PHILADELPHIA – If there was anything the delegates at the Democratic convention had in common with many of their Republican counterparts in Cleveland, it’s that they never expected Donald Trump to top the GOP ticket. But his unlikely takeover of the Republican Party has raised the stakes and added new dimensions to the coming election –for Hillary Clinton supporters and her progressive skeptics alike.
“People just thought that Donald Trump was just a joke and there is no way he could get elected,” said Eric Raser-Schramm, a Clinton delegate from Delaware. “And the reality is he is the Republican nominee. His message is resonating. Polling numbers show that. So, it’s not a slam dunk.”
Despite Clinton’s low approval ratings and concerns among some in the Democratic Party that she’s too much of a centrist, the real fear was of Trump winning the White House.
Across the Wells Fargo Center, Democrats in interviews recounted over and over again how they believed Trump was a candidate devoid of elected experience with a long record of objectifying women. His bombastic rhetoric is maddening to them and his proposal to deport millions of immigrants living in the shadows was galvanizing even if some in the liberal base of the party still harbored doubts about Clinton’s positions on trade and foreign policy.
“We can’t stand for a Trump presidency. Policy aside, he is giving a platform for groups that create more divisiveness and hate in our country and that is something I cannot allow to happen for people who are more vulnerable in our society than I am,” said Michael Gibino, a Bernie Sanders delegate who literally ran all the way from St. Paul to Philadelphia to show his support for Sanders.
Tarek El-Messidi, a leader of Muslims for Bernie, still hadn’t come around to Clinton, but said he was telling all of his allies in swing states that they needed to get on board with Clinton to avoid winding up with Trump by default.
“I’m telling Muslims to definitely vote for her in swing states because we cannot let Trump win. I am very anti-Trump. I think he’s a psychopath,” El-Messidi said.
As Clinton delegates tell it — in what could be interpreted as a subtle dig to the lingering Bernie dead-enders — Trump creates a contrast that is so stark that opting out the 2016 race is not an option.
“It has really shown who people are and where people stand, and being silent is not something we can do,” said Caroline Sumpter, a Clinton delegate from North Carolina.
Just like Republicans from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have been reluctantly embracing Trump because they view Clinton as untenable, some Democrats were embracing Clinton a little tighter with the looming prospect of a President Trump.
But in an election cycle that has defied the political norms at nearly every turn, Democrats celebrating Clinton’s official nomination Tuesday night recognized that a Clinton won’t easily win without a fight.
Barbara Holcomb, a Clinton delegate from New Jersey, predicted Trump will be harder to beat than any other Republican candidates in the past.
“Our country is so complacent, that they want to a have a voice to say how unhappy they are, how disenfranchised that we feel, that Trump is the answer,” Holcomb said. “But maybe they think that either by not voting or voting for him, that it’s a way to cast a vote for themselves, and I am scared about that.”
