipate is the high fives, handshakes and hugs that have been thrown my way since I’ve arrived.”

“I was invited to a funeral,” Phillips said, but by the time he arrived, it “felt like a birth.”

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) has offered more specific advice to the Harris campaign: emphasizing border security. The New York Democrat flipped a GOP seat on Long Island this year, in part, by being up front about what he sees as big immigration issues — and said he’s spoken to the Harris campaign about doing the same: “I think Vice President Harris has done that,” he said.

As for the high levels of energy across the party, Suozzi said he’s not worrying, yet, about whether it may be short-lived.

Speaking in the convention hall as a raucous crowd cheered, Suozzi said: “Let’s enjoy it while we can and run with it.”

Nicholas Wu, Shia Kapos and Melanie Mason contributed to this report.