American political event
The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the majority of them elected through a preceding series of primaries and caucuses, to nominate a candidate for president and vice president in the 2016 United States presidential election. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was chosen as the party's nominee for president by a 54% majority of delegates present at the convention roll call securing it over primary rival Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 46% of votes from delegates, and becoming the first female candidate to be formally nominated for president by a major political party in the United States. Her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, was confirmed by delegates as the party's nominee for vice president by acclamation.
Delegates at the convention also adopted a party platform, through a voice vote, to take to the 2016 elections, touted as the "most progressive" platform in the Democratic Party's history. The progressive shift was often credited to Sanders and the influence of platform-committee members appointed by him. The platform featured a focus on economic issues, such as Wall Street reform, stronger financial regulation, and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Liberal stances on social issues, such as a call for criminal justice reform and an end to private prisons, expansion of Social Security, and the abolition of the death penalty, also feature in the platform.
Senator Elizabeth Warren delivered the keynote address of the convention, with First Lady Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders serving as headlining speakers on the first day. Former president Bill Clinton served as headlining speaker on the convention's second day, while Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama headlined on day three. Tim Kaine gave his vice presidential nomination acceptance speech on the third day of the convention, while Chelsea Clinton introduced Hillary Clinton to give her presidential nomination acceptance speech on the final day. Clinton's speech was generally well received, and she would go on to have a 7% convention bounce in national polling. Various performers also appeared during the convention, including Elton John, Demi Lovato, Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Katy Perry. Overall attendance at the convention was estimated to be around 50,000, according to Anna Adams-Sarthou, a representative of the DNC Host Committee.
The convention was not without controversy, as it was subject to various conflicts between supporters of the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Party. In the week prior to the convention, various emails from the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the Democratic Party, were leaked and published, showing bias against the Sanders' campaign on the part of the committee and its chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Schultz subsequently resigned as chair of the committee, and thus as chair of the Democratic National Convention, with Congresswoman Marcia Fudge taking up the role of Convention chair. Some delegates in support of Sanders staged protests both outside and on the floor of the convention, opposing the nomination of Clinton and Kaine as the party's nominees for president and vice president, respectively.
Clinton and Kaine would go on to win the popular vote in the general election, but ultimately lost the election to the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence in the electoral college.
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Background.
In 2016, the Republican and Democratic conventions were held in late July before the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, instead of after the Olympics as in 2008 and 2012. One reason why the Republican Party scheduled its convention in July was to help avoid a longer, drawn-out primary battle (as in 2012). The Democrats then followed suit, scheduling their convention the week after the Republicans' convention, to provide a quicker response.
Site selection.
The formal bid process was initiated when, in February 2014, the Democratic National Committee sent out letters inquiring into the interest of a number of cities in hosting the 2016 convention. The cities were reported by CNN to have received these letters were Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, El Paso, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Tampa.
In the spring of 2014, the Democratic National Committee sent requests for proposal inviting fifteen cities to bid for the convention. The fifteen cities sent requests for proposals were Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City.
Cleveland withdrew its bid in July 2014, having already been selected as the site of the Republican National Convention.
In November 2014, the Democratic National Committee named its three finalist cities, Columbus, New York City, and Philadelphia, thereby eliminating bids from Birmingham and Phoenix.
Philadelphia was selected as the host city on February 12, 2015. The primary venue for the convention would be the Wells Fargo Center, while the Pennsylvania Convention Center was also utilized. The last convention held in Philadelphia was the 2000 Republican National Convention, and the last time the city had hosted the Democratic Convention was in 1948. Edward G. Rendell, the former mayor of Philadelphia and governor of Pennsylvania, played a crucial role in securing Philadelphia as the host city.
Host Committee.
The 2016 Philadelphia Host Committee, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, was the official and federally designated presidential convention host committee for the convention, charged with the task of raising the necessary funds to hold the convention. The Host Committee was composed of 10 prominent Philadelphia business executives, civic and other community leaders. The Reverend Leah Daughtry was the CEO.
Email leak.
A cache of more than 19,000 e-mails was leaked on July 22, 2016. This caused Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, timed the release of the e-mails to occur shortly before the Democratic convention in hopes of maximizing its impact.
U.S. Intelligence agents have identified the Russian government as potentially responsible for the hack of the DNC that led to the leaks, and the U.S. intelligence agencies have "high confidence" that the Russian government was behind the theft.
Planned demonstrations.
By May 19, 2016, five organized groups of Sanders supporters had applied for demonstration permits from the Philadelphia police department. A joint rally between the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Green Party of the United States was denied a protest permit, but both groups planned to go ahead with their protest regardless. The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, the Green Party, and other groups obtained permits for their demonstrations on July 7 after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit that resulted in the city lifting its ban on rush-hour protests during the DNC. On July 12, Philadelphia International Airport workers of the SEIU 32BJ union voted, 461–5, in favor of striking during the DNC in order to seek "better scheduling, clarity on sick pay, a more predictable disciplinary system, and to be able to unionize". However, on July 22, the union and American Airlines reached an agreement, and the planned strike was called off.
The city of Philadelphia expected 35,000 to 50,000 protesters throughout the convention.
Nomination and balloting.
Pre-convention delegate count.
The table below reflects the presumed delegate count following the 2016 Democratic primaries:
Presidential ballot.
The Democratic presidential ballot was held on July 26, with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore presiding over the roll call of states. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, nominated Clinton. Congressman John Lewis and professor Na'ilah Amaru seconded the nomination. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard nominated Sanders, with Paul Feeney, the Massachusetts State Director for the Sanders campaign, and Shyla Nelson, a spokeswoman for Election Justice USA, seconding the nomination. During the roll call, several state delegations lauded the accomplishments of both Clinton and Sanders.
After all states had voted, Sanders stated, "I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules. I move that all votes, all votes cast by delegates be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States." Clinton had made a similar motion during the 2008 convention roll call; however, Sanders (unlike Clinton in 2008) did not move to nominate Clinton by acclamation. Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.
Vice presidential nomination.
Clinton had announced her selection of Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate on July 22. Some Sanders supporters had discussed the possibility of challenging Kaine's nomination, but Kaine was nominated by acclamation on the third day of the convention (July 27). Speculations on who Clinton would pick ranged from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to Secretary of Labor Tom Perez.
Platform.
Drafting process.
The Platform Committee was co-chaired by former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Connecticut governor Dannel P. Malloy. The four vice chairs are Nellie Gorbea of Rhode Island, the Rev. Cynthia Hale of Georgia, San Francisco mayor Ed Lee, and Greg Rosenbaum.
Prior to the meeting of the full Platform Drafting Committee, eight meetings in four regions (Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Midwest, and Southeast) were held: a forum with testimony in Washington, D.C., on June 8 and 9; a forum with testimony in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 17 and 18; a drafting committee meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 24 and 25; and a platform committee meeting in Orlando, Florida, on July 8 and 9.
The Drafting Committee heard testimony from 114 witnesses across the United States, and an additional "1,000 Democrats submitted written or video testimony weighing in on the platform". The drafting committee concluded its work on June 25, sending the draft platform to the full platform committee.
The Drafting Committee consisted of fifteen members. Under party rules, the chair of the Democratic National Committee had the power to name all fifteen members of the Drafting Committee, which has typically been done in the past in consultation with the White House (if a Democratic president is sitting) and the presumptive nominee. In 2016, however, DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz opted "to allocate 75% of the committee's seats to the presidential campaigns, awarding the slots proportionally according to the current vote tally" in a bid for wider representation of party members. As a result, Clinton appointed six members to the committee, Sanders five, and Wasserman Schultz four. This was the outcome of an agreement among the Bernie Sanders campaign, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and party officials, and was viewed as a victory for Sanders, who gained some influence on the party platform as result.
The drafting committee members, named in May 2016, were as follows:
Hillary Clinton committee appointees:
Bernie Sanders committee appointees:
Debbie Wasserman Schultz committee appointees:
The Clinton Campaign's Senior Policy Advisor Maya Harris and the Sanders Campaign's Policy Director Warren Gunnels represented their respective campaigns as official, non-voting members of the Drafting Committee. Andrew Grossman was named Platform Executive Director.
Platform provisions.
The full Platform Committee approved the Democratic platform following heated debate in Orlando on July 10, 2016; the platform was formally approved at the convention itself in Philadelphia.
The platform adopted by the platform committee was described by NBC News and by columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel as the most progressive in party history, largely reflecting the influence of platform-committee members appointed by Bernie Sanders. The platform committee-drafted platform was praised by both Hillary Clinton's campaign and Bernie Sanders' campaign, with Sanders policy director Warren Gunnells saying his campaign achieved "at least 80 percent" of its goals. Although Sanders could have chosen, under party rules, to force a vote on the convention floor using a "minority report" process, he decided not to do so, with Gunnells telling supporters that the campaign had successfully secured the adoption of many of its platform goals and "that further platform fights would be portrayed in the corporate media as obstructionist and divisive".
The platform expresses support for raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and indexing it to inflation, a plank supported by Sanders. The adoption of this point was a boost for the Fight for $15 movement. The platform also calls for ending the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers and workers with disabilities, and for twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave.
On health care, the platform