Last Night Brings Little Exposure for Milwaukee
Tammy Baldwin and Tom Perez are only Milwaukee speakers Thursday.
Tammy Baldwin. Image from the DNC live feed.
The final night of the Democratic National Convention, when nominee Joe Biden accepted the nomination and delivered a closing speech, brought limited exposure for Milwaukee.
National party chair Tom Perez and Senator Tammy Baldwin were the only speakers to address the convention from Milwaukee.
The speeches come as a sizable media contingent formed not in Milwaukee, but Wilmington, DE where Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris delivered their speeches. But neither city is seeing anywhere close to the 50,000 person, $200 million economic impact expected for Milwaukee pre-pandemic.
Speaking from a meeting room in the Wisconsin Center, Baldwin focused her remarks on health care.
She touted the Affordable Care Act allowing individuals to stay on their parents’ insurance until the age of 26.
“We got that done. And, yes, it was a big f’n deal,” said Baldwin, praising then-President Barack Obama and Biden’s work on the Affordable Care Act. “That’s the America I know. That’s the America I love. And that’s the America we will be with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the White House.”
“Here in Wisconsin, our state motto is just one word: ‘forward.’ This November, let’s move forward and never look back,” concluded Baldwin.
Off-stage, Baldwin and Perez were joined by Mayor Tom Barrett. The mayor opened the proceedings on Tuesday.
Tuesday also featured Perez delivering brief remarks, party secretary and Milwaukee political consultant Jason Rae calling the delegate roll and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes announcing Wisconsin’s delegates.
Early in Monday’s event Congresswoman Gwen Moore addressed the convention from Milwaukee. Wednesday’s proceedings were opened by Governor Tony Evers speaking from the convention center.
Ready for @JoeBiden to give his acceptance speech! Watching with @tammybaldwin and @TomPerez #DNC2020 #DNCConvention2020 pic.twitter.com/k4UpeWykJk
— Tom Barrett (@Barrett4MKE) August 21, 2020
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More about the DNC
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- DNC: Last Night Brings Little Exposure for Milwaukee - Jeramey Jannene - Aug 20th, 2020
- With DNC as Backdrop, A Discussion of Black Liberation - Ethan Duran - Aug 20th, 2020
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- March 21, 2016 - Tom Barrett received $100 from Jason Rae
Thanks for the excellent reporting throughout the convention this week, Jeremy. As usual, you did an excellent job. I was impressed with the convention, including the many outstanding and inspirational speeches, especially by President and Michelle Obama. My only gripe is that the events of last night that took place in Wilmington didn’t take place in MKE. Kamala Harris and her husband and many others flew to Wilmington to be there last night; they just as easily could’ve flown to MKE–in fact for the Harrises it would’ve been a shorter flight. The Bidens could’ve safely flown on a private plane to MKE and Mr. Biden could’ve spoken in a hall with just reporters like he did in Wilmington. Afterwards, he could’ve gone to a parking lot say at Miller Park to wave to adoring voters in cars just like he did in Wilmington. We even have really good fireworks in MKE we could’ve launched. I certainly understand not holding a full blown convention in MKE, but after watching the events unfold last night in Wilmington, I believe the DNC made a gross mistake and lost a golden opportunity by not holding that event here in MKE. As far as I know, Delaware isn’t in play in November, but WI certainly is.
I’ll take that one step further. The Democrats may have lost WI because of their decisions.