'Here & Now' from the 2024 DNC in Chicago: Day Four

Frederica Freyberg:
You’re watching Democratic National Convention coverage from Chicago. I’m Frederica Freyberg. We’ll stay with News Hour coverage but we want to check in now with Here & Now’s senior political reporter Zac Schultz, who comes to us from Chicago and hi, Zac. So it is the final night of the convention and we will hear from Kamala Harris tonight speaking at length. Also U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, running for reelection, had a speaking spot tonight. You also caught up with her a couple of times today. What’d she have to say?

Zac Schultz:
Well, this is her first appearance in Chicago this week. Baldwin is a veteran campaigner, and she understands the optics of whether she should be back in Wisconsin traveling to the rural out parts of the state or whether she needed to be here for the convention, and she decided Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it was more important to be back in Wisconsin. She outperforms other Democrats in all other parts of the state that are very red. So her political instincts on this tell her she needs to be back in her home state, come down to get her speaking slot. Here’s what she had to say to the breakfast delegate this morning about her and her opponent, Eric Hovde.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin:
Wisconsinites deserve a senator who understands them, not one who insults them.
So, gut the good news is the fact that we have a choice, right? We have a choice, we get to decide between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and we get to decide between me and my opponent, and the stakes of that choice could not be higher.

Frederica Freyberg:
As you know, Baldwin is pulling ahead of her challenger Eric Hovde right now. But we also know that candidates can’t really count on early polling toward the endgame. But going forward, following this convention, what is the ground game going to look like in Wisconsin?

Zac Schultz:
Well, one part of the convention that often gets overlooked for both parties is trying to energize their delegates and volunteers, their donors, to get people excited, and that’s clearly what Democrats have been able to do here is boost some of that enthusiasm and then translate that back into energy in the field. That means knocking doors, organizing, getting people registered to vote, figuring out a game plan, because even though the election’s not for another 70 days, the work starts immediately, because this is the time of year where elections can be won or lost with ads on the air and getting people involved, especially since people start voting even earlier these days with absentee balloting. So the work will start immediately. They’ll have a party tonight but they’ll be back to work right away.

Frederica Freyberg:
And the work will continue for you as well. Thank you so much for your work there in Chicago and in Milwaukee earlier. Looking ahead to tomorrow night, you can see full coverage of the convention and the campaign ahead to November. Join Here & Now at 7 for an hour-long special, including reports from the field and important interviews on Wisconsin’s place in this election.