(NEXSTAR) — Democrats kicked off their 2024 Convention in Chicago on Monday, riding a tide of momentum that has completely reshaped the party’s prospects for retaining the White House for the next four years.
The high-stakes convention comes weeks after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race amid concerns about his age, and Vice President Kamala Harris took over the Democratic ticket.
When Biden walked onto the stage to address his party Monday night, he received a hearty welcome. The crowd cheered for nearly five minutes and chanted, “Thank you, Joe.”
“Thank you,” he responded. “I love you all.”
In his remarks, Biden echoed his 2020 theme, stating that “we’re in a battle for the very soul of America,” and emphasized why Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are the most prepared to wage it.
“Because of you, we’ve had the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period,” Biden declared. And then he interjected, “I say ‘we,’ I mean me and Kamala,’” sharing the credit for his most popular successes with the vice president to whom he handed over his political operation.
Harris saluted Biden for his leadership when she made a surprise appearance at the convention earlier in the evening.
“Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation and for all you will continue to do,” she said as the arena erupted in applause. “We are forever grateful to you.”
See Harris’ full remarks in the video below:
Another speaker who received an instant standing ovation was Hillary Clinton. The former first lady and secretary of state, who lost her bid for the presidency in 2016, spent several moments waving at attendees who cheered, “Hillary.”
She then highlighted Harris’ potential to become America’s first female president.
“Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Clinton said. “On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States. When a barrier falls for one of us, it clears the way for all of us.”
Clinton also commended Biden for stepping aside, saying, “Now we are writing a new chapter in America’s story.”
Just one month ago, Republicans wrapped their convention in Milwaukee riding a wave of confidence based on a widespread polling advantage over Biden.
Surveys of key swing states showed Trump with a small edge over Biden, and national polling painted a similar picture. With Biden’s exit from the race, that polling advantage has vanished.
In the backdrop of Monday’s main event were thousands of protesters who marched toward the United Center, where the convention is being held, to voice their opposition to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Several activists who broke through a fence near the arena were detained by police.
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Harris “is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home,” during her address on the DNC stage.
Meanwhile, Democrats also looked to keep the focus on Trump, whose criminal convictions they mocked and who they asserted was only fighting for himself, rather than “for the people” — the night’s official theme.
Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow hoisted an oversized copy of “Project 2025” — a blueprint for a second Trump term that was put together by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank — onto the lectern and quoted from portions of it.
Trump has publicly disavowed any interests in the policies outlined in Project 2025, but he has close ties to its authors and campaign aides had praised its work in the past.
Democrats kept abortion access front and center for voters, betting that the issue will propel them to success as it has in other key races since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. Speakers Monday included three women whose healthcare suffered as a result of that decision, and the convention program included a video of Trump praising his own role in getting Roe struck down.
The program also honored the civil rights movement, with an appearance from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the founder of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, who is ailing with Parkinson’s disease. There were several references to Fannie Lou Hamer, the late civil rights activist who gave a landmark speech at a Democratic convention in 1964.
Hamer was a former sharecropper and a leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, a racially integrated group that challenged the seating of an all-white Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke on Aug. 22, 1964 — exactly 60 years before Harris is set to accept the Democratic nomination and become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to be the presidential nominee of a major party.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.