A decorated list of speakers had delegates feeling good on the opening night of the Democratic convention. Then Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took the stage in prime time and turned it up a notch — and ventured where no other speaker dared to go.
Calling her candidacy a “rare and precious opportunity,” Ocasio-Cortez praised Vice President Kamala Harris’ for “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing hostages home.”
There was plenty of hand-wringing in the buildup to the convention over potential disruptions from activists protesting the war in Gaza. But inside the arena on day one, the demonstrators’ message seemed intentionally distant. Speakers vamped for Harris and Walz (and attacked Trump and Vance) on almost every political issue — except the war.
But Ocasio-Cortez, a vocal advocate for Palestinians and a cease-fire in Gaza, changed that.
Emerging to wild applause, Ocasio-Cortez didn’t even get out two sentences before being interrupted by chants of “AOC, AOC, AOC!” It was the welcome of a crowd favorite, and she immediately leaned in.
Yet even from AOC — a founding member of the “squad” — talk of Gaza was brief, limited to the one mention of Harris’ call for a cease-fire. She spent the rest of her speech amping up the crowd by painting a golden dream of America with Harris and Tim Walz in the White House.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock later gave an oblique reference to the war as he closed his speech, saying, “I need all my neighbors’ children to be OK. Poor inner-city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza, I need Israelis and Palestinians” to be OK, “because we are all God’s children.”
The war in Gaza has been politically toxic for President Joe Biden. Progressive activists dubbed him “Genocide Joe” for providing Israel with military aid during its offensive in Gaza. Meanwhile, Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for not being a strong enough ally of Israel.
Harris — riding a wave of enthusiasm among younger voters, many of whom oppose Israel’s war — doesn’t want any part of it onstage in Chicago. But she did want AOC, who offered a sharp contrast to GOP nominee Donald Trump, who has seen age attacks boomerang back at him since Harris replaced Biden on the ticket.
“There’s a lot of energy in this room, just like there is across the country,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who took the stage minutes after Ocasio-Cortez.
On a night largely dedicated to Biden and his allies, the elder generation of Democrats were frequently upstaged by the rising stars who stuck beside their beleaguered leader until his withdrawal.
“I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of lives,” Ocasio-Cortez said to raucous applause. “The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business. To love this country is to fight for its people.”
Amid the Clinton, Rep. Jim Clyburn and Sen. Chris Coons trifecta of party powerhouses were Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ocasio-Cortez and Warnock. The latter three were given prime-time speaking slots, with Crockett and Warnock following Clinton. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and another progressive member of Congress, also followed Clinton.
“We just have an array of talent,” Democratic strategist David Brand told NOTUS. “You put all these young, talented people out there — it’s a beautiful thing.”
During her speech, Crockett pointed to her Oversight Committee spat with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. The viral online moment, Crockett said, was “the first of many times to come” of giving Republicans a taste of their own medicine.
In a way, it was the first viral clip for a party whose presidential campaign is built on viral clips, for Harris and against Trump and Vance. And it’s why AOC and Crockett were onstage Monday night.
“Over the next 78 days, we will have to pour every ounce, every minute, every moment into making history on Nov. 5,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
Then she walked offstage as the crowd went crazy.
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.