The Harris convention was designed for more than just Democrats
Plus: Why Walz’ campaign coachcore connects with voters
Hello, in this issue we’ll look at…
The Harris convention was designed for more than just Democrats
Why Walz’ campaign coachcore connects with voters
Scroll to the end to see: a bunch of the Biden logo variants designed in anticipation of his running mate announcement in 2020 🥓
The Harris convention was designed for more than just Democrats
Accepting her party’s nomination in a center named United, Vice President Kamala Harris promised if elected, she would be “a president for all Americans.”
Conventions reveal a lot about the coalitions that campaigns hope to assemble by Election Day. For Republicans last month, celebs like Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, and Amber Rose showed a campaign focused on turning out young men and activating its base. For Democrats, their Chicago convention was designed to pitch as big a tent as possible.
“I know there are people of various political views watching tonight,” Harris said. “You can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power. I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations. A president who leads and listens.”
When Oprah spoke dressed in purple, she introduced herself as a registered independent and called on independent and undecided voters to back Harris because “decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.” Speakers ranged from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on the left to a slate of five current or former Republican elected officials on the right, including former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), and Mesa, Ariz., Mayor John Giles. Harris is going wide.
If organizers were going for a monster truck rally of a convention for Trump, Democrats hoped to offer a sober, serious counterpoint for Harris. She wore a dark navy custom suit from the French fashion house Chloé with a matching navy bow. The neutral brown background she spoke in front of was decorated with American flags and attendees were given flags and signs with the Harris-Walz logo or that read “Kamala.” A rumored Beyoncé performance never materialized. Instead, Harris was introduced by a white guy for Harris, the mild-mannered swing state Democratic governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper. Pink performed without any acrobatics.
“Donald Trump is an unserious man,” Harris said. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” The crux of her speech was an argument about the choice voters face. “Every day, in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge and I said five words: Kamala Harris, for the people,” she said about her time as a prosecutor. “And to be clear, my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.” Trump, on the other hand, would use the powers of the presidency to “serve the only client he has ever had: himself,” Harris said.
Republicans have traditionally been the party of patriotism and flag, but in turning Old Glory upside down after Trump was tried and convicted of crimes by a jury of his peers, Trump-aligned Republicans ceded ground that Democrats are happy to claim as their own. Scott Jennings, a Republican commentator on CNN, said he was “startled” by all the flags waving at the Democratic convention. “Normally you guys are burning these things,” he joked.
Harris has staked this campaign on freedom, another term usually associated with Republicans that’s since been claimed by Beyoncé and the Democrats. Rather than arguing for freedom from taxes or onerous government bureaucracy as Republicans do, Harris argued it means the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and the freedom to vote. It’s a new take on an old classic.
At their first convention since the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the first since Republicans renominated the man who set that attack into motion, Democrats argued they’re the party of freedom and flag. Their message was one tailored broadly in hopes of appealing to members of not just their party, but beyond.
Why Walz’ campaign coachcore connects with voters
Tim Walz is a dad. He’s a husband. A Midwesterner who likes to hunt. And a governor. He also happens to be a former high school football coach—and the Harris-Walz campaign is here to remind you of that.
Instead of playing up Walz’s five years of experience as Minnesota’s governor, or his 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Harris’ campaign is choosing to highlight Walz’ experience as a high school coach. Walz was a football and basketball coach for much of the 1990s, starting in Nebraska. When he and his family moved to Minnesota in 1996, the future VP pick joined Mankato West High School’s coaching staff and in 1999, helped lead the football team to the 4A state championship.
“I like to call him Coach Walz,” Harris said of her running mate at a recent rally in Pennsylvania. It’s certainly less formal than ‘governor.’
Signs handed out to attendees at campaign rallies with Walz in attendance have “Coach!” written in red and blue, and the campaign’s Coach’s Collection is football-themed, with items like a $25 striped crew socks, a $10 lanyard, and a $20 four-pack of patches that includes a varsity jacket-style letter H that says “Team Harris Walz, Est. 2024.”
The campaign’s embrace of “coachcore” is perhaps an unsurprising development considering the positive association in the U.S. between football coaches and the concepts of leadership, determination, and community. Take, for example, the story of Walz coaching a team that turned around an early string of losses to win eight straight and the state championship. This narrative reinforces the Harris campaign’s earliest slogan, “Let’s win this,” and matches the story Democrats hope they’ll be able to tell about the 2024 campaign: that they went from down in the polls to winning the White House.
The campaign’s introductory video about Walz spends more time exploring his role as a social studies teacher and coach than his time in public office. It’s a direct contrast to how the campaign is marketing Harris, which has focused on her professional biography and accomplishments. As a prosecutor, Harris put criminals behind bars, the narrator says in Harris’s first campaign ad, “Fearless.” As California’s attorney general, she went after big banks, and as vice president she took on Big Pharma. The super PAC Future Forward USA Action is doing something similar with its résumé-style ad, “Kamala is Ready.”
We’ll never know if “Coach Harris” would be a similarly engaging meme had Harris coached, say, a softball or basketball team. Regardless, female candidates have to show voters specific credentials, whereas male candidates are assumed to be qualified if they have leadership and service experience, according to Keys to Elected Office: The Essential Guide for Women, a guide to running for office as a woman produced by the nonpartisan Barbara Lee Family Foundation. “Women must show, where men can tell,” the report says.
Harris also has a brighter spotlight on her record at the top of the ticket, so as she campaigns to convince voters she’s prepared for the job, Walz is free to spend more time on extracurricular activities.
Have you seen this?
More people donated to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in its first 10 days than in the entire 15 months of President Joe Biden’s. Harris’ campaign and affiliated joint fundraising committees received contributions from nearly 2.3 million individual donors from July 21, when Biden dropped out of the race, through July 31. [Politico]
Crypto industry accounts for almost half of corporate donations in 2024 election, report says. The sum, approximately $119 million, was raised from a mix of contributors, with Coinbase and Ripple accounting for more than 80% of the donations. [NBC News]
How the Democrats found a new brand at the DNC. The visuals are from Biden. The inspiration was from the Obamas. But the energy is all new. [Fast Company]
Here’s a bunch of the Biden logo variants designed in anticipation of his running mate announcement in 2020. Type designer Jonathan Hoefler shared these logos he designed with former Biden campaign creative director Robyn Kanner ahead of Biden naming Harris his running mate four years ago.
The Biden “bacon” logo lives on at the DNC. Embedded inside the convention’s branding, “the bacon” conveyed party unity behind the sitting president. Now, it’s the central mark of an overarching convention brand that must blend elements from multiple Democratic presidential campaigns. [Yello]
History of political design
Logos from major party presidential tickets that included a woman (1984-2024). Fun fact: In the 21st century, more U.S. presidential elections have had a woman on one major party ticket (2008, 2016, 2020, 2024) than not (2000, 2004, 2012). If you had to take a guess, what year do you think both parties will have a woman on the ticket? What year do you think we’ll have our first all-female ticket?
A portion of this newsletter was first published in Fast Company.
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thx for this.