Arrival: William Tong with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney and New Haven Democratic Town Committee Vice-Chair Audrey Tyson,
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is keeping a daily diary for the Independent this week as he attends the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
I am writing here on Monday morning from LaGuardia Airport waiting for my flight to Chicago. I hear I missed the big Connecticut delegation party yesterday at Bradley. I’m on the same flight as my good friend Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York, so the Asian American representation is strong on American 0386.
I must admit to feeling a bit anxious. There’s a pit in my stomach that’s not going to go away until I see President Harris take her oath. There’s some real-life reckoning peeking through the confidence, optimism and joy that Democrats are riding right now.
I am concerned, of course, because I was attorney general during Trump 1.0, and in particular, during the post-election fights of 2020. I was in the ugly fight in the Supreme Court against Republican attorneys general who tried to overturn the results of the presidential election. Democratic attorneys general are girding again for the looming fight ahead.
This is my fifth Democratic National Convention, so I know how much is riding on this week. My first was Clinton-Gore 1992 at Madison Square Garden, which was a big one. (I was a Tsongas supporter.)
But of course the biggest in my lifetime was Obama-Biden 2008 at Invesco Field in Denver. (I can hear my teenage kids snickering that I am a “try hard” in this regard, which I guess I am.) Vice President Harris seems to have erased, or even commandeered, the usual post-convention “bounce” in polling that her opponent would normally expect to see after his convention.
But make no mistake, we still have a lot of work to do in Chicago. Here’s what I will be looking for:
A signature moment. Successful conventions seem to have a big moment, when someone throws and lands a haymaker, and we experience a collective KABOOM that reverberates well beyond the arena. In 1992, I remember when Gov. Clinton first showed that picture of him shaking hands with President Kennedy when young Clinton was at Boys State. When that picture flashed on the screen, the entire Garden erupted, the floor and walls were shaking, like it does when our UCONN Huskies play in a tournament game in the Garden. In 2004 in Boston, of course, Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet. And in four short years, we all poured into Invesco Field because we needed a 80,000 plus football stadium to contain all the hope and enthusiasm Obama brought to America.
A consistent message. Congresswoman DeLauro and I recently stopped in New Haven at Nica’s Market to focus on our work against rapidly increasing grocery prices. Vice President Harris’s first policy speech just this week focused on this very same issue. I am eagerly waiting for how they follow up on that message and how she is going to help families and so many of us who struggle to pay bills and push back on the high costs of food, electricity, education and college that squeeze us every single day.
Attorney General Harris. I am excited, of course, that a former attorney general is likely to be our next president. We haven’t had an AG president since Bill Clinton. We almost had an all AG ticket — Kamala very well could have chosen Govs. Shapiro, Beshear or Cooper. While that didn’t happen, I hope and expect the vice president to lean into her background as a prosecutor and the chief civil law enforcement officer of California. Talk about how she faced down organized crime. Focus on how she addressed the many challenges at the border. Demonstrate that she’s by nature a fighter, and when she’s face-to-face with the most powerful forces that threaten us, she will never back down. That is who she was as Attorney General, and that is who she will be as President.
That’s what I am looking for this week. But amidst all the energy and excitement— events and speeches and the raucousness of the convention — I also need to catch my breath.
After a tough few months, with more than our fair share of uncertainty and disruption, I want to see my fellow Democrats and Americans face to face, calmed, restored, readied. Feel their commitment and focus. On Thursday night, I will look to the vice president to take up the mantle once and for all, and assume the presidency on that stage in Chicago. And after she’s done, opened her heart, shared her vision with us, showed us her grit and strength and determination, I hope that all of us will be ready to take one more deep breath and charge.