Dixon delegate recalls DNC attendance experience

DIXON – The theme of the week at the Democratic National Convention was freedom, one local delegate said.

“It’s been an amazing week,” Lee County Democrats member Sarah Bingaman said. “It’s been magnificent, frankly.”

Bingaman, of Dixon, attended the DNC, which took place Aug. 19 to 22 in Chicago, as a delegate from Illinois’ 16th Congressional District.

Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at the DNC on Aug. 22, a month after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

A virtual roll call of delegates that confirmed Harris as the nominee ended Aug. 5, two weeks before the DNC began, because some states had an early filing deadline to get a candidate on the ballot.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz shares the ticket with Harris as her selection for vice president.

“The theme of the whole week was freedom,” Bingaman said.

Under former President Donald Trump’s administration, there emerged an overwhelming feeling of loss of freedom, Bingaman said. Because Trump selected three U.S. Supreme Court justices, that feeling extended into the Biden administration, she said. Bingaman said the Democratic Party supports reproductive, election and LGBTQ+ rights.

“They delivered a message of change, and it was not just to the Democrats who have been hanging around forever,” Ogle County Democratic Party member Linda Pottinger said. “It was to independents, Republicans, anyone in the country who’s feeling like they’re not sure who they want to choose.”

Pottinger, of Oregon, watched the DNC on TV.

There are three ways Bingaman said she’ll think about the experience: emotional, social and political. She plans to put the social and emotional aspects ahead of the political, she said.

“By emotional, I mean a sense of patriotism I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Bingaman said. “It was so clear … everyone there has profound love for their country.”

From the start, the DNC was “a very joyous, happy, upbeat, optimistic experience,” she said.

Pottinger agreed with the sentiment.

“It was just inspiring,” Pottinger said. “The joy we’re all feeling and the hope … there’s just a different vibe of youth and energy, and all of that, that’s really exciting.”

Getting to socialize with other delegates during breakfast, on shuttle buses to and from events and throughout the events themselves was wonderful, Bingaman said.

The intent of the DNC is to get to know the candidates and their positions and to decide whether to support them, Bingaman said of the political aspect of the event.

Both Harris and Walz’s speeches were wonderful, Bingaman and Pottinger said.

“As always, the vice president is there to support the president’s policies,” Bingaman said. “There’s no question that Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz are totally in sync on policies.”

They introduced themselves to a larger audience of people who don’t follow politics as closely by presenting who they are, what they believe and their family lives, Pottinger said. Harris and Walz both went into additional detail about their values, which is “a good indication of how they will lead as president and vice president,” she said.

“If you watch [Harris’] speech, you can get much more of her substance because [on the floor], everybody’s cheering all the time,” Bingaman said. “You can tell she’s a prosecutor because, even when people are cheering, she keeps talking. Some politicians will wait for the cheering to die down.”

Bingaman said she’s eager to listen to Harris’ speech again without the distractions of all the cheering.

Pottinger said she hopes the DNC will allow for more conversations across political party lines.

“I think, probably, we have a lot of common ground between Republicans and Democrats in this country as far as what we’re looking for from the government and our elected leaders,” Pottinger said. “If we can have more of those conversations instead of negative-type conversations or things like that, we’ll be better as a community.”