With the conclusion of the Democratic Party roll call near, the Democratic Party has nominated Hillary Clinton to be the party’s presidential candidate. While the children of candidates have always played a role in campaigns, they all seem to have an outsize role in 2016 – as the adult children of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump take turns on the stump to vouch for the flawed candidates.
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There were speakers from Republicans for Hillary, and the nominee herself mentioned that appeal in her speech.
Yet hundreds of his supporters still aren’t on board. Asked what she would say to Ivanka Trump, Chelsea Clinton said: “How would your father do that?” Others stormed the nearby media tent.
As a fervent Sanders fan, Ellison said, Clinton has his full support. He noted that Sanders’ influence pushed the adoption of the most inclusive and progressive platform in the party’s history. And while Chelsea also introduced her mother at the 2008 convention, this time she will likely draw on her own new experiences as a mother to try to reintroduce Hillary Clinton to a public all too familiar with her famous family. Germany’s Angela Merkel has led her country to a new prominence. Perhaps her most high-profile moment came in 1998, when, at age 18 and during the height of her parents’ marital troubles, the three were photographed walking together, with Chelsea Clinton holding both parents’ hands. Addressing “any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch”, she said, “I may become the first woman president, but one of you is next”.
Women in Clinton’s generation see her candidacy as the capstone of decades of hard-fought battles to achieve equal rights. And it is there that numerous white, working-class voters who supported her husband, Bill Clinton, during the 1990s are now rejecting her.
He spoke of her work on behalf of poor children, African-American children kept out of schools and imprisoned with adults. “I’m going to talk as her daughter”.
Bob Nash, a friend since the 1970s and President Bill Clinton’s White House personnel director, sat on the very front row, slapping backs and trading hugs.
The more boldly Clinton acted, the more empowered women would feel, said Marqui Wilcher, 25, a supervisor at a Pittsburgh call center and a single mother.
“We’ll see”, he simply said.
While Clinton’s nomination has resulted in a similar but more subdued sense of optimism, polls indicate her precedent-breaking campaign may not translate into the numbers she would like.
Clinton’s speech is the biggest opportunity of this campaign for her to reach a primetime audience, with all of the networks beaming her address to the nation.
“This election is so important to me, because I’m now a mom”, Chelsea Clinton said.
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Throughout the convention, Democrats tried to convey the stakes of the election not only to Sanders backers but Republicans concerned about Trump’s bombastic tone and foreign policy positions. But she needs to connect with voters, and tell them how she will take it to ISIS, address their angst about the economy, and pursue change by expanding on Obama’s agenda. Yet some of Clinton’s most lauded speeches on the trail have been when she lands blows against the real estate mogul, and it’s a sure-fire approach to firing up the crowd and projecting party unity.
