CHICAGO (AP) — Before President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid, he framed the voter’s choice in November in a dark and ominous way, painting Republican nominee Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy and questioning whether the country would survive if he won.
The Democratic Party’s new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, is not shying away from this message, warning in her Thursday night acceptance speech of the “very serious” consequences of Trump’s return to the White House.
But Harris is putting his own spin on what has been a central Democratic communications strategy. Instead of focusing on the existential threat that a second Trump term could pose to the country’s basic institutions and traditions, he’s broadening the Democrats’ definition of what’s at stake in this election: It’s about preserving personal liberties.
The fresh frame was on 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 loudspeakers. The convention devoted the day’s theme to “the fight for our freedoms,” and special guest Oprah Winfrey suggested that those working to protect reproductive rights are the “new freedom fighters.”
Harris drove the point home time and time again as he summarized his promises to American voters.
“Freedom lives in safety from gun violence in our schools, communities and places of worship,” Harris said Thursday. “Freedom to love who you love openly and proudly. Freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live without the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all others: the freedom to vote.”
Experts say the Democrats’ more positive, more personal appeal is a sign that the party is trying to boost morale and reclaim such terms as freedom and liberty — ideas that Republicans have spent years branding their own.
“I think everyone on the Democratic Progressive Party side is hungry and just ready for that positive vision,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, executive director of the national voting rights organization Fair Fight Action.
A word like liberty is “abstract enough” that people can project onto it their own aspirations for the best version of American society, said Matthew Delmont, a Dartmouth College history professor. He said it’s a smart strategy for Democrats to use phrases that Republicans have long used, though that doesn’t stop Republicans from defining the term in their own way.
Democrats at the convention said they understood why Biden was focused on threatening democracy. After all, it was his presidency that was jeopardized by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, which led to a violent attack on the US Capitol to stop the transfer of power.
“But Kamala is about the future, and she can do it,” said Holly Sargent, a 68-year-old representative from York, Maine. “He can accept that he was a warrior that got us to where we are and now we have to focus on the future.”
Biden, who dropped out of the race last month after urgent calls from within his party, appeared to accept his duty as the messenger of the campaign’s new theme. In his convention speech on Monday, he said the results of these elections will determine whether “democracy and freedom prevail.”
While newly reinvigorated Democrats lean on personal freedom as a pillar of their campaign, Trump’s camp is unwilling to give up on that word, freedom or other patriotic themes.
“It’s always great to see Americans express love for our nation,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes said. “But a party that has opened our borders to drugs and crime, undermined our status as a promoter of global peace, and made it harder for Americans to afford the basics of life seems to be the exact opposite of patriotism.”
Shortly after Harris’ acceptance speech, Trump tried to poke holes in the idea that he could offer positive changes to the country. He claimed that if he had wanted a change, he could have already achieved it in his current role as vice president.
“Why didn’t he do the things he complains about?” He told Fox News shortly after his acceptance speech, “He could have done that tonight by leaving the auditorium and closing the border.”
Harris, in particular, has leaned on abortion and reproductive issues as a major talking point since he launched his campaign last month. Democrats see a focus on people’s freedom to make their own health care decisions as a winning bet in the election cycle as they target Trump’s praise for appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion two years ago.
The “freedom” story has also allowed Democrats to craft a broader campaign message that includes an issue they’ve often struggled with nationally — gun control.
In a solemn moment at the convention Thursday, five people whose lives have been touched by gun violence — including a teacher and a parent who spoke about the Sandy Hook and Uvalde school massacres — stood together on stage and shared their stories. Behind them, the words “FREEDOM FROM GUN VIOLENCE” stood out on the conference center’s main screen.
“In pushing for freedom from gun violence, Vice President Harris illustrates how dramatically the calculus has changed on this issue. What used to be a political third rail has now been framed as an inalienable right, said John Feinblatt, director of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national organization that fights gun violence.
Of course, the Democratic National Convention did not represent a complete reversal of their warning that American democracy is on the line in November. Several speakers, including former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger, emphasized the need to protect Americans and distinctly democratic institutions. They also recalled the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, attacked police officers, and attempted to stop the approval of the 2020 election.
The busy congress hall shared a rare moment of silence as video footage of the attack was shown on the screen.
Still, mentions of freedom outnumbered mentions of threats to democracy, and “freedom” signs often filled the area where thousands of delegates had gathered. Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, never used the word “democracy” in his speech to delegates 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 we’re going to be attacked at the border and you can’t afford groceries.”
Harris, for his part, wants voters to see the election’s stake “in terms of the future and freedoms and not backwards,” he said, adding that it taps into American ideals of optimism that often influence elections.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO and a representative of the Democratic caucus, said Harris has been able to outline the contributions of voters in November while maintaining hope and optimism.
“This is not some esoteric democracy,” Shuler said. “It brings it down to earth and shows people how it relates to them and they see themselves in it.”
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Swenson reports from New York and Fields from Washington. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
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