The Biden-Harris ticket spoke directly to Black and Latino Americans
Progressives got a full litany of hot buttons pushed. Gun control, climate change, immigration reform and female advancement are major priorities on the left; each got their turn as the evening’s focus. Speakers used language progressives listen for and emphasized ideas they advance, such as the concept that the planet has only a decade in which we can address climate change. The script tactfully avoided some of the most contentious elements of the progressive agenda, among them Medicare-for-all and the question of reparations for the descendants of slaves. But overall, the message was clear: Progressives should be excited about a Biden administration.
People of color were targeted directly and indirectly. The segment on gun violence specifically talked about urban violence, and the segment on climate change spoke about environmental justice. More important, every segment included speakers of color and pictures of people of color. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) noted that her conference is the most diverse in history, and the immigration segment featured a Hispanic immigrant family talking from their living room. Blacks and Hispanics in particular saw in this programming the message that their advancement is important to Democrats, and that there are leaders from their backgrounds there to fight for them.
Compassion was also front and center. Polls have shown for decades that Democrats do best among voters who think the most important characteristic for a president is that he or she “cares about people like me.” Biden’s empathy was a constant feature, including during Obama’s endorsement of his “friend Joe.” If you want someone who “cares about people like you,” the night told you that Joe’s your man.
And without using the buzzword, the convention nodded to intersectionality, the concept that people aren’t defined by a single aspect of their identities, and that issues such as environmentalism may interact with social forces such as racism to produce unique challenges. The immigration segment included a young woman with spina bifida whose mother brought her to the United States in search of better care and opportunities for her. The climate segment acknowledged the particular impact that pollution and climate change have on Black and Latino communities, and included many young people as speakers, including a young farmer hoping to keep his family’s land productive.
The party also took care to place Biden at the center of every concern, whether through segments on Biden’s authorship of the Violence Against Women Act or statements that he authored some of the first climate change bills. That’s particularly important, as polls show both young people and progressives tend to be unenthusiastic about Biden even as they strongly dislike Trump.
That could cost Biden in a close vote, and that fear drove the night’s emphasis on action. Speaker after speaker asked listeners to text “vote” to the Biden campaign for information on how to vote in their state. Hillary Clinton even noted that she got 3 million more votes than Trump and still lost, arguing that Biden needs so many votes that Trump has no chance of slipping through again.
There was some attempt to reach non-base voters. A couple of segments talked about farmers, a key constituency in some of the Midwestern states that Trump flipped. Some segments emphasized “good-paying jobs.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) focused on child care, an issue that cuts across partisan lines. But these efforts were secondary to the major focus of preaching to the converted and almost-converted.
No party wins solely by mobilizing its base, but no party can succeed without an energized core. Day three will get party activists fired up. If it gets others fired up too, then it will have been one of the most important nights of the Biden campaign.
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