Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is heading to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago as a delegate for Connecticut. He talks with Mike about the unusual circumstances surrounding this year’s vote, and the message he expects to hear from Kamala Harris during the convention.
Mike Hydeck: The Democratic National Convention starts Monday, and this may be the very first time in US history the party nominee for President has already been decided and has never won a primary election. Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is one of the delegates actually heading to Chicago for the convention. Mr. Bronin, welcome back. Good to see you.
Luke Bronin: Thanks, Mike. It's great to see you.
Mike Hydeck: Lot to unpack here a little bit. So you were part of the virtual vote, right? Why does that happen? Why does a virtual vote happen when we know there's a convention coming up?
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Luke Bronin: The original reason that it was scheduled this time around was because there were states like Ohio that moved up the deadline for getting candidates on the ballot and wanted to make sure that there was no ambiguity about having our nominee on the ballot. I think this circumstance, there's also an added benefit to being able to formalize and finalize Vice President Harris' nomination going into the convention. You know, this has been a historic summer, but it's an opportunity to make clear that we are all on board and all ready to go and get her elected.
Mike Hydeck: This has been an historic summer to beat the band. Should we even have a convention? Like, it's already decided. Aren't conventions rendered useless by a virtual vote?
Luke Bronin: No, look. I mean, ever since 1968 you've had conventions decided in advance, but what they provide is an opportunity for parties to get out there and bring their message to the American people. And that's what you saw the Republican Party trying to do last time around with, I think, some pretty far out there ideas, but I think what you're going to see this time around is the Democratic Party with a lot of strong messengers out there talking about our agenda for keeping the progress going, whether it comes to infrastructure or investments in innovation, things like bringing down the cost of prescription drugs like you just saw, defending women's rights and reproductive freedom and a whole bunch else. So this is a chance to put out that platform.
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Mike Hydeck: You could do that with commercials during the year, with campaign stops during the year. Now the whole city of Chicago is going to…
Luke Bronin: Again, for half a century, what conventions have been about is a chance to have a few days where you focus on that message and give the American people a chance to draw a pretty stark contrast. And I don't think the contrast could be any more clear, right? I mean, if the Republican Convention was Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt and JD Vance talking about his problems with women who don't have kids, you're going to hear a very different message from the Democratic Party.
Mike Hydeck: So do you have any insight on why Vice President Harris hasn't done a sit down with the media yet? We don't know who she is. Who is she? Who is she defined by? Is this going to be Biden 2.0 in which case she could have some problems, right?
Luke Bronin: I think it's pretty clear that Kamala Harris has been a strong unifying candidate over the last few weeks, and there's been no shortage of chances to see her out there. She's been out there non stop, and she's going to be out there non stop, I'm sure, through election day.
Mike Hydeck: On a podium, not asking, not answering, questions from people like me and national journalists.
Luke Bronin: I'm sure there will be plenty of that. But she's also taking this time, as she should, to get out there and and lay out her case, and her case is pretty strong, right? I mean, she's somebody who has spent her life fighting and upholding the rule of law, and she's running against somebody who has deliberately tried to put himself above the law. She has been a lifelong champion of women's rights and reproductive freedom against a party that has embraced a platform that's about pulling even more rights away from women.
Mike Hydeck: So how do you think she's going to do on the border? Some of the things that are, the economy is going to be two things she's going to have to answer questions on, and the border. She was the borders czar, we had a record number of people coming across the southern border. She has to have an answer for that. How does she…
Luke Bronin: Well first of all, if you want to talk about facts, the Republican Party, and specifically, Donald Trump, argued to kill a bill that a year ago, that Chris Murphy, our senator, was a huge part of negotiating that would have strengthened border protections dramatically, and Donald Trump killed it because he'd rather have a problem to run on than actually solve the problem. In addition, border crossings are way down right now. And you know, the idea that she was the border czar was, that was never a term that was used. It was more about addressing root causes in places like Venezuela, where the Trump administration did more than anybody other, anybody else to exacerbate the problems that drove people away from that economic desperation. So I think we got a pretty strong case to make. And to be honest, if you talk about actually solving the problems, I think the Republicans don't have a particularly strong case right now.
Mike Hydeck: We have to leave it there. Luke, Bronin we appreciate it.
Luke Bronin: Thanks a lot. Good to see you.
