Convention Night 1: Democrats in Array

The most important speech at the first night of the Democratic National Convention was not the headliner, President Joe Biden, but one of the warmup acts. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez delivered a surprisingly effusive and unequivocal endorsement to the party’s presidential nominee, striking a tone of unity that reverberated throughout the hall.

Party unity has not been Ocasio-Cortez’s brand. Before she was sworn in as a congresswoman, she joined climate activists for a sit-in of Nancy Pelosi’s office. Four years ago, she gave a 90-second convention address that seconded the nomination of the presidential primary runner-up, Senator Bernie Sanders, without mentioning Biden’s name. Just last year, she mused to progressive journalist Ryan Grim, for his book The Squad, about running against Biden in the presidential primaries.

Moreover, thousands of protestors outside the hall, and a handful inside the hall, were trying their hardest to sow party disunity over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war and Vice President Kamala Harris’s refusal to support an embargo on arms shipments to Israel.

Instead of joining the activists in their pressure campaign, Ocasio-Cortez praised Harris for “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bring the hostages home.” Her choice of words elided the arms embargo demand of the protestors and avoided friction with Harris, who opposes such a step. She also echoed Harris by pairing the returning of hostages with a ceasefire, implicitly placing at least some of the blame for the war on Hamas.

Ocasio-Cortez began her speech praising Harris for her “vision” and Biden for his “leadership.” This is the same person who, during the 2020 primary, said, “in any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party.” And in 2021, she voted against Biden’s infrastructure bill, insisting it should have been used as leverage to win a more sweeping Build Back Better bill. But the subsequent passage of the climate funding-heavy Inflation Reduction Act—the consolation prize from Senator Joe Manchin after killing Build Back Better—greatly impressed many progressives, and Ocasio-Cortez was no exception.

Her speech arguably was her finest ever, if the explosive reaction in the hall is a meaningful metric. And it sent a clear signal that there would be no floor mischief akin to the walkout by Sanders’s delegates early into the 2016 convention.

The only hint of mischief came during Biden’s speech when protesters in the back of the hall hoisted a “Stop Arming Israel” banner. But the protesters were too few and too far away for Biden to notice. Delegates blocked the banner with “We Love Joe” signs and the dissidents were quickly forced out of the hall with little fuss.

Biden’s speech—defiant regarding his record, magnanimous towards Kamala—checked the necessary boxes. Similar to his March State of the Union address, the convention address was cogent and brimming with data points, though lacking a narrative theme that could make the speech soar. The gruff, barking style Biden has developed in recent years was far from ideal for a presidential candidate—which is partly why the “joy,” as Governor Tim Walz routinely emphasizes, emanating from Harris campaign has been such a tonic—but it was plenty good for an aging outgoing president in the midst of passing the torch. Biden was able to remind voters both how much he delivered over the past three in-and-half-years, and why it’s time for him to retire.

Biden didn’t wallow in nostalgic reflection. But when he said, “I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you,” he surely provoked a few tears inside and outside the hall.

The outpouring of affection on the convention floor for Biden was palpable. His entrance prompted four minutes of “We Love Joe” and “Thank You Joe” chants. Yet I couldn’t help comparing that moment to the bolt of electricity that shot through the hall three hours earlier, when Harris unexpectedly stepped on the stage. The Democratic delegates are sincerely thanking Biden for his service, but they can barely wait for the convention to end so they can get to work stumping for Harris. Even Ocasio-Cortez, once ambivalent about party politics, seems raring to go.

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