PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic Party will need a large turnout of voters to propel Hillary Clinton into the White House this November and one theme that stood out during the Democratic National Convention was: vote for Hillary, or else.
This election is “about making sure that Donald Trump is not the president,” Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, said at a Senior Caucus meeting Tuesday. Chavez-Thompson is from San Antonio and spoke about her desire to make Texas lean Democratic. This would be accomplished, she said, by getting Latino voters “mad.”
California Democrat Rep. Xavier Becerra described the election Thursday as “personal.”
The Clinton campaign rolled out an advertisement featuring a crying young girl, worried that her mother will be deported. The ad was featured on the opening night of the convention, right before that same young girl addressed the Wells Fargo Center.
The fear of a Trump presidency did not only center around the concerns of Latino voters at the DNC.
During a Jewish Caucus event Thursday, a former Clinton White House staffer said, “we know from recent history that when you live in a society where the forces of division looks for scapegoats, Jews are next in line.”
During an LGBT caucus meeting Tuesday, former Congressman Barney Frank said that beating Trump in November is a “moral imperative.” Frank said this is because Trump plans to appoint a “militant homophobe” to the Supreme Court.
At a Black Caucus event Wednesday, Leah Daughtry the CEO of the Democratic National Convention, said “we can’t afford to stay home.” At that same event, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlins-Blake said if you can’t think of a reason to vote, “think of the young people.” “We do not want a country that is ruled in fear,” Rawlins-Blake continued.
The Baltimore Mayor then added, “someone who is so thin-skinned and reactionary having the nuclear codes is scary to me.”
In his endorsement of Hillary Clinton, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, “The bottom line is: Trump is a risky, reckless and radical choice, and we can’t afford to make that choice.”
All of this sharp rhetoric occurred before Clinton said Thursday night that Trump “wants us to fear the future.”