Tag: DNC

Inside Chicago’s intense, behind-the-scenes effort to secure the DNC

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Another official noted a letter sent by labor leaders from New York that implored Biden to choose a labor town, owing to his emotional ties and political connections to the union movement.
Chicago labor leaders sent a letter of their own. The larger Chicago team felt increasingly confident about its chances through last week. But they knew it was a done deal when Biden and Gov. JB Pritzker spoke early Tuesday, when the Illinois Democrat played up the president’s love of the country’s iconic cities.
“Chicago is your kind of town and we’re going to throw a huge party for you,” Pritzker said, according to a person close to the Chicago bid who was granted anonymity to discuss the conversation candidly.
Biden gave him the news on the call, after which the Democratic National Committee put out an announcement saying the city would host delegates and convention-goers Aug. 19-22, 2024.
The announcement was a coup for Pritzker and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who is vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and early on nudged Chicago Democrats to try for the convention. But it also revealed some of the thinking inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., where Biden is eyeing both reelection and a memorable convention after having had to skip the festivities in Milwaukee during the pandemic in 2020.
Biden had struggled with deciding which of the three cities to pick, even quipping to confidants at one point about why Democrats couldn’t simply hold the confab in Philadelphia, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Philadelphia had not actually applied to host the convention, though it did enjoy one strategic advantage over the other cities: a proximity to Biden’s cherished Delaware.
Privately, Biden thought of Atlanta as a smart strategic choice, noting that it was a swing state that could propel him to another term if he ran again. He had already moved Georgia up in the Democratic primary calendar.
But his views were at odds with those in the party who convinced his team, which conceded that Atlanta simply didn’t make sense logistically. Though the city is increasingly powering Democrats to victory in some key races, it is still nestled in a conservative Southern state, with a six-week abortion ban in place.

Georgia is also a right-to-work state and has few unionized hotels compared with Chicago. Another party official noted it would be easier for Biden and the convention committee to work with Pritzker compared with Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who is increasingly eyeing a national profile (Democrats had been working more with Atlanta’s mayor, rather than with Kemp).
Still, Illinois and Chicago elected officials were fearful that Biden’s sentimentality about Atlanta would win out. And so they and their neighbors made a full-court press of their own. When the DNC came to Chicago to discuss the city’s bid, they happened to be there during Lollapalooza’s kickoff. Mayor Lori Lightfoot took them to watch Metallica warm up in an empty Grant Park.
Later in the process, Midwestern governors and other elected officials, along with Midwest state Democratic Party chairs and union leaders sent letters to Biden urging him to pick Chicago. They also talked to his team directly, underscoring how critical the Midwest region had been to him in 2020.
“The Midwest is key to a victory in 2024, and there is no city better positioned to reach those voters than Chicago,” Duckworth said in a statement. She had privately appealed to Biden with this message, too.
But even those pitches were coated with the type of odes to history that organizers believed were critical for winning Biden over.
“Chicago is an engine for progress. Chicago proudly represents millions of Democratic voters and is an historic Democratic stronghold. Given Detroit already won the honor of hosting the 2024 NFL Draft, it would be right to share in the victories with a nearly as great Midwestern city,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wrote in her personal letter.
There was concern, however, about Chicago’s persistent problem with violent crime. Statistics showed it was declining but still higher than pre-pandemic levels, making it an issue in the recent mayor’s race and a concern that it could put Democrats in a hot spot for their handling of it.
What ended up helping Chicago, according to a person close to the city’s bid, were two recent Democratic wins on the issue of abortion. The first was for a state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, which will likely help block an 1840s abortion ban on the books. The second was Whitmer repealing the state’s 1931 abortion ban. Each affirmed that progressive politics continues to have a strong foothold in the Midwest.
“It was the Blue Wall,” the person said.
Money mattered, too. Pritzker, who has been integral in pushing for Chicago, assured that the DNC would not go into debt holding a Chicago convention, which was a problem in 2012 when the convention in Charlotte, N.C., ended up millions in the red.
The Illinois governor, who self-financed his past two elections, enlisted his sister, former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, businessman Michael Sacks, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea to help fund Chicago’s effort. Jerry Reinsdorf and Rocky Wirtz, who head the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, respectively, also were part of Chicago’s pitch to the DNC. Both teams play at the United Center, where the convention will be held. It’s the same location as the 1996 Democratic Convention.
“We are ready for a repeat performance,” they said in a joint statement.
Still, as the time approached for Biden to make a decision, he and other party officials were holding out for one last domino to fall: the Chicago mayor’s race on April 4. Those close to Biden say there was some internal hand-wringing about hosting the convention if mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, who had previous ties to Republicans and had been publicly critical of prominent Democrats, won. It wouldn’t have been a deal-breaker, according to a person involved in the talks, but it could have been a complicating factor.
When Brandon Johnson emerged with a clear victory in an April 4 runoff election, it further cemented the city’s reputation as a union town (Johnson is a former organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union) and put Chicago’s DNC bid in the driver’s seat.
Johnson himself talked directly to Biden in recent days about the convention during a private call in which the president congratulated the new mayor.
“We pulled out all the stops,” said Lightfoot. “Anybody who had a connection in the White House, in the president’s orbit, we were in their ear saying ‘Chicago, Chicago, Chicago.’”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 12, 2023
Pritzker, allies to DNC: We’ll cover the bill — if Chicago gets the ’24 convention

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But what’s gone largely unsaid — at least officially — is the governor’s own riches.
JB Pritzker, a billionaire with presidential potential, is a noted philanthropist and a prolific Democratic donor who cut checks last year for incumbent governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic parties in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Pritzker’s team is hoping to lure the party to Chicago with what’s essentially a financially risk-free 2024 convention. Federal funds don’t generally cover conventions, though security for the U.S. Secret Service is funded through a federal grant for as much as $50 million to pay for, among other things, additional police presence. So having a billionaire governor as a stopgap could be alluring.
“The governor has spoken directly to Joe Biden and committed that Chicago has the ability to fund the convention,” Natalie Edelstein, a spokesperson for the Chicago bid, told POLITICO.
Conventions are costly affairs. When the 2012 Democratic convention wrapped, Democrats still owed money on everything from operational expenses to construction work and modifications made to the Time Warner Cable Arena. To deal with the $8 million bill, the city of Charlotte secured a $10 million line of credit from Duke Energy, an electric utility in the region. But Democrats didn’t repay Duke, which claimed the money as a business expense, drawing criticism for leaving shareholders to foot the bill.
Those organizing Chicago’s bid expect the price tag to run between $80 million and $100 million.
A priority for Chicago and Atlanta is fundraising, which relies on four pillars: organized labor, national corporations, political donors and local businesses and leaders.
“If one of those entities is not participating, it becomes almost impossible to fundraise,” said a Democratic strategist who’s consulted on conventions.

President Joe Biden has already sought to nudge his party south, pushing South Carolina up the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, and awarding the convention to Atlanta would bring more attention to Georgia, which swung his way in 2020. Labor leaders in New York have also tried to spike Atlanta over its dearth of unionized hotels and the idea that such a pro-union president would take the convention to a right-to-work state.
Still, some Midwestern Democratic elected officials have recommended Chicago to the DNC, according to letters written by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others.
A potential strike among food workers at Chicago’s United Center, which would be the centerpiece location of the convention, caused some recent concern about the viability of the bid. But the tensions appear to be close to a resolution. UNITE HERE Local 1 and Levy Restaurants have reached a tentative agreement, and union members are expected to ratify it in the coming days.
The effort to bring the Democratic convention to Chicago is also reminiscent of the city’s business community stepping up in 2009 for an ill-fated bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.
But another undercurrent around Chicago’s push for 2024 attention is the persistent concern about the city’s crime, which upended the mayor’s race this winter. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was seen as a strong voice to represent the city in a convention, was bumped from the runoff, leaving two candidates at the extreme ends of the Democratic Party about public safety and policing.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 14, 2023
DNC votes to shake up presidential primary calendar

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Iowa, which has held its caucuses first since 1972, will fall out of the early nominating process altogether.
“We are overdue in changing this primary calendar,” said Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, who has led her state’s effort to join the early window for almost two decades. “No one state should have a lock on going first.”
The DNC reopened the presidential nominating calendar earlier this year, under pressure from both inside and outside the party to diversify the voters who get to participate early in the process. In December, Biden recommended his preferred slate, giving a particular nod to states like South Carolina and Georgia that gave him a boost in his 2020 presidential bid. It also nearly eliminates any path for a potential Democratic primary challenge ahead of 2024 by elevating states that represent the president’s base of support.
The vote comes on the heels of a rare joint appearance by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in back-to-back speeches Friday night, previewing the likely 2024 ticket as the pair road tested campaign one-liners and themes of attack against the GOP.
But there are still logistical challenges that Democrats must face before implementing the new lineup, particularly around New Hampshire and Georgia, where Republican-controlled legislatures and governors stand in the way of changing the primary dates.
Resistance out of New Hampshire is particularly fierce, where elected officials and party leaders insist that they cannot comply with the DNC’s new calendar because it directly conflicts with state law, which requires them to host the first presidential primary one week before any other state. They have vowed to hold their contest first regardless of the DNC’s decision.
On Saturday morning, the New Hampshire and Iowa Democrats made a final appeal to DNC members, urging them to reconsider the proposal. But it did not change the vote.
“This is not about New Hampshire’s history or state pride. This is about a state law that we cannot unilaterally change,” said Joanne Dowdell, who represents New Hampshire on the Rules and Bylaws Committee.

She also raised the possibility that if Biden doesn’t file in New Hampshire, a potential sanction against the state, “it could provide an opening for an insurgent candidate” who could “potentially win the first presidential primary of 2024, something that no one in this room wants to see.”
But some DNC members pushed back on New Hampshire, including Leah Daughtry, a Rules and Bylaws committee member who said she’s “heard a lot about a state law” that “somehow gives some people a divine right of privilege,” but “none of that is more important than what the party says it wants in its process.”
Though the DNC members approved the calendar on Saturday, there are still several outstanding questions that linger. POLITICO lays out what’s still ahead for the Democratic presidential calendar:
Sanctions delayed
Even though Democrats approved the new calendar on Saturday, there’s no guarantee it will hold in 2024. New Hampshire and Georgia haven’t moved their primary dates yet. Earlier this month, the Rules and Bylaws committee granted the pair extensions to June 3, which has also kicked any discussion of sanctions against those states that don’t comply to the summer.
Each state faces different challenges. New Hampshire Democrats have vowed that they will hold their first-in-the-nation primary, arguing that they are “willing to withstand” the consequences as “long as the penalties don’t have an impact on our candidates,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
But it’s not clear the severity of the sanctions the DNC might levy against New Hampshire. Last year, the Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to strengthen their penalty power over states that jump the line. Not only will those states automatically lose half their delegates, the DNC also broadly empowered the national party chair to take any other “appropriate steps” to enforce the early window.
Georgia, meanwhile, faces an even steeper uphill climb. Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, sets the state’s primary date, and his office already ruled out splitting the Democratic and Republican primaries into two different dates. The office also said it wouldn’t schedule a primary that jeopardizes delegates for either party.
Any changes would also need “to be equitable to both political parties,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs last month.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp also announced last month that he wouldn’t support any changes.
Should Georgia fail to move its primary date, then it would fall out of the early window, shrinking the number of early states from five to four.
How will Republicans respond?
Reordering the DNC’s primary calendar unlinks Democrats from Republicans, which have held nearly identical line ups since 2008. The Republican National Committee, which has an open presidential primary contest in 2024, voted last year to affirm its current early-state slate of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. They also could impose sanctions on states that choose to jump the line.
“The RNC unanimously passed its rules over a year ago and solidified the traditional nominating process the American people know and understand,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in a statement released soon after the DNC’s vote. “The DNC has decided to break a half-century precedent and cause chaos by altering their primary process, and ultimately abandoning millions of Americans in Iowa and New Hampshire.”
For Michigan Republicans, that could be particularly problematic since they now face a Democratic-controlled state legislature and governor’s mansion. Last week, Michigan’s legislature passed a bill to change the state’s primary date, which is expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
An RNC party aide noted that states have until Oct. 1 to alert the RNC for how they plan to allocate their delegates, and “if Michigan’s primary date violates our rules, the state party can choose to hold its own process on a compliant date or accept the delegate penalty,” the aide continued.
Doing this again in 2026
Democrats will revisit the early nominating calendar ahead of 2028, reopening the application process to states to be a part of the early window. But it could present a bigger challenge to Democrats, who are expected to face an open presidential primary in 2028, potentially making it harder for the party to impose sanctions against states or candidates who seek to go outside the approved calendar.
It’s not yet clear how the 2024 calendar might set a precedent for 2028, but “those three states will have experience,” Daughtry said, referring to South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan, the three states that are likeliest to appear in the early window in 2024.
“To the extent that experience running an early primary is a plus, that’s a plus,” Daughtry said.
New Hampshire’s approach in 2024 could also impact its ability to regain entry to the early window in 2028, several DNC members noted privately.
But Buckley said that “it’ll be an open presidential race,” which will change the dynamics and incentives for candidates to campaign in New Hampshire, and “we’ll have that conversation in 2026 and 2027.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 4, 2023
‘Are you with me?’ Biden previews re-elect campaign at DNC

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Biden’s campaign rhetoric on Friday night doesn’t necessarily mean a formal announcement is imminent, as Democrats expect an announcement in late March or April. But the DNC has already hired several communications rapid response directors who will be deployed to the four Republican early states and Florida, according to a party aide.
“We have momentum,” Harris said in her speech. “And now, let’s let the people know this is what they voted for.”

Vice President Kamala Harris greets President Joe Biden as he walks onstage during the Democratic National Committee winter meeting on Feb. 3, 2023, in Philadelphia.
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Democrats are also eager to present a united front, hoping to contrast themselves with a Republican Party that is struggling with its own intra-party drama and a divided presidential field.
Even though former President Donald Trump announced another presidential run last year, several other GOP candidates are still expected to launch their own bids. Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley is expected to launch her presidential campaign in two weeks, while Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) will kick off a “listening tour” in South Carolina and Iowa. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also planning stops in South Carolina, an early presidential nominating state. And last weekend, the Republican National Committee closed out its own winter meeting with a contentious chair’s race.
“It makes sense for them to come here, talk to the party, as a ticket, and both of them make the case, heading into the State of the Union,” said Mo Elleithee, a DNC member, citing Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, another high-profile, message-testing vehicle.
“It’s feeling like showtime,” Elleithee added.
It’s also a marked contrast from Biden’s standing a year ago, when his legislative agenda appeared stalled, inflation continued to spike and Democrats privately worried about Biden’s 2024 prospects.
In his speech, Biden ticked through Democratic priorities accomplished during his first term, including lowering the cost of prescription drugs, investing in combating climate change and appointing the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. He also laid out a number of policy goals for a potential second term, including banning assault weapons, codifying Roe v. Wade and strengthening voter access laws — a policy wish list that’s not currently possible with a divided Congress.

“America is back,” Biden said, “and we’re leading the world again.”
Biden and Harris also veered into sharper attacks on Republicans, returning to themes that they regularly hit ahead of the 2022 midterms by tying the GOP to extremism and election denialism.
In 2022, Harris said, “we defeated ‘Big Lies’ and extremism,” but “extremist so-called leaders” are still banning books and “criminali[zing] doctors.”
“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden said. “These aren’t conservatives. These are disruptive people. They intend to destroy the progress we made.”
Mark Longabaugh, a Democratic strategist who served as a senior adviser on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 bid, said the Democratic Party “feels like this worked for them in the 2022 elections,” and “I’m guessing they’ve got a certain amount of research that shows that it continues to be a salient message.”
Biden and Harris also appeared at a Democratic fundraiser Friday afternoon, where Biden told donors that Democrats have to “lay out what we’ve done, tell them what more we have to get done and how we’re going to pay for it.”
The three-day DNC gathering will culminate on Saturday with a vote to dramatically upend the presidential nominating calendar. The proposal, recommended by Biden, would elevate South Carolina to a coveted first-place position and eliminate Iowa from the early window. It would also seek to add Georgia and Michigan to the early nominating process.
The proposal has faced significant pushback from New Hampshire Democrats, who have waged a public battle against their state’s position in the lineup, which would put them three days after the South Carolina primary and on the same day as the Nevada primary.
“We’re in an impossible, no-win situation,” said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley at a press conference on Friday afternoon, citing the Republican-controlled legislature and GOP Gov. Chris Sununu’s opposition to repealing or changing the state’s century-old law that requires them to be the first-in-the-nation primary.
“It seems odd we’d be punished for something that’s completely out of our control,” he said.
They also stressed that by forcing New Hampshire out of compliance with its own state law, it would “give Republicans an opportunity to out-organize us” and “create a perfect storm to hurt Biden and Democrats all the way down” the ticket, Buckley said.
But the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, the group charged with recommending the new line up early states, delayed any talk of sanctions against New Hampshire by granting them an extension until June 3 to comply with the DNC’s requirements. Georgia, another state controlled by a Republican governor and legislature, was also granted an extension.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 4, 2023
Dems’ new primary calendar nabs support from Southern DNC members

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“The past few elections have made it abundantly clear that the South is the new Democratic battleground, and by starting the presidential nominating process in South Carolina and incorporating Georgia into the early lineup, our party will only strengthen its commitment to these critical voters,” the statement reads in part. “The road to the White House runs through the South, and this calendar will ensure that the Democratic nominee is fortified for the general election.”
The statement is another sign of Democratic Party leaders smoothing out the path for Biden’s plan ahead of Saturday’s vote. The changes would remove Iowa and its caucuses from their longtime first-place status and challenge New Hampshire’s place as the first primary, though it would still be behind just one other state in South Carolina.
There’s still some pushback from New Hampshire Democrats about their new position in the order — splitting the second place slot with Nevada, ahead of new early states Michigan and Georgia. And a few Democrats, including Bernie Sanders’ former campaign manager Faiz Shakir, have raised concerns about putting South Carolina, a solidly red state, in first place.
In an op-ed, Shakir suggested putting North Carolina first, but North Carolina Democrats did not apply to be a part of the early window and one of North Carolina’s DNC members, John Verdejo, signed on to the statement of support for South Carolina.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 31, 2023
DNC members fire back over New Hampshire’s complaints about primary changes

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“It does not help us. It doesn’t help the party … to have this divisiveness and to share it in public,” said Lee Saunders, a member of the committee and a labor union president. “We should never talk like that within the DNC.”
Last week, the New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told POLITICO that losing his state’s first-in-the-nation primary status “had never been broached to us by anybody of influence within the party,” including by “anybody in a top position at the White House.” Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan have also taken to the cable news airwaves and op-ed pages to express their disappointment and frustration at the change.
“I was also taken aback and, quite frankly, shocked that this was somehow unexpected,” said Leah Daughtry, another DNC member. “I have been at every rules meeting, and to my recollection, it has come up at every single meeting that we have had.”
The DNC reopened the party’s presidential nominating calendar earlier this year, requiring all states, including those who have long held early positions, to apply or reapply for that status. This came after the current lineup faced criticism for failing to reflect the racial diversity of the Democratic Party. In December, the DNC’s rules committee voted nearly unanimously for Biden’s slate of recommended states, booting Iowa from the early states and further elevating South Carolina.
On Wednesday night, the rules committee voted to approve extensions for both New Hampshire and Georgia to comply with requirements to be early Democratic states, after both states have failed so far for different reasons. Georgia, for its part, has a far more difficult path to changing its primary date, as the Republicans in charge of state government there have shown little interest in bucking the Republican National Committee’s current slate of early states, which includes Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
New Hampshire, meanwhile, has also resisted these changes, arguing that pushing South Carolina before New Hampshire conflicts with their state law, which requires New Hampshire to set its primary date before any other in the country.
The new calendar will go to a full vote before the DNC in Philadelphia next week.
On Wednesday night, DNC members attacked the century-old state law that is New Hampshire’s primary defense for maintaining its first-in-the-nation status.

“Hanging their argument on this 100-year-old privilege, for me as an African American woman, is quite disturbing in as much as this law was passed even before Black people had the right to vote,” Daughtry said.
Mo Elleithee, another DNC member, also noted that while New Hampshire has technically represented the first primary, “let’s be real — it has been viewed as the second in the nation contest” after Iowa, which traditional held a caucus.
“Based on our proposal, it is still the second-in-the-nation contest,” Elleithee continued.
New Hampshire’s sole defender on the committee, Joanne Dowdell, reiterated the arguments that New Hampshire Democrats have made publicly about why they are unable to comply with the DNC’s requirements, especially expanding its voter access laws with a Republican-controlled legislature and GOP governor.
“The reality of having a bill pass … it doesn’t exist in this Republican-led majority,” Dowdell said, noting that the DNC has “put New Hampshire Democrats in a no-win position.”
She also suggested that if Biden “declines to file in the New Hampshire primary, he may lose the first presidential primary in 2024,” which would “create an unnecessary distraction” in his reelection campaign. It’s an implicit acknowledgment of potential party sanctions that might be levied against New Hampshire, should it still hold its contest before South Carolina.
“This is not how any of us would like to kick off a reelection campaign,” she added.
Hours before the committee met, the University of New Hampshire released polling, taken earlier this month, showing Biden with just 18 percent support for a 2024 Democratic presidential primary bid, losing to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has 23 percent support (and who, to be clear, is not challenging Biden for the nomination). In the poll, Biden is tied with Warren, who also earned 18 percent support and is not running for president.
Even though Dowdell sought further discussion of sanctions, urging the committee to lay out what they might be, the committee did not continue the meeting. Instead, they voted to adjourn.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

January 26, 2023