Night 1 featured a number of Democratic heavy-hitters, many of whom focused on the political and civil rights leaders who came before, making the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris possible.
Ashley Biden, the youngest child of President Biden, painted a more personal picture of her father, sharing stories of him as a parent and as a political figure.
Waters, 86, told the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black activist from Mississippi who fought for a seat at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She brought the moment full circle to Harris, who is the first Black woman to be nominated by a major party for president.
This was the congresswoman's first major convention speech, for which she was given a primetime slot. In 2020, Ocasio-Cortez addressed the DNC crowd with a pre-recorded minute-and-a-half-long endorsement for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Clinton, who lost to former President Donald Trump in 2016, walked onto stage to the song "Brave" by Sara Bareilles, and used her time at the podium to push for a message of unity and progress. She praised President Biden, calling him a "true patriot" and thanking him for his service before moving onto "a new chapter in America's story."
And a familiar face to Bulls fans of that era, NBA champion player and coach Steve Kerr, took the stage to “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project — not to drain 3-pointers, but to rally the crowd for Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison and convention chair Minyon Moore, who are both Black, kicked off the event with remarks spotlighting past Black leaders who set the stage for Harris’ run.
Weather conditions on the East Coast forced some flight cancellations to Chicago late Sunday night — including the flight that two New York delegates, Erik Bottcher and Allen Roskoff, along with Shaun Abreu, who is a member of the DNC Rules Committee, were supposed to be on.
On top of a historically short rise to the nomination, Harris' candidacy comes extremely late in the presidential campaign. Here's how it compares to past presidential tickets.
The potential election of Vice President Kamala Harris has refocused attention on Black men, a demographic that Democrats and Republicans view as persuadable but whose multifaceted experiences and political preferences often go unaddressed in public debate.
