D.N.C.

Democrats Unite Behind Clinton as Democratic Convention Draws to a Close

Inside the raucous Wells Fargo Arena on the D.N.C.’s final day.
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By Justin Bishop/Vanity Fair.

PHILADELPHIA — Something palpable seemed to change midweek in Philadelphia, as a series of Democratic superstars took the stage to implore the American people to cast their votes for Hillary Clinton and, perhaps more important, against Donald Trump. After a rough start on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, when pro-Bernie Sanders protesters repeatedly interrupted the proceedings, the energy in the hot Pennsylvania air shifted Tuesday, when Sanders symbolically called on the assembled delegates to make Clinton the party’s presidential nominee, and again on Wednesday, as Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama made an emotional appeal for Democrats to unite behind her.

“I have never been as moved as what I saw last night, and I have never had more resolve than I have right now about defeating this bully Donald Trump,” said Frank LaMere of Nebraska, a four-time delegate who was waiting eagerly on the crowded floor of the Wells Fargo Center as he prepared to watch Clinton’s much-anticipated keynote address Thursday evening, the last night of the Democratic convention.

The night before, the convention floor had been riveted as the D.N.C’s marquee speakers—Biden and Obama among them—had alternated between intense optimism and grave solemnity over the future of the country, uplifting and energizing the crowd in equal measure. “Just listen to me a second without booing or cheering. I mean this sincerely, we should really think about this,” Biden implored, a sea of red “Joe” signs stretching out before him. “This is a complicated and uncertain world we live in. The threats are too great, the times are too uncertain, to elect Donald Trump as president of the United States.”

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent and billionaire who provided a fitting foil to Trump, had taken the stage next, drawing upon his own business acumen to tear down the Republican’s neophyte nominee. “I understand the appeal of a businessman president,” he acknowledged. “The bottom line is: Trump is a risky, reckless, and radical choice,” he pleaded. Obama, whose stirring speech was the high point of Wednesday’s lineup, echoed that point. “America is already great. America is already strong,” he intoned. “And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump.”

The mix of seriousness and civility found a receptive audience. “There was no bashing. Of course they said things about the other candidate, but it was all about moving forward,” Lauren Murphy, a New Jersey delegate with cropped gray hair, told me Thursday afternoon. “Everything was serious, but positive. The key word is ‘positive.’”

Biden’s, Bloomberg’s, and Obama’s speeches lacked the glowing warmth of Michelle Obama’s think-of-the-children address on Monday, or Bill Clinton’s meandering romantic comedy routine on Tuesday. But their intense focus on the high stakes of the upcoming election infused the convention hall with a newfound sense of unity that had been missing just days earlier. A loud handful of Bernie supporters had spent Monday yelling accusations of betrayal—their cries caught by the microphones and broadcast live on national television—and stormed out in anger Tuesday to stage a highly visible demonstration outside the media tent. (“I’m not supposed to really dwell on that, because they said that the media’s going to try to make a big deal of it,” Florida delegate and Hillary loyalist Tony Silva noted wryly afterward.)

Both protests seemed far away on Thursday, as the Wells Fargo Center readied itself for Clinton’s closing argument before launching into the general election against Trump. An unexpected rainstorm opened up over the stadium, establishing a suitably somber drizzle after several days of sunny heat. The gathering delegates, trudging into the convention hall wearing disposable plastic ponchos, were subdued but steeled after three days of high-octane excitement, with the older ones wondering aloud about the identity of Katy Perry, who was slated to perform in a few hours’ time (“I think she’s a Britney Spears type,” said one middle-aged woman). Perry may have been scheduled at just the right time: after the roiling anger of Monday and the dire warnings of Wednesday, the Democrats needed one final jolt of energy to get them excited for the candidate herself.