CHICAGO — Behind the scenes, just out of sight from the history of the first Black woman accepting her party’s nomination to be president, the final night of the Democratic National Convention was every bit of the unpredictable, logistical nightmare that has characterized much of the week in Chicago.
Full attendance could be expected on Day 4, when not only was Kamala Harris set to accept the presidential nomination, but rumors bounced for hours that Beyoncé or another major surprise guest would show up to steal the night. (They didn’t; TMZ apologized for their erroneous report.) Early in the evening, before prime-time speeches kicked off, staff working the convention temporarily closed the floor perimeter under the order of the fire marshal, who apparently warned of dangerous overflow.
Fed up with the seemingly unpredictable guidelines of floor movement, angry delegates and press argued back and forth with staff who stood firm in their marching orders. Some delegates even began to try physically pushing past convention staff but were immediately reprimanded by security.
“I am a delegate and I have a right to be in here. Let me in,” one straggler demanded.
In another chaotic scene just steps away from clogged convention floor entryways, the former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy sparred with fired-up Democrats offended by his viewpoints and… by his presence.
“Hey Vivek! Talk to me to my face, coward,” said Parker Short, the president of Young Democrats for Georgia. “Do you still think 18 to 24 year olds should have to take a civic test for the right to vote? That’s modern day Jim Crow! That’s despicable!”
“Vivek is a joke!” one attendee yelled as Ramaswamy gaggled with the press.
Ramaswamy told reporters he showed up because he doesn’t buy the “left-wing or right-wing media narratives on their face value” about what convention protesters were all about.
“The beauty of the United States, and we even saw that in the protests outside, is that you get to, as long as it’s peaceful, speak your mind freely and express your opinion even if you disagree with me, even if you don’t like me,” Ramaswamy told reporters. “So as somebody who, last year, certainly aspired to lead the country and now is supporting Donald Trump to lead the entire country, I want to show that we actually mean what we said, that we’re open to having conversations.”
A crowd of hecklers formed nonetheless, unwilling to hear out the man they considered a troll as reporters questioned Ramaswamy’s choice to enter a hostile environment.
By the time Harris was being introduced to the stage, the Secret Service had declared entryways and exits completely closed.
“If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re out, you’re out,” a staffer explained to a co-worker who had been receiving consistent complaints about floor protocol.
For a moment though, as Harris addressed the audience, an atypical stillness filled the United Center. The culminating speech drew the attention of everyone from delegates to staff to security (who spent every other speech hastily directing attendees to clear the floor areas).
Red, white and blue balloons that had been tied up on the convention ceiling all week fell in celebration over the crowd to end the night. In that final hoorah, the week’s spotty logistics seemed to matter a lot less as the party’s platform and ticket solidified.
“Terrific job. Very well delivered and a clear contrast to Donald Trump,” Rep. Ro Khanna told NOTUS as balloons fell. “She really showed she’s capable of being commander in chief and will stand for a strong national security.”
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.