Even before the primetime portion of the Democratic National Convention began, news was made on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
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Hillary Clinton officially became Democrats’ nominee Tuesday night at the party’s national convention in Philadelphia.
The Clinton campaign hoped the day would build momentum and goodwill to fix the deep divides that still linger after her bitter primary duel with Bernie Sanders. He moved to suspend the rules and nominate Clinton by acclamation.
Inside the convention hall, speakers came to and from the stage, as planned.
Hoopla and celebration gave way to somber moments as the convention showcased “mothers of the movement” – women whose children died in gun violence.
“We need to knock on every door, we need to get out every vote, we need to pour every last ounce of our passion and our strength and our love for this country into electing Hillary Clinton as president of the United States of America”.
Minutes earlier, former President Bill Clinton took on the role of devoted political spouse, declaring his wife an impassioned “change-maker” as he served as character witness.
Martha McKenna, a Clinton delegate from Maryland, said the night felt like a celebration for Sanders’ campaign as well as Clinton’s.
Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, told USA TODAY the goal of Tuesday’s session was to focus on her long career in public service. “So, tonight’s speech will very much be a personal one for him”, a Clinton aide told ABC.
The contest with Obama was ugly at times, but he would become one of her greatest allies, making her his secretary of state in 2009.
Update at 8:49 p.m. ET.
The Democrats’ historic handoff to Hillary Clinton has arrived with affection from one ex-president and an endorsement from an outgoing one.
“The idea that I’m going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming”, she said.
But Sanders indicated that he would not do so, because it might just upset his restive supporters.
“She has been around a long time”, he acknowledged. But she saw her daughter, the late Ann Richards, be elected Texas governor.
Around 5 p.m., Erdem Varol, 28, squeezed through the throng outside City Hall with his brand-new bride, Polina Varol, 32, by his side, and surveyed the scene.
They all wore red flowers on their lapels and stood in a semi circle.
“I married my best friend”.
“She isn’t afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. This is about saving our children”, she said.
The governor said that Sanders supporters would come on board once they considered the Supreme Court vacancies that Donald Trump would likely fill. “This is about saving our children”.
“This election is about which candidate understands the real problems facing this country and has offered real solutions – not just bombast, not just fear-mongering, not just name-calling and divisiveness”, Sanders said. They chanted for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted of the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner and serving a life prison sentence. Fifty-five people were issued citations as they tried to breach police barricades at the edge of the security zone surrounding the convention, police said. “We can do both and we will do both”. “We’re motivated to turn our state blue”, she says. “I’ve spent my life fighting to change that”.
With temperatures climbing again toward the mid-90s, Chris Scully, a 28-year-old an engineer from Troy, New York, held a “Jill Before Hill” sign outside City Hall and said he opposes Clinton because of her war record as secretary of state.
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Update at 7:59 p.m. ET. Outside the arena, several of the Sanders supporters said they were not prepared to embrace a party or a candidate they viewed as corrupt, conservative, or simply unable to win the general election.
