The second night of the Democratic National Convention included the traditional, if not symbolic, roll call of all the states and how many delegates are voting in Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz for office. However, neither were present at the convention.
Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz instead headlined a well-attended campaign event in nearby Milwaukee at the same arena that hosted the Republican National Convention.
In Chicago, the night ended in cheers as former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama capped off the evening’s speeches, praising Harris and Walz although Barack was one of the last prominent Democrats to endorse Harris following Biden’s stepping down from the campaign, waiting until July 26.
The Obamas on Tuesday warned against another Donald Trump presidency.
“The people who will decide this election are asking a very simple question, ‘who will fight for me? Who’s thinking about my future, about my children’s future, about our future together,’” the former president said when he took the stage at 11 p.m. Tuesday night in Chicago. “One thing is for certain, Donald Trump is not losing sleep over that question.”
He argued that Harris and Walz will fight for the future of middle and lower-class Americans.
“We do not need four more years of blustering and bumbling and chaos,” Obama said. “We have seen that movie before and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a new story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
He spoke about his experience working with Harris when he was in office, saying that regardless of the fact that they were of the same party, she fought his administration to provide relief to families during the home mortgage crisis.
“As vice president, she helped take on the drug companies to cap the cost of insulin or the cost of healthcare, give families with kids a tax cut and she is running for president with real plans to lower costs even more, protect medicare and medicaid and sign a law to guarantee every woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions,” he said. “Together Kamala and Tim have kept faith with America’s central story. A story that says we are all created equal, all of us endowed with certain unalienable rights, that everyone deserves a chance, that even when we don’t agree with each other, we can find a way to live with each other.”
The former first lady took a different tone when she stepped on the stage, speaking about her mother who recently passed away. She said that her mother and Harris’ mother had similar values that shaped them into who they are today.
“If you work and scrape and sacrifice, it will pay off. If not for you, then maybe for your children or your grandchildren,” she said. “Kamala Harris and I built our lives on those same foundational values. Although our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they believed in those same promises of this country.”
To this, the crowd cheered “do something,” a phrase Harris has used during her campaign, referring to what her mother would say to her: “Don’t just sit around and complain, do something.”
“As we embrace this new sense of hope, let us not forget the despair we have felt,” Michelle said. “Let us not forget what we are up against. Yes, Kamala and Tim are doing great now… we are feeling good, but remember that there are still so many people who are desperate for a different outcome.”
In addition to endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket, Obama praised his former vice president and current President Joe Biden.
“My first decision as nominee turned out to be one of my best, and that was asking Joe Biden to serve as my vice president,” he said. “What I came to admire most about Joe wasn’t just his smarts, his experience, it was his empathy and his decency and his hard-earned resilience; his unshakable belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot. And, over the last four years, those are the values that America has needed most.”
President Biden was not in attendance Tuesday.
Barack stated that Biden worked to create more jobs, higher wages and lower healthcare costs.
“History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger and I am proud to call him my president, but I am even prouder to call him my friend,” he said, adding that Harris will be a great president to take his place.
However, the former first lady emphasized that it will be up to the voters to put Harris in the White House.
“No matter how good we feel tonight, tomorrow or the next day, this is going to be an uphill battle,” she said. “A handful of votes in every precinct could decide the winner. So, we need to vote in numbers that erase any doubt, we need to overwhelm any effort to suppress us. Our fate is in our hands. In 77 days, we have the power to turn our country away from the fear and division and smallness of the past. We have the power to marry our hope with our action.”
Barack noted that it is not just Democrats who support Harris and Walz being elected into office, but Republicans and those “somewhere in between,” – referencing registered Republicans such as Mesa Arizona Governor John Giles, who currently holds a nonpartisan office.
“I have a confession to make,” Giles said in an earlier speech. “I’m a lifelong Republican, so I feel a little out of place tonight, but I feel more at home here than in today’s Republican party.”
Other prominent individuals and law-makers spoke Tuesday night including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The full DNC schedule for the next of the week can be found on their website.
