It’s the fourth and final day of the Democratic National Convention, and GBH’s Adam Reilly is in Chicago covering the Massachusetts delegation.
He joined GBH’s All Things Considered guest host Craig LeMoult to discuss what he thinks the final day will have in store for us. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.
Craig LeMoult: So, Adam, the convention is wrapping up tonight. It’s been four days in Chicago. Obviously, Kamala Harris’ speech is the main event tonight, but I understand this evening’s also going to have a pretty ramped up Massachusetts presence. Right?
Adam Reilly: It is. If watching local politicians on the national stage is your thing, then tonight is your night. Governor Maura Healey is going to be addressing the convention before Harris gives her remarks. And so is Senator Elizabeth Warren.
LeMoult: So I know you haven’t seen their speeches yet, but how about some speculation? What do you think they’re going to focus on?
Reilly: Well, they both addressed the Mass. delegation at its breakfast this morning. And based on what I heard from them there, I’m going to go out on a limb. I’ll say that Healey, among other things, will be urging the audience to do everything in their power to push people to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz over the next few weeks. Here’s a little snippet of what Healey had to say on that topic this morning.
GBH News’ Adam Reilly and Alexi Cohan are reporting live from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Stay up to date by listening to GBH 89.7 or following @gbhnews on Instagram.
Gov. Maura Healey [prerecorded]: So, as Tim says, we’ll rest when we’re dead. But between now and then, we’re knock every door. We’re going to make those phone calls. We’re going to reach out to family across this country, people whom you agree with, and more importantly, people who may not agree with you, right? And talk to them. Talk to them about the stark difference in this race.
Reilly: So I think we’ll hear more of that tonight. [Sen. Ed] Markey, I am pretty sure will talk again, among other things, about how Harris and Walz need to win to keep America on the right path, environmentally speaking. Again, here’s a preview of what he might say from this morning.
Sen. Ed Markey [prerecorded]: Climate and clean energy are on the ballot. Trump says if the oil and gas industry give him a billion dollars, he’ll take it all off of the books. But we know that Kamala Harris is a climate champion. The Green New Deal is in her DNA.
LeMoult: So you, of course, have not had the same access to Harris that you’ve had to the Massachusetts politicians. But what do you think might make her speech distinctive tonight?
Reilly: There is one particular theme that I’m really interested in. It’s been pointed out in the political media over the past few days that while Harris is seeking to become the first woman elected president, and the first Black woman elected president, and the first South Asian woman elected president, she hasn’t really been centering those potential firsts the way that Hillary Clinton did back in 2016, when her running to break the glass ceiling was almost the central part of the narrative that the campaign put out there. Instead, Harris has been sort of taking the approach that Barack Obama took back in 2008. Everyone knew he was going to be the first Black president if he won, but he didn’t talk a lot about it. So I am going to be very interested to see if Harris keeps on eliding these questions of identity tonight, or if instead she decides to tackle them head on — even if it’s just for one evening, as opposed to the rest of the campaign.
LeMoult: Adam, finally, before we wrap up, you’ve been there all week long now. What’s the verdict? Can you go out on a limb here and say, you know, whether this Democratic National Convention is going to be remembered as a successful one?
Reilly: Obviously [that’s] a bit of a hazardous proposition, because who knows what surprises may be in store tonight, but I am going to go out on a limb and say I think people will remember this as a pretty big success. Every Democrat that I’ve been talking to over the course of the week has basically told me that they’re just brimming over with excitement and enthusiasm, that they have huge confidence in the Harris Walls ticket, and can’t wait to get to work to get them elected. It’s worth remembering. It’s odd, but worthwhile to remember that it was just a few weeks ago that Joe Biden was still the nominee in waiting. And we had a bunch of big-name Democrats who were trying to push him out, and he was resisting. The party looked fractured, tense, maybe even dysfunctional in a very short span of time. Democrats have gone from discord and division to unity and what seems like genuine, sustained exuberance. So again, we’ll see what happens tonight. But it looks at this point like the convention has cemented that shift.
