CHICAGO — The Pennsylvania delegation breakfast was a sizzling topic on the second morning of the Democratic National Convention, with Democrats at the state and national levels reminding attendees of the state’s crucial importance in the 2024 election.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker spoke about the upcoming fight in an attempt to motivate delegates.
“I see a group of soldiers, and I don’t care who you are, even the strongest warriors get tired sometimes,” Parker said. “And when you get tired, you have to find a way, just like electricity works, to plug in and get your energy back. That’s why we’re coming together as Democrats from all over the country to come together here so we can remember who we are.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg briefly addressed the crowd. “Everywhere I go, I start with the last sentence I thought I would ever say in my life: My name is Pete Buttigieg, you may know me from Fox News,” he joked. Americans, Buttigieg said, “already agree” with Democrats on policy issues.
“We’re just not going to go back to what it was like to be an American back then,” Buttigieg said of former President Donald Trump’s term. “I was exhausted. And you? Every time you watched the news, it was slapping you in the face. You don’t have to be a true, flesh-and-blood Democrat to believe that we can do better, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are calling us to be better ourselves.”
Buttigieg, who was considered to be a running mate alongside Vice President Harris, also attacked Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (D-Ohio). “We need a vice president of the United States who thinks that people who don’t have kids are kid-free cat people,” Buttigieg said. “I’m a dog lover and I have two kids, and that offends me.”
Gwen Walz, the wife of vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, told the crowd that she was impressed by Pennsylvania during a bus tour she took with Walz, Harris and Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, last weekend. She elicited several fiery “Wawa!”s from the audience when she praised Sheetz.
As Gwen Walz said, the Harris-Walz ticket “wants to give everyone a chance to achieve the American dream, everyone.”
David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the Harris-Walz campaign, and the delegates — as if anyone could forget — said that “if Trump wins Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, Kamala could still win, but it would be a lot harder.”
Then there was Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker, the city’s first black mayor. Aliquippa was one of the stops on the Harris-Walz bus route last weekend, where the candidates addressed the state’s championship high school football team.
Walker ran for office because his sister shot in 2009 and the mayor at the time “treated my sister like she was nothing,” he said Tuesday. “I came in so I could influence her from the inside.” Now in his fourth term, he said being mayor is not for the lackluster of heart. “I love my community, but I can’t do this alone. Beaver County is key in this election.”
Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, the first Asian-American candidate elected to the position, said his race had the highest boost in Democratic voter turnout of any Philadelphia-area county.
Both Walker and Makhija emphasized that they are examples proving that turning previously red areas blue in Pennsylvania is possible.
“When we are for the people, for all the people, when we show up, we make history,” Makhija said, “and we elect the vice president as president.”
