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    Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Demean Trump Voters

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    Some of the best advice Democrats have received recently came from Bill Clinton in his speech at the Democratic National Convention.First, he warned against hubris: “We’ve seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn’t happen, when people got distracted by phony issues or overconfident.” That’s something that any Clinton understands in his — or her — gut.Second, related and even more important, he cautioned against demeaning voters who don’t share liberal values.“I urge you to meet people where they are,” said Clinton, who knows something about winning votes outside of solid blue states. “I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don’t disagree with them if you do. Treat them with respect — just the way you’d like them to treat you.”That’s critical counsel because too often since 2016, the liberal impulse has been to demonize anyone at all sympathetic to Donald Trump as a racist and bigot. This has been politically foolish, for it’s difficult to win votes from people you’re disparaging.It has also seemed to me morally offensive, particularly when well-educated and successful elites are scorning disadvantaged, working-class Americans who have been left behind economically and socially and in many cases are dying young. They deserve empathy, not insults.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Fashion and the Convention

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      The Times’s fashion critic explores the deliberate choices behind politicians’ outfits. Every time discussions of fashion intrude on discussions of politics, as they do in moments of high pageantry such as our national party conventions, a certain amount of freaking out ensues. Sexist!, the lament generally goes. Superficial! (That’s the nice version.)But here’s the thing: There’s a reason we refer to “the national stage” and the “theater of politics.” Costume is an intrinsic part of any drama, for both the stars and the supporting cast. It is woven into the creation and communication of character.We make instant judgments about one another based on the images we see. It’s human instinct and part of how we decide if someone is likable or believable or a leader, as political figures of all genders, from Castro to Cleopatra, have always been aware.To not acknowledge that our candidates consider how style connects to substance is to give them less credit than they are due. After all, no one can fill every moment with policy proposals. But they can always look the part. Here are seven politicians who did it most notably during the Republican and Democratic conventions.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesKamala Harris: For the biggest, most consequential speech of her life, Harris accepted her nomination as the Democratic candidate for president not in white, but in navy blue. That’s a bigger symbolic statement than it may at first appear. Since 2016, when Hillary Clinton strode onstage in her white Ralph Lauren, assuming the mantle of the women who had fought for a political voice before her, the white pantsuit has become a political trope, a way for women (Democratic and otherwise) to demonstrate solidarity and signal their opposition to Donald Trump and his policies. By making a different choice, Harris may have brought that particular historical chapter to a close. As she said in her speech, it was time “to chart a new way forward” — and she dressed the part.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harris Campaign Says It Raised $82 Million During Convention Week

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      Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign said on Sunday that it raised $82 million during the Democratic National Convention last week, the latest spurt of donor enthusiasm around a presidential bid that, according to the campaign, has now raised $540 million in the last month.National party conventions are typically big-money moments for presidential candidates, offering nominees four days of lightly mediated exposure to a broad, if partisan audience. Ms. Harris has been on a historic fund-raising tear ever since President Biden announced on July 21 that he would no longer seek the Democratic nomination. The party convention, which took place from Monday to Thursday in Chicago, was full of messaging encouraging big and small donors alike to give to Ms. Harris’s campaign.After the vice president’s speech accepting the Democratic nomination on Thursday night, the Harris campaign saw its “best fund-raising hour since launch day,” the campaign’s chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, wrote in a memo on Sunday, although she did not provide a specific amount. The $82 million total includes contributions to allied fund-raising committees with the state and national parties.The memo did not give day-by-day totals, but ActBlue, which processes online donations for many progressive causes, including Ms. Harris’s bid, reported that its platform raised $13 million on Monday, $16.5 million on Tuesday, $23 million on Wednesday and almost $37 million on Thursday.Ms. Harris’s Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, did not release similar fund-raising numbers after his party’s convention in Milwaukee last month. While he was competitive with Mr. Biden in political fund-raising through 2024, Ms. Harris opened a $50 million cash-on-hand advantage at the beginning of August, after she had ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket.The $82 million raised during the four days of the Democratic convention is roughly on par with the $81 million the Harris campaign said it raised in the first 24 hours after Mr. Biden’s decision to drop out. More

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      ‘Run, Kamala, Run’: Mention of Harris’s Father Was a Rare Homage to a Fleeting Figure

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      In her convention speech, Kamala Harris told of being inspired by her father, a prominent economist who was otherwise largely a footnote in her personal story.“Run, Kamala, run.”When Dr. Donald J. Harris uttered those words to his young daughter more than 50 years ago, he was encouraging her to whip freely through the parks of Oakland, Calif., not seek the highest elected office in the country. But in her address accepting the nomination as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris said it was these words that helped inspire her.“From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless,” Ms. Harris said.It was a rare homage to her father, a prominent economist but fleeting figure in her life who has largely been a footnote in her personal and political story. The first Black scholar to receive tenure in Stanford University’s economics department, Dr. Harris remains a professor emeritus there, and turned 86 the day after his daughter gave the most important speech of her life at the Democratic National Convention. He was not among the family members who accompanied Ms. Harris to the convention.Donald Harris held his daughter Kamala in 1965.Kamala Harris campaign, via Associated PressHer relationship with her father is a closely guarded part of Ms. Harris’s life about which she has spoken only sparingly. Her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” referenced him only a handful of times. But in presenting herself as a nominee who understands the American dream through the complex lenses of personal, familial and social struggles, Ms. Harris tapped into the totality of the experiences that forged her.That included when her parents divorced — or, as she would write in her memoir, “they stopped being kind to each other”— when she was in elementary school.“My father remained a part of our lives,” Ms. Harris wrote. “We would see him on weekends and spend summers with him in Palo Alto. But it was my mother who took charge of our upbringing. She was the one most responsible for shaping us into the women we would become.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Words Used at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions

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      From left, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images;J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press Speakers at the Democratic National Convention used more than 109,000 words over four days in Chicago this week. Their choice of words and phrases contrasts the themes and ideas of last month’s Republican National Convention. Excluding common and routine words, the most frequently spoken words at the […] More

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      Harris’s DNC Speech Seen by 29 Million, Slightly More Than Trump at RNC

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      Overall, TV viewership of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago was up 14 percent from the Republicans’ event last month.Maybe it was curiosity about the untested candidate who took command of the ticket at the last minute, or the cameos by TV-ready celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Kerry Washington. The runaway (and ultimately misguided) speculation that Beyoncé might make an appearance certainly did not hurt.Whatever the reason, Democrats notched a victory this week in one of the year’s biggest media bouts: Which party’s political convention would attract more viewers?The four-day celebration in Chicago of Vice President Kamala Harris was watched on TV by an average of 21.8 million viewers across four nights, Nielsen said on Friday. That was 14 percent more than the Republicans’ jamboree last month in Milwaukee, a four-day tribute to former President Donald J. Trump.The gap between the conventions, however, narrowed on the final day, when the presidential nominees delivered their climactic remarks. On Thursday, the night of Ms. Harris’s acceptance speech, 26.2 million people tuned in. On the evening in July when Mr. Trump spoke, in his first extensive address since surviving an assassination attempt, 25.4 million watched — a difference of only 3 percent.On its own, Ms. Harris’s 40-minute speech averaged 28.9 million TV viewers, according to Nielsen. The audience for Mr. Trump’s 92-minute address last month fell short of that figure, peaking early at 28.4 million viewers and then dwindling as the former president spoke long into the night.Live TV ratings are a useful metric of the nation’s attention economy, but they are not all-encompassing. The Nielsen data did not capture viewers who streamed the conventions on their phones or laptops. Democrats, in particular, encouraged podcasters and social media influencers to post short videos from Chicago in the hopes of reaching voters who do not watch traditional TV.This year’s convention ratings also underscored the continuing flight toward partisanship in television news.Just as Fox News crushed its network rivals in the ratings race during the Republican convention — beating MSNBC and CNN combined — the Democratic convention had one clear winner: MSNBC. The cable home of Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid, which has a fervent liberal fan base, beat every network (including ABC, CBS, and NBC) in total convention viewership.This year marked MSNBC’s largest audience for a Democratic convention since the network’s founding in 1996, a milestone achieved despite the cord-cutting that has drastically reduced the number of people who subscribe to cable in the first place.CNN has endured a tough stretch in the ratings, but its Democratic convention coverage attracted more viewers in the most coveted demographic — adults 25 to 54 years old — than any other network. (MSNBC fell just short, losing to CNN in the category by a margin of roughly 1 percent.)CNN’s new leadership is trying to appeal to more casual, and less partisan, consumers of news. It has already played a central role in this year’s campaign: It was CNN’s presidential debate in June that set off the head-spinning series of events that led to Ms. Harris’s prime-time speech on Thursday. More

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      A Campaign That Just Started Is Almost Over

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      Here’s my road map to the campaign’s remaining 74 days. If you blink, you might miss it.When Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage at the Democratic National Convention last night, she did not linger on her party’s bliss over the events of the past month. She used the opening words of the biggest speech of her life to change the subject.“OK,” Harris said. “Let’s get to business.”Harris’s crisp opening reflected the urgency of the clock, but also the hard reality of a hyper-compressed political calendar: Her presidential campaign is almost over, even though it has just begun, and both she and former President Donald Trump have hardly a second to waste in a close race.Because Harris has been atop her party’s ticket for only about a month, she and Trump have sprinted in a matter of days through campaign elements that normally take months. Harris has raced to define herself and her candidacy, running a campaign heavy on rallies and light on policy and taking questions from the press. Trump, who built a campaign premised on defeating President Biden, has struggled to change up his attacks. And now, with both conventions done and dusted, comes everything else.Much will be packed into the next 74 days, and much can change in that time. If your head is spinning, dear reader, I get it. Mine too! Here’s my road map to the rest of the campaign. If you blink, you might miss it.Coming up next: the summer doldrums.Ah, finally. The presidential race is set. It’s summertime. Candidates and voters can take a minute to breathe before the fall campaign ramps up.For like, two days.Harris is heading home to Washington this weekend, my colleagues Reid Epstein and Katie Rogers report. Trump, who is campaigning today in Las Vegas and Glendale, Ariz., also has no campaign rallies planned for Saturday and Sunday. That might be all the peace and quiet we get before …We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Transcript: Ezra Klein on Kamala Harris’s Convention Speech

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      Every Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation about something that matters, like today’s episode with Aaron Retica on the final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.Transcripts of our episodes are made available as soon as possible. They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.Kamala Harris Wants to WinThe Democratic presidential nominee’s speech on Thursday night sought to persuade.EZRA KLEIN: It is Thursday, Aug. 22. We are just back from the arena having watched Kamala Harris accept the Democratic nomination for president. She gave a speech, I think was quite extraordinary and also quite unusual by the standards of recent Democratic convention speeches. She did quite a lot, I think, to define herself to the country but also to define what kind of campaign she’s going to run — what her campaign’s theory of this election, and a victory and it would be.I’m joined here by my revered editor, Aaron Retica. Aaron, welcome back to the show.AARON RETICA: Thanks. Let’s cast our minds back to the Paleolithic era — by which I mean, you know, July — and stop for a second and talk about the Republican Convention and where things seemed while that was happening. And then we’re going to, of course, turn to the events this weekend, particularly Kamala’s speech tonight.How would you contrast — first, before we get into the nitty-gritty of what she said — the overall feeling of the Republican convention when it looked to the Republicans like they were going to win, and this week in Chicago?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More