“It wasn’t 1968. It wasn’t even close,” the New York Times reports.
“After months of anticipation, planning and vows of mass protest in Chicago that called to mind the tumult of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the demonstrators who challenged the Democratic Party over the conflict in Gaza remained largely in the background.”
“Now, let’s go win this fucking thing.”
— David Plouffe, on X.
“Donald Trump moved to bury the hatchet with Gov. Brian Kemp after he revived his long-running feud with the Georgia Republican at a rally in Atlanta earlier this month,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Trump thanked the second-term Republican governor on social media Thursday ‘for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important’ for his reelection bid.”
“A representative for Beyoncé says the singer will not attend the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Said the Grammy-winning star’s rep: “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there. The report of a performance is untrue.”
Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) said he does not plan to throw his support behind her or any candidate in the race for the White House, the Billings Gazette reports.
Said Tester: “I’m not going to endorse for the presidential and I will tell you why, because two reasons. No. 1, I’m focused on my race. And No. 2, folks want to nationalize this race, and this isn’t about national politics, this is about Montana. It’s about making sure we have a Montanan back in Washington, D.C., representing Montana values. And so that’s why.”
“Beyoncé is in Chicago, and getting ready to pop out for Kamala Harris on the final night of the Democratic National Convention,” TMZ reports.
“Multiple sources in the know tell us Queen Bey will be the big surprise performer as VP Harris officially accepts the Democratic party’s nomination to run for president.”
“Donald Trump on Thursday said the cost to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is justified and would not rule out separating families made up of citizens and noncitizens,” NBC News reports.
Said Trump: “It’ll cost trillions of dollars to keep these people, and I’m talking about in particular starting with the criminals. That’s costing us a lot more than deporting. But we have no choice, regardless, we have no choice. We’re going to have to deport.”
“When pressed, Trump provided no details on how he would pay for his plan, which could cost billions of dollars to implement at scale.”
Nate Silver: “In polls that test the ballot both with and without RFK, which our model diligently tracks as part of the adjustment it makes for his presence on the ballot, we find Trump losing an average of 3.0 points when Kennedy is included, and Harris losing 2.4 points.”
“In other words, he takes more of his votes than Trump (about 55 percent) than Harris (45 percent)… Given that he has just 4 percent of the vote now, having Trump regain 55 percent of those votes would only make a net difference of 0.4 points instead.”
“And there are some other complications. One is that polls that include RFK Jr. usually also include other third-party candidates, like Jill Stein and the Libertarian Chase Oliver. Some of RFK’s votes would probably go to those candidates instead, rather than one of the major party candidates.”
“The Democratic National Convention maintained a relatively steady audience for the third consecutive night, averaging 20.2M viewers Wednesday across 12 networks,” Deadline reports.
“That’s a loss of just a few hundred thousand compared to Night 2’s 20.8M, and it’s still just a bit higher than the 20M for the first night.”
“The DNC is still averaging an audience that is much larger than that for the Republican National Convention, which neared 18M viewers on its third night.”
Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the Democratic nomination for president.
Meanwhile, speculation is running rampant about a possible “surprise guest.”
For a detailed list of speakers, see the DNC’s schedule.
Leave your reactions in the comments.
“The vice president knows the pressure is on for her convention speech, those close to her say,” NOTUS reports.
“But she has long had a vigorous process to face it.”
“People who have written for Harris or been part of the process before denote the arduous and sometimes daunting process that writing a speech for any principal, but certainly the vice president, requires. That’s in part because of the historic nature of her presidential bid and Republicans’ insistence on highlighting any small slipup or mistake.”
A new Data for Progress poll shows Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump nationally in a multi-candidate field, 47% to 43%.
In a head-to-head match up, Harris leads 49% to 46%.
Key takeaway: “The voters who are undecided between Harris and Trump today are not the same voters who were undecided between Biden and Trump in May. Using the same methodological approach, updated to replace Biden with Harris, we are now collecting a smaller number of swing voters in our surveys, a sign that Harris has already captured a number of voters who were not certain to vote for Biden. “
“Vice President Kamala Harris taped three interviews this week at the Democratic National Convention, but none were with any of the 15,000 credentialed journalists here in Chicago. Instead, they were with social media influencers, including Vidya Gopalan, a North Carolina mom known to her 3.4 million TikTok followers as @queencitytrends,” CNN reports.
“Gopalan, who largely posts lifestyle content, asked Harris to reflect on their shared Indian heritage and her memories of spending time in India with her grandfather. The video, posted Tuesday, has more than 1.9 million views.”
“That engagement represented a recognition from the Harris campaign that reaching voters in the countdown to Election Day will require Democrats to go beyond a traditional media strategy and into new spaces.”
“The Arkansas Supreme Court blocked an abortion-rights initiative from appearing on the state’s ballot this fall, upholding a July decision by the secretary of state to reject the measure for not following rules related to paid signature gatherers,” NBC News reports.
“The decision means Arkansas will not be among the handful of states where voters will have the chance to weigh in on abortion-related measures on the November ballot, as the court’s majority opinion denies “further relief” to the group behind the proposed constitutional amendment.”
A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tied among likely voters, 47% to 47%.
In the gubernatorial race, Josh Stein (D) leads Mark Robinson by 14 points, 48% to 34%.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) did not receive the warmest welcome when he tried to order donuts from a shop in Georgia.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.