CHICAGO (AP) — Before abandoning his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden presented voters’ choice in dark and ominous terms in November, painting Republican nominee Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy and questioning whether the country could survive if he won.
The Democratic Party’s new candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, is not exactly shying away from that message. In her presidential acceptance speech Thursday night, she warned of the “extremely serious” consequences of Trump returning to the White House.
But Harris is putting her own spin on what has been a central messaging strategy for Democrats. Instead of focusing on the existential threat that a second Trump term could pose to the country’s foundational institutions and traditions, she’s expanding Democrats’ definition of what’s at stake in this election: It’s about preserving personal liberties.
The new framing was on full display this week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where attendees wrote their own definitions of freedom on handmade posters and Beyoncé’s anthem “Freedom” blared over the speakers. The convention dedicated a daylong theme to “Fighting for Our Freedoms,” with special guest Oprah Winfrey suggesting that those working to preserve reproductive rights are “the new freedom fighters.”
Harris emphasized her position time and again as she summarized her promises to American voters.
“The freedom to live safely, free from gun violence in our schools, in our communities, and in our places of worship,” Harris said Thursday. “The freedom to love openly and proudly those you love. The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all other freedoms: the freedom to vote.”
Experts say the Democrats’ more positive, personal image is a sign that the party is trying to boost morale and reclaim concepts like freedom and liberties, ideas that Republicans have claimed as their own for years.
“I think everyone on the progressive side of the Democrats is hungry and ready for that positive vision,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of the national voting rights organization Fair Fight Action.
A word like freedom is “abstract enough” that people can project their own aspirations for the best version of American society onto it, said Matthew Delmont, a history professor at Dartmouth College. He said it’s a clever strategy for Democrats to borrow phrases that Republicans have long used, but it doesn’t stop Republicans from defining the term their own way.
Democrats at the convention said they understood why Biden had focused on the threat-to-democracy narrative. After all, it was his presidency that was imperiled by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election that led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the transfer of power.
“But Kamala is all about the future and she can do that,” said Holly Sargent, a 68-year-old delegate from York, Maine. “She can accept that he was a warrior who got us to where we are, and now we have to focus on the future.”
Biden, who withdrew from the race last month after urgent pleas from within his party, appeared to accept his duty as a messenger of the campaign’s new theme. In his speech at the convention on Monday, he said the results of this election will determine “whether democracy and freedom will prevail.”
While Democrats are reinvigorated into promoting personal freedom as a pillar of their campaign, Trump’s camp is unwilling to abandon the message about that word, freedom or other patriotic themes.
“It’s always good to see Americans express their love for our country,” said Trump’s senior adviser Brian Hughes. “But a party that has opened our borders to drugs and crime, diminished our standing as a force for world peace, and made it difficult for fellow Americans to afford the basic necessities of life seems the opposite of patriotic.”
Shortly after Harris’ acceptance speech, Trump attempted to poke holes in the idea that she could bring about positive change for the country, arguing that if she wanted change, she could have already accomplished it in her current role as vice president.
“Why didn’t she do the things she’s complaining about?” he told Fox News shortly after her acceptance speech. “She could have done it three and a half years ago. She could have done it tonight by leaving the auditorium and going to Washington, D.C., and closing the border.”
Harris has made abortion access and reproductive issues a major talking point since she launched her campaign last month. Democrats see focusing on people’s freedom to make their own health care decisions as a winning move on all ballots, as they take aim at Trump for bragging about nominating three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion two years ago.
The “freedom” narrative has also allowed Democrats to create a broader campaign message that encompasses an issue they often struggle to address at the national level: gun control.
In a solemn moment at the convention on Thursday, five people whose lives have been touched by gun violence — including a teacher and a parent who spoke about the massacres at Sandy Hook and Uvalde schools — stood together onstage and shared their stories. Behind them, the words “FREEDOM FROM GUN VIOLENCE” were emblazoned on the convention center’s main screen.
“By fighting for gun freedom, Vice President Harris illustrates how dramatically the calculus on this issue has shifted. What was once a political third rail is now presented as an inalienable right,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national advocacy group that works to combat gun violence.
The Democrats’ national gathering was hardly a complete about-face from their warning that American democracy would be at stake in November. Several speakers, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, stressed the need to protect America’s distinctly democratic institutions. They also offered stark reminders of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots, in which Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers and attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
There was a rare moment of silence in the crowded conference hall as video footage of the attack played on the screen.
Still, mentions of freedom outnumbered threats to democracy, and “Freedom” signs often filled the area where the thousands of delegates gathered. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, never used the word “democracy” in his address to delegates on Wednesday, while he used “freedom” eight times.
As the race enters its final months, Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher said Republicans are likely to focus on “darkness and danger, and us being invaded at the border, and you can’t afford groceries.”
Harris, meanwhile, wants voters to see the stakes of the election in terms of “the future and freedoms and not going backwards,” he said, adding that it aligns with American ideals of optimism that often tip the balance in elections.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO and a delegate to the Democratic convention, said Harris has been successful in making her case to voters in November while maintaining a sense of hope and optimism.
“This is not some esoteric democracy,” Shuler said. “It’s taking it back to the ground, showing people how it relates to them and that they can see themselves in it.”
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Swenson reported from New York and Fields from Washington. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
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