Democrats gather to enshrine their stunning turn from Biden to Harris

Democrats this week will enshrine one of the most audacious power plays in modern political history as they gather for a convention that was hastily reconfigured to try to vault Kamala Harris to a historic presidency.

It begins with adulation for President Joe Biden, who will speak Monday night to a crowd grateful that he belatedly agreed to pass the torch. But the moment will be bittersweet for the 81-year-old president, who, despite a productive tenure, was pressured by his own party leaders to end his reelection bid when a 50-year career succumbed to the ravages of age.

Biden told Americans last month when he announced his departure from the race that “History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.” The response from his party was a swift coalescing behind Harris, 59, as hopes of some activists for a multi-candidate race among Democratic rising stars were dashed.

With Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz leading their new ticket, Democrats now hope to thwart a White House comeback by Donald Trump amid panic over the prospect of a second term he plans to devote to “retribution.”

Republicans left their convention in Milwaukee a month ago, convinced they were heading for a landslide victory under a candidate who emerged bloodied but defiant from an assassination attempt. At that point, the Democratic National Convention was shaping up as a grim valediction for an aging president who was losing to Trump in key states. But Harris has sent a jolt of electricity and joy through her party, mending some of the potentially catastrophic splits in Biden’s coalition.

She’s pulled into a narrow lead over Trump in some national polls, reestablishing a neck-and-neck race with the former president in survey averages. And she’s restored multiple paths for Democrats to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The mood shift in the party is astonishing, even if Harris’ biggest tests still lie ahead.

“First of all, you were talking about a reelection nomination, a renomination. And now you’re talking about something completely different,” J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “This is a candidate who’s energized the party in a way that I haven’t seen certainly since ’08.”

The refashioning of the race has left Trump — seeking to become only the second one-term president to win a non-consecutive second term — disoriented and pining for his matchup against Biden, whose hopes dissolved after his disastrous performance at the CNN debate in June.

The Republican nominee has raged through a string of unhinged campaign events that have left party strategists despairing and pleading with him to focus. Harris hasn’t faced tough questions yet in an unscripted event, but she has been successful in styling herself as the change agent in the race despite spending four years playing a key role in Biden’s unpopular presidency.

Source CNN