CHICAGO—The Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) four days of speeches, musical performances, and delegate celebrations wrapped last night, culminating with Vice President Kamala Harris’s coronation as the party’s presidential nominee.
Harris, in her speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke about her life, her vision for a future America, and her goal to unite a divided country.
Presidential candidate and US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the 2024 DNC held in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 22, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
“Our nation, with this election, has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans,” Harris said.
The convention also featured three past and current presidents, with speeches from Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
Both Obama and Clinton spent considerable time lauding Biden, with Clinton saying he “did something that’s really hard for a politician to do. He voluntarily gave up political power.”
Abortion was a key topic for Democrats during the 2024 DNC.
Perhaps the most discussed topic of this year’s DNC was former President Donald Trump.
Clinton and Obama both took shots at Trump, while many speakers linked him to Project 2025, despite his attempts to distance his campaign from the Heritage Foundation, which authored it.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz criticized his adversary, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for writing the foreword in an upcoming primer book on Project 2025 from Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
While much of the DNC was light on policy discussions, Thursday saw strong appraisals for the United States’s military support for countries like Israel and Ukraine.
Harris vowed to stand with Ukraine “to fight back against Russia” and to make sure “America, not China” dominates the competition for the 21st century.
As expected, large groups of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied the streets of the Windy City in what was feared to be a repeat of the violent 1968 DNC.
There were multiple arrests and clashes with the police, but protest activity waned by Thursday evening.
Numerous celebrities came out to speak or perform for Harris and the Democratic Party, including Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Steve Kerr, and John Legend.
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—Jacob Burg, Nathan Worcester
SCOTUS HANDS REPUBLICANS PARTIAL WIN
The Supreme Court has partially granted the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) request to stay a lower court order blocking enforcement of an Arizona law requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.
On Aug. 22, the justices left in place a block on other provisions of the law that stopped individuals from voting if they failed to provide evidence of citizenship.
The brief order didn’t elaborate on the justices’ reasoning but showed a Court divided as the nation headed towards the 2024 presidential election. The case is poised to play out in the Ninth Circuit but could return to the justices with an updated ruling.
Five of the justices voted to approve the request with three—Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito—willing to grant the request, which was for an emergency stay, in full.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, would have denied the request in full, according to the order.
The lawsuit underscored the high stakes surrounding election reform before voters head to the polls in November. The RNC’s request would have blocked 41,000 Arizona voters from casting their ballots.
Arizona is considered a swing state, which President Joe Biden won by fewer than 11,000 votes in the 2020 election with former President Donald Trump. State data showed that 27 percent of the 41,352 voters in question were registered Democrats, 15 percent were Republicans while more than half, 54 percent, were independent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision to block Arizona’s voting and registration requirements. A 2–1 panel held that a consent decree from 2018 required the state to accept applications for registration even if proof of citizenship wasn’t provided.
The RNC told the Supreme Court that the Arizona Legislature had superseded that decree when it passed its own law on the issue. It initially asked for an emergency stay with its application to Justice Elena Kagan on Aug. 8.
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar responded with a brief that argued the state law conflicted with The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 because it didn’t accept a standard federal form for registering voters for federal elections.
The RNC emphasized Arizona’s role in protecting its elections. It said that “no decision of this court has given Congress the power to displace state rules for registering and voting in presidential elections.”
—Sam Dorman and the Associated Press
BOOKMARKS
Democrats are largely unfazed by the prospect that Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could join forces with Trump, The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord and others reported. But some revealed to l that they do have third-party concerns, particularly with candidates running to the party’s left.
Despite ongoing rumors that the end of his campaign is near, Kennedy is keeping up his fight to get on all 50 state ballots, The Epoch Times’ Jeff Louderback reported. It comes at a time when rumors are circling that Kennedy’s departure from the race is imminent.
The Arkansas Supreme Court denied a motion that would put a measure granting the right to an abortion in the state on the ballot, The New York Times reported. The organizers fell over 10,000 signatures short of the threshold they needed to put the measure on the ballot.
A years-long rift between Trump and George Gov. Brian Kemp may be coming to an end. The Hill reported that the two men exchanged supportive comments about the other after years of public feuds between the two.
