By EFE
Aug 18, 2024, 2:41 PM EDT
A month ago, the Democratic Party was mired in a sea of doubts about President Joe Biden’s candidacy for reelection, but the party’s apparatus publicly assured that the Chicago convention was preparing to crown him, after winning by a clear majority in the primary process.
Finally, four weeks of whirlwind and maneuvering have led to a conclave that will anoint a politician who will no longer remain in the background: Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Democratic National Convention, which begins Monday, culminates a process that began on June 27, the day Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump held what was to be the first televised debate, the earliest in history and which took place before both presidential candidates were confirmed at their respective conventions.
That was the least of it: both were already considered immovable.
Biden’s hesitant and at times stammering performance raised looming concerns about his ability to serve a second term in full force at age 81. As if that were not enough, two weeks later, on July 13, Trump was nearly killed by a bullet that grazed his right ear and which, along with his surge at the Republican National Convention, consolidated him as the favorite in the presidential race.
But certainty and hope have returned to the Democratic campaign and in record time the entire party apparatus has thrown itself behind a new presidential ticket, the one formed by Harris and the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, just ten days ago.
On July 11, the campaign and White House teams held a press conference that they claimed had served to show Biden that he was in full possession of his faculties and had the energy, the support of the party and the favor of electoral mathematics.
Ten days later, the president announced that he would not seek re-election and gave his support to Harris, a vice president who until then had maintained a grey and discreet role.
The announcement on July 21, a Sunday, surprised many members of the campaign team and forced several marathon weeks in which the main objective was to shape the primary process, now almost complete, so that the Democratic Party’s support for Harris would be confirmed in a transparent and credible manner, say sources who were part of those intense days that culminated in virtual voting that less than two weeks ago confirmed Harris’ nomination by a majority.
“What we’ve experienced over the last month is one of the most significant electoral shifts in the history of this country,” Cook Political Report senior analyst David Wasserman said at a roundtable in Washington this week.
Harris arrives in Chicago after three weeks to take over a new campaign that is well-funded and staffed with new talent, and has managed to energize Democratic voters, with rallies that have sometimes exceeded 14,000 attendees and managed to turn the polls around.
The Harris-Walz ticket has virtually eliminated all of Trump’s advantages in the states that will be crucial in the US Electoral College system, and this Democratic National Convention could serve to maintain the momentum of the woman who could become, contrary to expectations at the beginning of the year, the first female president of the United States.
Jairo Mejia.
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