CHICAGO (AP) — Before President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for re-election, he framed November’s election decision in grim and threatening terms: He portrayed Republican candidate Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy and questioned whether the country could survive if he won.
The new candidate of the Democratic Party, Vice President Kamala Harris, does not shy away from this message and warned in her acceptance speech on Thursday evening of the “extremely serious” consequences of a Trump return to the White House.
But Harris is putting her own spin on what is a central messaging strategy for Democrats. Rather than focusing on the existential threat that a second Trump term could pose to the country’s fundamental institutions and traditions, she is expanding Democrats’ definition of what is at stake in this election: It’s about preserving personal freedoms.
The new framework was on display this week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where attendees wrote their own definitions of freedom on handmade signs and Beyoncé’s anthem “Freedom” blared from the speakers. The convention devoted a day to “fighting for our freedoms,” and featured guest of honor Oprah Winfrey, who called those fighting to preserve reproductive rights “the new freedom fighters.”
Harris emphasized this point repeatedly as she summarized her promises to American voters.
“The freedom to live safe from gun violence in our schools, communities and houses of worship,” Harris said Thursday. “The freedom to love who you love openly and proudly. The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all other freedoms: the freedom to choose.”
Experts say the Democrats’ more positive, personal appeal signals that the party is trying to boost morale and reclaim concepts like freedom and independence – ideas that Republicans have been promoting as their own for years.
“I think everyone on the progressive side of the Democrats is hungry and was just ready for this positive vision,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of the national voting rights organization Fair Fight Action.
A word like freedom is “abstract enough” that people can project their own ideas of the best version of American society onto it, said Matthew Delmont, a history professor at Dartmouth College. He said it was a smart strategy by Democrats to use phrases that Republicans have long used, although that doesn’t stop Republicans from defining the term in their own way.
Democrats at the convention said they understood why Biden had focused on the narrative of a threat to democracy. After all, it was his presidency that was jeopardized by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election that led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the transfer of power.
“But Kamala is all about the future, and she can do that,” said Holly Sargent, a 68-year-old delegate from York, Maine. “She can accept that he was a warrior who got us to where we are today, and now we have to focus on the future.”
Biden, who dropped out of the race last month after urgent appeals from his party, seemed to accept his duty as ambassador of the new campaign theme. In his speech at the party convention on Monday, he said the outcome of this election will determine “whether democracy and freedom will prevail.”
Even though the newly empowered Democrats are making personal freedom a pillar of their election campaign, the Trump camp is not prepared to give up on this word, on freedom, or on other patriotic issues.
“It’s always nice to see Americans express their love for our country,” said Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes. “But a party that has opened our borders to drugs and crime, weakened our standing as a force for global peace and made it difficult for fellow Americans to afford the basic necessities of life seems the exact opposite of patriotic.”
Shortly after Harris’ acceptance speech, Trump attempted to refute the notion that she could bring about positive change for the country, arguing that if she had wanted change, she could have already achieved it in her current role as vice president.
“Why hasn’t she done the things she’s complaining about?” he told Fox News shortly after her acceptance speech. “She could have done it three and a half years ago. She could do it tonight by leaving the room, going to Washington DC and closing the border.”
Harris has focused particularly on abortion access and reproductive issues as a major issue since launching her campaign last month. Democrats see the emphasis on people’s freedom to make their own decisions about their health care as a winning move on any ballot, while criticizing Trump for boasting about nominating three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion two years ago.
The “freedom” narrative has also enabled Democrats to craft a broader campaign message that includes an issue they have often struggled to address at the national level: gun control.
In a solemn moment at the convention on Thursday, five people whose lives have been touched by gun violence — including a teacher and a parent who spoke about the Sandy Hook and Uvalde school massacres — stood together on stage and told their stories. Behind them, the words “FREEDOM FROM GUN VIOLENCE” were displayed on the convention center’s main screen.
“In her commitment to ending gun violence, Vice President Harris illustrates how dramatically the calculus on this issue has changed. What was once a political taboo is now presented as an inalienable right,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national advocacy group that works to combat gun violence.
To be sure, the Democratic national convention was not a complete about-face from its warning that American democracy is at stake in November. Several speakers, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, pointed to the need to protect American and clearly democratic institutions. They also offered a stark reminder of the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, in which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers and attempted to prevent the certification of the 2020 election.
There was a rare moment of silence in the busy convention hall as a video of the attack played on the screen.
Still, there was more talk about freedom than threats to democracy, and signs reading “freedom” were seen everywhere the thousands of delegates gathered. Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, did not use the word “democracy” once in his speech to delegates on Wednesday, while he used “freedom” eight times.
Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said as the campaign enters its final months, Republicans are likely to focus on “darkness and danger.” “We’re going to get invaded at the border and you can’t afford food.”
Harris wants to make it clear to voters that this election is about “the future and freedoms, not a step backwards,” he said, adding that it captures American ideals of optimism that often tip the balance in elections.
Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Trade Unions (AFL-CIO) and a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, said Harris succeeded in making voters aware of what is at stake in November while maintaining a sense of hope and optimism.
“This is not esoteric democracy,” Shuler said. “It’s about bringing things down to earth and showing people how they can identify with it and how they can see themselves in it.”
Swenson reported from New York and Fields from Washington. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
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Kamala Harris
