CHICAGO—The honeymoon with Kamala Harris may be over, as protests over Israel-Palestine rocked the opening of the DNC Monday. The protests disrupted events at Navy Pier and on nearby streets patrolled by Chicago Police and the Illinois National Guard.
Convention unrest isn’t helping Democrats’ media blitz for Harris. The campaign’s digital strategy has been trying to energize voters around the party’s sea change since Harris was swapped in for incumbent Joe Biden, without a single primary election.
Meanwhile, Americans haven’t warmed to the Harris campaign’s first policy rumblings — which so far include dangerous price controls on food and downpayment help for first time homebuyers, both of which, economists warn, would backfire. Campaign stand-ins have been cagey about whether releasing firm policy commitments benefits Harris at all.
The Story
Street-level businesses in downtown Chicago girded for protests over the weekend, boarding up windows and doors in advance of this week’s Democratic National Convention. By this morning, Pro-Hamas protestors were chanting “DNC, go home!” on Chicago streets as the DNC gears up to nominate VP Kamala Harris for president, without her name appearing on any state’s primary election ballot.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas that began with the October 7 attacks on a music festival near Israel’s border with Palestine has become a flashpoint for democrats. Its fragile coalition of ethnic groups and liberal Americans is divided along the conflict’s battle lines, with increasing support for Palestinians, and Hamas, among the party’s far left. Support for Hamas has surged among several of the party’s ethnic blocs. Far left factions drove the violent summer of 2020.
Protesters chant for the DNC “to go back home!”
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 19, 2024
🎥: @Julio_Rosas11 pic.twitter.com/JgE7gdYW4R
Democrats’ problem in states like Michigan includes a now-sizable Islamic voting bloc watching the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. With narrow margins in the state for Harris, the protests could upset democrats’ hold on the state as protests continue.
NOW: disruption inside the DNC delegate welcome party on the stage at Navy Pier!! https://t.co/JjihLfuUzb pic.twitter.com/73T7SK92oY
— Angela Van Der Pluym (@anjewla90) August 19, 2024
Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate plays in some ways to the far-left elements of the Democratic coalition. Walz’s role in Minneapolis’ violent summer of 2020 riots, and his overtures as governor to ethnic voting blocs like Minnesota’s sizable Somali contingent of Muslims would in theory placate protestors over the Israel-Hamas war. But the center appears to be giving way.
BREAKING: Antifa and far-left have torn down barricades at the DNC and are swarming in back the security fencing pic.twitter.com/ZnUmD8xeRL
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) August 19, 2024
Disastrous Policy Rumblings
Meanwhile, policy is becoming a millstone around Harris’ neck. The Harris outfit has floated a number of ideas to put out the Biden-Harris administration’s economic fires.
At a closed speech to just over 100 people in Raleigh, North Carolina last Thursday, Harris floated price controls on food staples, which economists warn have led, when implemented in other countries like Soviet Russia and Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, to food producers unable to produce enough food — and food shortages.
The proposal was roundly criticized, even in legacy media. Meanwhile, betting market odds on Trump taking the presidency surged when Harris finally began to talk policy.
Trump is closing in.
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) August 17, 2024
Kamala's lead in the odds is down from 10% to 2% in just a day. pic.twitter.com/YPpXjSASJO
Ohio Stakes
Ohio is likely to stick with Trump, who carried the state in both 2016 and 2020 by significant margins. But could the DNC fracas hurt down-ballot contests like incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown’s race against GOP challenger Bernie Moreno? Brown is sitting out the convention fray in Chicago, but the protests and disruptions could demotivate democrats in Ohio.
Speaking: Jaime Harrison. Chairman of the DNC.
— Diana Gutiérrez (@DGutierreztv) August 19, 2024
There are a lot of empty seats in the United Center…protests are adding to delayed arrivals. #DNC pic.twitter.com/t0MTiBun3W
When it comes to Democrats’ shaky interest groups and ethnic coalitions, Columbus holds a sizable Somali population, with that bloc electing Democratic officials to the state legislature.
The DNC fray, and the Harris-Walz ticket straddling the line between Israel and Hamas and center and further-left factions could yet come to bear on Ohio general election turnout.
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