CHICAGO – The party’s over.
The Democratic National Convention has come to a close after four days of heated speeches, late-night parties, policy panels and tens of thousands of attendees from around the country energized by the prospect of a victory in November.
Now comes the hard part, as the hangover sets in. Democrats need to keep this momentum going for another 72 days and mobilize a lot of voters for Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. If they don’t, there’s a very good chance she’ll lose to former President Donald Trump, as the race is so tight that it could end up being decided by a few votes in certain districts.
Former first lady Michelle Obama addressed this stark reality in one of the most effective speeches at the convention Tuesday night: “Michelle Obama is asking you to do something. No, I’m talking to you.”
HuffPost was clearly losing interest in the convention, asking the jubilant delegates and attendees if they thought Harris could lose, given current polling.
Melanie Stansbury, D.N.M., acknowledged that the festivities taking place at the event may be hiding the reality that the competition remains fierce.
“I’m very concerned about that,” Stansbury said.
She drew some parallels to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, when the Democrat went into the polls overconfident that she would win only to see Trump lose. Buoyed by mistakenly optimistic polls and an overreliance on data analytics in key states, Clinton’s campaign famously launched TV ads in Texas, a state that wasn’t even contested. By contrast, during the general election, Clinton never directly campaigned in Wisconsin, where Trump narrowly beat her.
While the political landscape has changed dramatically since then—millions of women have protested against Trump, thousands of women have run for office in 2018, social media has become “more democratic,” and pollsters have updated their methods to account for changing voter habits—Stansbury said there’s still anxiety about a repeat because the stakes are so high and Democrats have just months to educate voters and increase turnout.
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“I think we’re all living with the PTSD of 2016,” she said. “Even though we know she’s the most qualified candidate ever, if we don’t get out there and get people to vote, we can’t face the nightmare that’s coming. We can’t lose this election.”
Two attendees from Maryland, Kimberly Fernandez and Zara Childs, summarized how they felt at the end of the event.
“Motivated. Achievement. Hopeful,” they said.
Fernandez, 41, acknowledged how tough the competition is but said she was “confident” Harris would win. She said she was ready to volunteer in her hometown.
“I have a personal obligation to continue to do that now. It’s not all up to Kamala,” Fernandez said. “What I learned this week is that literally every single one of us has a role to play, and we have to continue to do that. We have to continue to engage. We’re in this together.”
Childs, 42, admitted she probably wouldn’t volunteer, but she said Harris’s acceptance speech had a big impact on her.
“It motivated me to tell other people about her,” Childs said. “Hear what her policies are and encourage them to get involved.”
Neither doubted that Harris could run an energetic and inspiring campaign through November. Noting that Harris had just become a candidate after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race for reelection last month, they likened her to an Olympic athlete who has completed a relay race, grabbed the baton, and run the last lap for her team.
“She doesn’t have a hangover,” Fernandez said, rejuvenated. “She still has to feel good. She can get us to this finish line. Everyone else is running marathons. She’s fresh. She’s stretching. She’s good.”
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The race is still tight, but Democrats have reason to feel very good right now. Pollsters say On both sides I watched in awe as Harris’s last-minute emergence into the race dramatically improved the Democrats’ chances of winning the White House.
“We went from one-third to 50-50,” Jill Normington, a veteran Democratic pollster and partner at Normington Petts & Associates, told HuffPost. “It’s a huge change in a short period of time.”
during Wednesday Panel Taking a page from a pollster who attended the convention, Normington noted that recent polls show women and young voters are particularly enthusiastic about Harris.
“We’ve seen a tremendous shift in enthusiasm and intent to vote,” she said. “When you put those two things together, you’re looking at a fundamentally different race than we were a month ago.”
Abortion rights are also a driving force in this election cycle, and it’s working out well for Harris. Polls show that Americans Be extremely angry We talk about the conservative-majority Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, which will lead to women’s reproductive rights being violated in various states.
“There’s a saying in American politics that the angry vote,” Normington said during the panel discussion. “The Republican Party has never had a presidential election where the anger on this issue was on our side.”
But just because the Democratic Party’s new hope and joy are real doesn’t mean Harris can make it happen.
“Let’s give ourselves a week to pat ourselves on the back and convince ourselves that this is worth getting on the mat for.”
– Evan Roth Smith, Democratic pollster
“Everyone who worked on the campaign and every single person on the campaign trail is still waking up in a cold sweat,” said Evan Ross Smith, a Democratic pollster with the polling group Blueprint. “We know this is a 4- to 6-point race.”
Still, he said, it was “very important” that Democrats feel genuine excitement about the possibility of Harris becoming president, even if the trajectory of the race could change again.
“You know what? It’s finally happening. People are excited,” Smith said. “And you know what? Let’s give ourselves a week to pat ourselves on the back and convince ourselves that this is worth going to the mat for.”
Some convention attendees dismissed the idea that Democrats, who rode an emotional roller coaster of joy and tears throughout the convention, don’t fully understand the work ahead to ensure Harris’s victory.
“It’s bound to be difficult, because the country is so divided,” said Hassan Martini, executive director of No Dem Left Behind, a group that advocates for rural Democrats.
“We’re fortunate enough to say that it’s going to be a close race. A few months ago, we weren’t that optimistic,” Martini said. “I think this is the hardest election of our lives. The last election is the most important. This one will be the hardest.”
